Jan Potocki: Werewolf of the Enlightenment

[@whitedomerobert]

Polyglot- being proficient at many languages, would have come in handy during the age of enlightenment but much of his freedom during this time came as result of his access to great wealth and connections. Brilliant, yes but often self serving and just as proud as those he criticized. He is worth remembering as he cuts an exposure in an unusual time. Thanks again for History well exposed and Fascinating.

[@amytaylor1368]

Hello there👋👋,how are you doing today? Hope you are having a nice day?❤️❤️!!!

[@frankgulla2335]

What a wild tale. What a strange man. Thank you for relaying this story to us.

[@billc3271]

Thank You for the history you give to us. It haunts me that ppl forget history and will repeat it. Thank you so much!

[@timmcclymont3527]

100%

[@nenmaster5218]

@@timmcclymont3527 Any Sci Man Dan Fans here? ?

[@Artur_M.]

What a pleasant surprise! For the longest time I've wished that The History Guy would cover another notable Pole of that fascinating period - Tadeusz Kościuszko. Jan Potocki is almost as good and far less expected. Plus, his life story fits the Halloween season better. BTW Kościuszko does have a visual cameo in this video, at 8:10.

[@dougstubbs9637]

An incredibly important man, as explorer, in Australia. Unfortunately, almost every person in Australia mispronounce his name. (Cossy-oss- co.)

[@Artur_M.]

@@dougstubbs9637 It was Sir Paweł (Paul) Edmund Strzelecki who was exploring Australia and named its highest mountain after Kościuszko, not Kościuszko himself. Fun fact: supposedly it was partially because the mountain reminded Strzelecki of the Kościuszko Mound in Krakow, created to honor the Polish-Lithuanian hero after his death (and modeled after the mysterious ancient burial mounds in the area). Strzelecki himself was quite an interesting figure in his own right, not only as an explorer. For example, he was involved in relief efforts during the Irish Famine.

[@BlueBaron3339]

What a tour de force of an episode! Suitable, given the sheer scope of the life of this man and his times. And you're right about the Arabian Nights not being strictly a product of the Califate of Harun al Rashid, remarkable as it was. But it's the balloons that get me. A not good but nifty poem from the period captures just how profound a ride in one felt then. *_"No more, no more this worldly shore upbraids me with its vile uproar. With upturned eyes, my future lies, beneath the walls of paradise."_*

[@amytaylor1368]

Hello there👋👋,how are you doing today? Hope you are having a nice day?❤️❤️!!!

[@kevinaustin5342]

"Just a man... haunted by his own excentricities". I want that on my headstone

[@bloodybones63]

I'm thinking, "I was misinformed."

[@mattyz28kbrracing80]

Yes! Coffee and The History Guy! This is a good morning.

[@chuckfirman3249]

Coffee and a muffin.☕️🧁

[@Artur_M.]

Or a very good afternoon, here in the homeland of the protagonist of this video.

[@DawnOldham]

Coffee and a croissant!

[@Maja-br2du]

Ils était plus connu a étrange, qui dans son pays......? Quelle gâchis.....

[@diegoferreiro9478]

I live in Zaragoza and when I found this book in Madrid around 2008 I couldn't help but to buy it and read it. I enjoyed it very much although it was quite weird. A couple of years later I found in Montreal a DVD version of the Polish movie but to be honest, I never watched in its enterity.

[@ProphTruth100]

I'm proud of your honesty

[@жопа_полный]

@@ProphTruth100 bro

[@cornbreadfedkirkpatrick9647]

I have thought that Poland was the child no one wanted in Europe, but to myself I think Poland has a rich history that deserves to be remembered

[@жопа_полный]

LOL thats so funny

[@russbear31]

Potocki seems like a kindred spirit of Percy Shelly and his wife Mary Shelly, the creator of Frankenstein, as well as Lord Byron, their friend. There are so many parallels between Potocki's life and their lives.

[@constancemiller3753]

Too bad he wasn't at thier 'spooky story' sleepover. A werewolf would have been a great addition.

[@DaneOrschlovsky]

Is it just me, or are the openings getting better with every episode? Top notch, Team THG!

[@amytaylor1368]

Hello there👋👋,how are you doing today? Hope you are having a nice day?❤️❤️!!!

[@lynxrufus2007]

Great episode! Thank you! It's worth however mentioning that after the 3rd partiion Warsaw was occupied by Prussia and not Russia. It only became part of the Russian Empire after the Congress of Vienna as a capital city of the so called Congress Poland, in union with Russia.

[@randyhebbebusche3644]

Very interesting. So many experiences of traveling to so many cultures. It's a shame that he ended his life that way.

[@liwoszarchaeologist]

There is something ineffably familiar in the hearts and minds of my fellow Poles, despite the fact that we are removed by centuries and thousands of miles. Polish artists, authors, and thinkers always seem to capture something that I know and feel in some deeply personal way and I cannot rationalize what, besides a name, could make that so.

[@жопа_полный]

What? Fantastic realism?

[@BlaBla-pf8mf]

1:40 I didn't know that Potocki's were present in Croatia which is pretty far from Poland and was at the time divided between Austrian Habsburgs and Venice.

[@dbmail545]

The Poles are a great people despite having their own nation for so few years in modern times.

[@WhiteCamry]

The Poles have been a great nation for over a millennium; they've been their own state only over the last century.

[@samiam619]

Read the book “Poland” by the great author James A. Michener. It tells the story of how many times the people of Poland got screwed by EVERYBODY including their own Kings, sometimes.

[@samiam619]

After reading the book, I never told a Polish joke again.

[@killercurl1]

@@samiam619 anyone ever tried learning polish? the complication in annunciation and 32 letter alphabet. if your like me you might be a war "history" buff. look into the warsaw uprising of WWII

[@DawnOldham]

@@killercurl1 maybe that’s why he spoke Polish the least well of all his languages?

[@ernestbywater411]

I'm shocked, at 2:29 you mention pirates but didn't give your trademark - "Don't all good stories involve pirates?"

[@mikec8116]

This is fascinating. There is some connection between my distant relatives and the Potockis. My paternal line has a Polish branch that includes one Anna Cetner, who at one time was married to Count Kajetan Potocki. Anna's portrait as Countess Anna Potocka, painted by Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun, is well known. Anna was the daughter of Ignacy Aleksander Cetner h. Przerowa. From what I can tell, the Cetner and Potocki families were well known to each other.

[@amytaylor1368]

Hello there👋👋,how are you doing today? Hope you are having a nice day?❤️❤️!!!

[@ninchan2]

read The Manuscript as a teenager. great read. looks scarily long, but it takes you on such a wild ride, that you forget the passing of time. gonna return to it one day for sure. glad to see it and its author brought into the spotlight. although, I'm not sure how I feel about Potocki's political affiliations. still, the first Pole in a hot air balloon!

[@-xirx-]

Excellent, thank you. More Polish history please!

[@amytaylor1368]

Hello there👋👋,how are you doing today? Hope you are having a nice day?❤️❤️!!!

[@davea6314]

Voltaire is my favorite scholar of the enlightenment period. This is one of Voltaire's best quotes: "Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities."

[@stenbak88]

Sounds like he knew democrats

[@BlaBla-pf8mf]

Voltaire was a proto edgelord.

[@davea6314]

@@stenbak88 You are wrong! Sounds like he knew the Republicans who believed Don the Con Trump's absurdities and then committed the atrocity of a violent treasonous insurrection of our nation's capital on January 6, 2021!

[@scallywag1716]

This quote aged like fine wine.

[@scallywag1716]

@@davea6314 the capital should be raided…it is filled with nitwits (both democrat and republican).

[@euansmith3699]

In the 18th and 19th Centuries, the city where I lived was home to a group called the Lunar Society. This was a scientific, philosophical and dissenting dining club that supported Enlightenment thinking. They used to meet each month, on a night with a full moon. Though this makes them sound occultish; it was actually practical. As the full moon would light their journeys home, allowing their meetings to last past sunset.

[@raydunakin]

Interesting that his novel purports to be a "found" manuscript -- much like the "found footage" movie fad of recent years.

[@fortusvictus8297]

Bram Stoker used the same format in "Dracula".

[@Dingomush]

Well, they “found” it on the table…….

[@pretzelhunt]

Joseph Smith uses the same tactic in "The Latter Day Saints"

[@MemphiStig]

this has been a very popular trope in novels for a long time, to give the story added realism. it's always seemed to me the movies just adopted it and adapted it to their format. but the most unusual version of the "found" trope i know of is in music, and *that* is P.D.Q. Bach.

[@danielburgess7785]

"And his hair was Perfect!' - W. Zevon

[@nenmaster5218]

Know Hbomberguy?

[@danielburgess7785]

@@nenmaster5218 Don't believe I do.

[@georgeluna5845]

I’d love to meet his tailor.

[@izzywatashi371]

Human evolution and belief in the supernatural will always go hand in hand.

[@alanmoffat4454]

ONE OF THE OLDEST COUNTRY S IN EUROPE , GREAT HISTORY MUCH MORE TOO COME WE HOPE .

[@-xirx-]

I agree!

[@geoben1810]

I don't know where to begin. So let me just say thanks H.G. for another great history tale!

[@jliller]

"Haunted by his eccentricities." That's quite the fascinating concept.

[@charlesclager6808]

A wonderful tale. There are so many sub stories within your tale which in themselves could be developed into stand alone videos. It is really to bad that Potocki didn't make it to China. Just imagine all that he would have absorbed of that culture. Thank you.

[@schizoidboy]

Keep in mind that being highly educated doesn't mean you won't dabble into some unusual topics. Sir Isaac Newton was into alchemy as well as into ferreting out counterfeiters other unusual religious practices that got him to study ancient Hebrew.

[@LMB222]

Potocki was of the generation of Polish noblemen who did crazy things like crossing the English (La Manche) channel, but also exploring Australia, Tasmania , fighting for the United States and so on.

[@richwhitaker1506]

Seasonally appropriate topic.

[@amytaylor1368]

Hello there👋👋,how are you doing today? Hope you are having a nice day?❤️❤️!!

[@aidanfarnan4683]

I want to read "The manuscript found in Zaragoza" but every time I start, I keep waking up under some gallows and getting taken on weird erotically charged side quests.

[@roxannaweaver2155]

I found this darn interesting information about a human being I've never heard of before.

[@rogerdavies6226]

I find the closing priceless --"He was just a man"

[@amytaylor1368]

Hello there👋👋,how are you doing today? Hope you are having a nice day?❤️❤️!!!

[@briangarrow448]

Does anyone wonder if the Count and his writings had any influence on the incredibly successful series of fantasy books and now television series- the Witcher? Wouldn’t that be a fascinating coincidence?

[@Artur_M.]

It's hard to tell. If I remember correctly, the author of the Witcher stories, Andrzej Sapkowski fell in love with the fantasy genre in a very standard way - by reading Tolkien, first in the translation by Maria Skibniewska, latter in the English original. Sapkowski also knows several languages, including English and Russian, and worked in a foreign trade company (state-owned, cuz' communism) and later was a translator (especially of si-fi literature) before finally becoming a writer himself. He was clearly influenced by western writers, especially Michael Moorcock and (outside of the fantasy genre) Raymond Chandler. But of course, he was also influenced by the rich Polish literature, which is not as well known abroad, as it deserves to be.

[@coolchannel44]

His life sounds so interesting! Thanks for the video!

[@williamthomas2278]

My earliest watch yet and as always appreciated the history

[@jasepoag8930]

I just can't imagine learning 8 languages. I'm a year and a half into learning Spanish, and it's such a huge time investment. I'm still not even really conversational.

[@perfectallycromulent]

as someone who has studied linguistics and can read a few languages, it is far more common for people who know many languages to claim they're fluent than to have the actual test scores to prove it. it's really easy to convince someone who doesn't speak a language at all that you're fluent, really you often just have to make the claim, say a sentence or two, and people will believe you.

[@jasepoag8930]

@@perfectallycromulent Fair enough, I can definitely say more than a few sentences in Spanish at least. haha Usually I can find a way to say what I need to say (correct or not), and I can usually figure out what I'm reading, but it's the listening that's REALLY hard.

[@absalomdraconis]

@@perfectallycromulent : You'll often find that they're counting several related languages, like Spanish, Italian, and either Romanian or Portugese; or similarly, Austrian, Bavarian, and Saxon.

[@perfectallycromulent]

@@absalomdraconis yeah, there's a lot of that in these polyglot claims too. it makes you realize just how fuzzy the boundaries of a language are. i mean, i can read English, German, and Dutch, so if you put Frisian in front of me, I can read that pretty well too, but have never studied it.

[@randallmarsh1187]

@@perfectallycromulent Melania Trump would be a perfect example of this!

[@lisamills3228]

I truly appreciate your extremely informative, interesting, videos. I have learned very much from you.

[@steveshoemaker6347]

We all have our eccentricities👻......Such as it is....Just part of living....Thanks Mr THG🎀👍👀

[@judih.8754]

A great recounting of the life of an interesting Pole. Let's have another. I like that shirt and tie. Looking good!

[@amytaylor1368]

Hello there👋👋,how are you doing today? Hope you are having a nice day?❤️❤️!!!

[@cvmahazmat]

Vampires, the land version of pirates

[@ProphTruth100]

More like life pirates in my opinion

[@manleynelson9419]

So well written

[@amytaylor1368]

Hello there👋👋,how are you doing today? Hope you are having a nice day?❤️❤️!!!

[@evanames5940]

You never cease to amaze me with History I never Knew.

[@harleygrit5358]

Good morning History Guy! Enjoying my morning tea and your video! Keep up the great work!

[@amytaylor1368]

Hello there👋👋,how are you doing today? Hope you are having a nice day?❤️❤️!!

[@LadyAnuB]

"Where wolf?" "There wolf" Mel Brooks comedy genius

[@nicku1]

Young Frankenstein :) Frau Blücher!

[@constipatedinsincity4424]

Hey Playboy 👋 do you remember my friends Irish grandmother that called me a Changeling?I remember when I 1st had hair appear in my armpit She crossed herself and said that now I will become a Werewolf! She told all of the kids to look. Even though I was the only black kid hanging out with them. And boy did I have to step up. I remember when I had a dream about her. I called and they said she just died after midnight . It had been nearly 7 years since I saw 👀 her last . I took my 2 eldest daughters to meet her her Irish accent was still sharp enough to cut you. She said that they are beautiful and well behaved. But when I finally had that dream it was nearly 20 years later. She was 103 years old. She was there when the IRA started and she was there in 1916 ! The Good Lord has blessed me with the opportunity to meet some of the best people this earth 🌎 has to offer. And thank you for allowing me to share my experiences with you and the most brilliant and beautiful viewers from the world 🌎 over! GOD BLESS!

[@scott9494]

A ray of sunshine the history man.🌤️

[@robertbandusky9565]

Excellent! The things we don’t know! Thank you🤔

[@amytaylor1368]

Hello there👋👋,how are you doing today? Hope you are having a nice day?❤️❤️!!

[@matthewpoplawski8740]

I apologize for the unfinished text. I had never heard of Jan Potocki until I saw this. Fascinating. This has NOTHING to do with Jan Potocki, but, I ,immediately thought of it when it was said that he thought he was turning into a werewolf. The BARNEY MILLER episode were the man thinks HE'S BECOMING ONE IS CLASSIC. Barney gets him to stop howling in his jail when he yells KNOCK IT OFF!! THIS ISN'T A HORROR MOVIE!!!🤣🤣🤣🤣🌞🌞🌞✌✌✌✌

[@matthewpoplawski8740]

AS ALWAYS THE HISTORY GUY, AN EXCELLENT VIDEO!! Who says that you can't learn NEW HISTORY?? I had never heard of Jan Potocki

[@amytaylor1368]

Hello there👋👋,how are you doing today? Hope you are having a nice day?❤️❤️!!!

[@matthewpoplawski8740]

Not bad, Amy Taylor. The sun's out, somewhat clear skies, and a little chilly(it's presently 59° here in Charleston, S.C.). I, also, hope you're having a wonderful day, and, wish you A MERRY CHRISTMAS!!🤶🤶🤶🤶

[@quillmaurer6563]

2:26 "...becoming involved in fighting Barbary Pirates..." Who are you and what have you done with the real History Guy? The real History Guy would have slipped in "don't all good stories involve pirates?"

[@nicklacerte7134]

I was gonna say that! He's clearly an imposter

[@tmhchacham]

And some people think history is boring.

[@ancient_history]

Great story, despite my profession as a publisher I've never heard of him. Thus a great reading tip - and of course he was a werewolf! What other explanation could there be:)

[@LostInThe0zone]

Had it not been for his noble heritage, he likely never would have had the opportunity to expand his intellectual talents. It may have been disappointing to him towards the end of his life that the adventure of earlier life was no longer available to him.

[@jamescambias9189]

I think you may have made a mistake about the date of the first English translation. I have a paperback English edition of The Saragossa Manuscript published by Avon Books in 1960. It's apparently translated from a French edition of 1958.

[@frankmorlock1403]

I read that translation in the 60's but no longer own it. I recently(a year or two ago) acquired what purports to be a full translation by Ian Maclean first published by Viking in 1995, but it is now published by Penguin as a Penguin Classic. My memories of the Avon edition are very positive, but I have yet to tackle the "complete" version. It's on my bucket list, but I have a big bucket. I've never seen or even knew about the Polish movie, but I once came across a screenplay by a woman whose name I do not recall copyrighted in the 1990's if memory serves.

[@sharonwhiteley6510]

Another excellent interesting episode.

[@amytaylor1368]

Hello there👋👋,how are you doing today? Hope you are having a nice day?❤️❤️!!!

[@ELCADAROSA]

I can't comment on werewolves, but the local brood of vampires finally got me to sit and donate platelets. 🧛🏻‍♀️🧛🏻‍♂️💉🩸

[@amytaylor1368]

Hello there👋👋,how are you doing today? Hope you are having a nice day?❤️❤️!!!

[@CJ-Foygelo]

As always, fifteen minutes of awesome.

[@lanternsown3525]

Cool! Jan Potocki sounds like as Interesting Character as the stories he wrote.

[@humanistcollector5980]

8:19 A good example of troubles found when we tried to approach different cultures.

[@bryanguzik]

Vampires. 13%. Well then. That may genuinely help reconcile some of my confusion regarding my fellow citizens. Oof!

[@amytaylor1368]

Hello there👋👋,how are you doing today? Hope you are having a nice day?❤️❤️!!!

[@georgeperkins4171]

You missed your chance to make the. "Best stories involve pirates" when you mentioned he fought the Barbary pirates.

[@amytaylor1368]

Hello there👋👋,how are you doing today? Hope you are having a nice day?❤️❤️!!!

[@HistorySkills]

Very interesting. I didn't know any of this. I teach horror stories for high school English, and this will come in handy.

[@richard9316]

The Saragossa manuscript is one of my favorite movies of all time.

[@danoneill2846]

Please look into the hidden history of Cahokia Mounds in ILL . Many Thanks !

[@georgeluna5845]

Dan, my author friend from that area is doing research about the mounds. He knows all about those mounds that ended up being covered by water when they built a dam. He wrote ‘The river of corn.’ It’s available on kindle. John Rose Putnam is his name. He has disputed archaeologists about several locations and has won several of them over.

[@scottklandl488]

History guy looks much younger. Keep up the good work lighting crew

[@amytaylor1368]

Hello there👋👋,how are you doing today? Hope you are having a nice day?❤️❤️!!!

[@Vet-7174]

Another great episode !!

[@josephteller9715]

In the modern era I have met many people who suffer from being bi-polar that refer to themselves as werewolves... considering his purported mental state I wonder if he was just an early trend setter in a world that there was almost no such thing as mental health care in using the term for himself.

[@whtfsh765]

I'm a Werewolf too. My wife looks forward to the full moon every month, and she says that's when I look my best. Go figure. HOWWWWLLL!

[@markbyrum4743]

That's rich: interpreter to the bricklayers to the Tower of Babel! Love it! Quite the interesting person. Good vid. Keep at it!

[@andreweden9405]

It would be great it you could talk about another infamous suicide that took place right around this same time: that of Meriwether Lewis. Actually, I believe the question of whether it was possibly a homicide is still open for debate.

[@tsav6952]

I visited the refurbished stand on the Natchez Trail where he passed. The locals seem to think it was murder by the stand keeper.

[@andreweden9405]

@@tsav6952 , See?!... It's ole Grinder's Stand, right? Yeah, there are still a lot of loose ends with that case.

[@AaronHahnStudios]

RANDOM SHELF :- Oh no, there's a reptilian between the THG & the Vampire, ya gunna need that friendship for defence against the werewolf. .

[@tufftraveller4784]

Another great video from the history guy..

[@fortusvictus8297]

The Jacobins called him "Citizen Count"? ...so many layers at play there...so many telling layers.

[@kaym.h.3583]

Wow! Interesting- great story

[@windyhillfoundry5940]

First glance I thought the title was Jen Paksaki 🤣

[@redaedelman8398]

Loved the video , you're doing excellent work, thank you.

[@amytaylor1368]

Hello there👋👋,how are you doing today? Hope you are having a nice day?❤️❤️!!

[@daleaeschbacher2367]

Love Your Work

[@amytaylor1368]

Hello there👋👋,how are you doing today? Hope you are having a nice day?❤️❤️!!!

[@daleaeschbacher2367]

@@amytaylor1368 Hope that your day has been Good, also & nice to talk 2 You

[@michelguevara151]

pronounced 'pitokki' I dated one of his descendents in britain some 30 odd years ago. I also know another pitocki who is a professor of the classics in brazil. edit : they both shared a striking resemblance to the portrait @8:15. how remarkable! thank you for this little excursion down memory lane.

[@nicku1]

No, correct pronunciation is [po-tots-ki].

[@tsav6952]

Always something fascinating on this channel!

[@leotoro51]

Thank You very much for this excellent piece of history :)

[@BasicDrumming]

I Love History!

[@stanislavkostarnov2157]

to be honest, learning to fluently speak in German, French Italian & Spanish is still probably easier than learning to thesame fluency in Polish.

[@-xirx-]

😆👍

[@hankvandenakker4271]

THANKS, AGAIN, FOR YOUR OUTSTANDING WORKS. I WISH YOU HAD BEEN MY TEACHER, I THINK I'D HAVE ENJOYED LEARNING ANY TOPIC FROM YOU CALM, INTERESTING AND INFORMATIVE OBSERVATIONS.

[@jamesmathews9098]

Fascinating

[@chuckkottke]

Vlad the impaler was actually a butterfly collector. 🦋 🦋 🦋

[@amytaylor1368]

Hello there👋👋,how are you doing today? Hope you are having a nice day?❤️❤️!!!

[@chuckkottke]

@@amytaylor1368 so far so good, and how is your day going? Are your perchance related to James Taylor?🙂

[@amytaylor1368]

@@chuckkottke nice. My day is going good ty. No not really. Where are you from?

[@rnedlo9909]

Ghost are being replace by Aliens. Thanks for another great video

[@rnedlo9909]

@John Barber That comes next!

[@seeking999]

... You had me at 'werewolf'......!!!

[@michaelcrookes1350]

I'm loving the intro graphics.

[@thejudgmentalcat]

HG rocking the gold KZbin plaque! Congrats!

[@Svartalf14]

11:47 what's that picture with the fiddle player? the style reminds me of Balthus, but I may be totally wrong.

[@1LSWilliam]

Most informative.

[@amytaylor1368]

Hello there👋👋,how are you doing today? Hope you are having a nice day?❤️❤️!!!

[@betelboo9419]

Just feeding the algorithm thank you

[@sterfry8502]

What a awesome spooky fun episode!

[@Max-dd7du]

His novel features in one of camilleri’s montalbano stories.

[@MemphiStig]

this is a fascinating story, one i've never heard before. so once again, thanks for the history lesson. fyi, Neil Gaiman is "gay-man" not "guy-man" -- and i say this as one who was a huge fan of his for years (pre-internet of course) before i knew this for sure.

[@nicku1]

I am told there is a cinema in New York where "The Saragossa Manuscript" runs constantly.

[@toddmotton4393]

Nothing to do with this story, but have you ever had an episode on how DJ"s shaped early 50s & 60's popular culture? Or perhaps a story on Wolfman Jack? A fan