Homo celebrans Jan Jáchym ze Žerotína
Homo celebrans Jan Jáchym of Žerotín

Summary/Abstract: When examining the topic of the festive culture of the elite nobility of the Early Modern Habsburg monarchy, it is worth looking through the eyes of an aristocrat who knew how to celebrate equally well out of joy as out of necessity, be it in the countryside, in the city, or at the imperial court. Johann Joachim von Zierotin (1667–1716) spent nearly fifty years between Velké Losiny and the nearby domains that he owned, as well as in Wrocław, where he visited family relatives and later also his studying sons, Brno, where he traveled for the sessions of the land diet and court, and Vienna, where he served as the actual imperial chamberlain. What festivities and ceremonies did the count participate in at home and while traveling abroad? When did he do so more spontaneously and when out of obligation? Or when did he choose not to take part in these revelries and why? Žerotín’s handwritten diary (1704–1716) reveals how celebrations integrated provincial nobles into the cosmopolitan court society and how such a Baroque courtier turned the laws of entertainment and time on their head.

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