Following Avidicus the copyist : a portrait of the Derszymonowic family : or the micro‑history of cultural transformations among Polish‑Armenians in the 17 th century

The history of the Derszymonowic family, the descendants of Armenian priest Der Szymon, living in Łuck and Lwów, depicts a landmark in the life of Polish‑Armenians in the 17th century. In cultural context of a rapidly developing Old Polish city, various ethnic groups underwent the process of acculturation. The wealthy Armenian merchant community, with immigrant background and speaking the Kipchak ethnolect, remodeled its religious (the union with the Catholic church) and language self‑identification (Polonisation), and began to migrate further into the Polish territory. This fundamental restructuring of identity maintained important ethnic differences (the own Church rite and collective memory) merging them with Polish national consciousness (patriotism, spirit of citizenship). In this way Armenians became Armeno‑Poles (term coined by Józef Epifaniusz Minasowicz, the 18th century writer and polymath, a cousin to the Derszymonowic family).