Babin Republic

The Babin Republic (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Babińska), was a satirical, literary and carnival society founded in 1568 in Babin, Lublin county, Poland. Its Latin motto was: Omnis Homo Mendax ("Every man is a liar"). The Babin Republic bestowed sarcastic "offices" and "titles" to those who embarrassed themselves in public due to some fault or folly, and to those who told ridiculously untrue stories.^[1] People with poor speaking skills were declared "Speakers of the Republic", gossipmongers were made members of the "Secret Council", litigious people were declared "Justices of Peace", people known for exaggerating their hunting exploits were made "Masters of the Hunt", etc. All accounts were dutifully entered into the Memorial Register of Babin Officials. There was a total of 411 accounts in the register. Some of the fanciful stories show influences of Rabelais and Boccaccio. The society was an institution in the cultural life in post-Renaissance Poland and survived until 1677. The Babin Republic spawned a few humorous expressions in Polish of the time, such as rycerz z Babina ("a Babin knight"), meaning "coward", or wiesci z Babina ("news from Babin"), meaning "false rumors".

References

^ A New Miscellany of Humour, Literature, and the Fine Arts p.4.

Template:De icon Babinische Republik, Meyers Konversations-Lexikon. 4th Ed., Vol 2, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig, 1885–1892, p. 203.
Template:Pl icon Bronisław Nadolski, Cyprian Mielczarski, Dobrosława Platt. Towarzystwa literackie i naukowe. In: Teresa Michałowska, Barbara Otwinowska, Elżbieta Sarnowska-Temeriusz: Słownik literatury staropolskiej : średniowiecze, renesans, barok. Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich – Wydaw., 2002. ISBN 83-04-04621-0

This Polish history–related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This article about an organization in Europe is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[1] A New Miscellany of Humour, Literature, and the Fine Arts p.4.

[1]