Jakub Niedźwiedź

Some Remarks on the Exhibition The Vistula River: The Queen of the Polish Rivers in the National Museum in Cracow

In this paper, the author shares some comments on the exhibition Wisła królowa pol­ skich rzek (The Vistula River: The Queen of the Polish Rivers) organized in the National Museum in Cracow (29.03.2022–4.09.2022). The curator Iwona Długopolska gathered maps, atlases, engravings and literary works from the 16th–mid 19th centuries from the collection of the National Museum. All of them deal with the Vistula River. The author focuses on the cultural dimensions of the representations of the river. At the beginning of the paper, there are remarks about the physiology of viewing. The author stresses the fact that exhibitions can be a way of carrying out historical research. In the next parts, he puts forth a classification of the interpretations of the river as a cultural phenomenon into four major groups, i.e. the economy, the war, the city and the expressions of the Polish national identity. He also links literary works by Polish authors with the visual representations of the Vistula.

* Artykuł powstał w ramach projektu OPUS 20 Polifoniczność mapy. Mapowanie Moskwy w XVI w. a mapa Antona Wieda (1542, 1555) UMO-2020/39/B/HS2/01755, finansowanego przez Narodowe Centrum Nauki. 

Stanisław Pachołowiecki’s Atlas of the Principality of Polotsk (1580): Propaganda, Genology and the Development of Geographic Knowledge

The Atlas of the Principality of Polotsk – an Introduction

The paper is divided into two parts. In the first one the author discusses a discovery and reception of The Atlas of the Principality of Polotsk in the 19th–21st centuries. In the other the content of six papers about the Atlas is commented.

Recenzja książki:

Companion to Emblem Studies, ed. Peter M. Daly, New York AMS Press, Inc., 2008

Unknown Polish subscriptiones to the emblems by Otton van Veen and Herman Hugon. Some remarks on how Western sacred engravings functioned in the Old Polish culture

The Seweryn Udziela Etnographic Musem in Kraków holds an impressive collection of old engravings, among which there are also copperplates by Cornelis Galle. He used selected prints from Amorum emblemata (1608) and Amoris divini emblemata (1615) by Otton van Veen and Pia desideria (1624) by Herman Hugon to form his own emblematic cycle on metaphysical relations between the Soul and Amor Divinus. The drawings from the works of Veen and Hugon were very popular in the 17th century and inspired numerous poets and editors around Europe. In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth it was Hugons Pia desideria that aroused particular interest. The cycle was imitated and translated by e.g. Mikołaj Mieleszko SJ, Zbigniew Morsztyn, Aleksander Teodor Lacki and Jan Kościesza Żaba. On three of the Galle’s prints stored in the Kraków museum an anonymous author wrote, unknown until now, epigrams accompanying the icons taken from the cycle by Veen (No. 8 and 21) and by Hugon (II 5). This emblematic micro-cycle was, with all probability, written down at the end of the 17th or at the beginning of the 18th century by a nun or a monk in one of the Little Poland convents or monasteries. Possibly the origins of the cycle may be linked with the Carmelite nuns’ convent in Cracow. And whether it is the actual place where the cycle was created or not, it is a good point to begin studies on the employment of emblematic practices in Catholic convents and monasteries in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth between the 16th and the 18th centuries. Imported copperplates and woodcuts were a typical piece of the equipment of a cell. They were hung on the cell walls or simply were collected in sets of prints and often exchanged as gifts among nuns or monks, e.g. on the occasion of New Years Eve (an example of such a gift from 1724 is given in this paper). It was a common practice to put notes of diverse character on the reverse side of such prints, e.g. autobiographic details, short prayers or excerpts from sacred texts and religious literature. Still, the main purpose of the emblems was their application in everyday meditations and other forms of personal prayers. The three subscriptiones in the Ethnographic Museum in Krakow are also prayers of this kind, combining word and image

A New Edition of Abraomas Kulvietis’sConfessio fidei

The paper discusses the latest edition of the works of a Lithuanian humanist and propagator of the Reformation, Abraham Kulwieć (Abraomas Kulvetis, ca. 1510/1512–1545), edited by a Lithuanian scholar, Dainora Pociūtė. In the first part the author raises the question of Kulvetis’s absence in the contemporary historical studies of Polish Renaissance literature. In the second part of the paper the author reminds the role of this person in the development of humanist culture and Reformation in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the first half of the 16th century.

 

Recenzja

Andrzej Wolan, De libertate politica sive civili. O wolnosci Rzeczypospolitej albo slacheckiej, tłum. Stanisław Dubingowicz, wyd. i oprac. Maciej Eder, Roman Mazurkiewicz, Wydawnictwo Neriton, Warszawa 2010, s. 478 (Seria: Humanizm. Idee, Nurty i Paradygmaty Humanistyczne w Kulturze Polskiej, Inedita, t. III)

The panegyric To Jacob of Sienno and the beginnings of the humanistic poetry in Krakow in the 15^th century

The paper has two aims: one is to publish a critical edition of an early humanistic poem, the other is to explain the circumstances in which it was written. The study engages the traditional methods of textual criticism. The author analyses several sources, among them the manuscript 802 preserved in the Kórnik Library which contains the poem. In the first part of the paper Jacob’s biography is reminded. Jacob of Sienno (Jakub z Sienna, 1413–1480) was a diplomat, a politician, the bishop of Kujawy and next the archbishop of Gniezno. He was born in an nobleman family, studied in Rome and in the mid 1430’s pursued his ecclesiastical and political career. He turned back to Italy many times, both as a royal diplomat and a political refugee during his conflict with king Casimir IV Jagiellon. The author stresses the fact that in his Italian journeys he must have come in contact with the early Humanistic culture, which is proved for instance by his collection of Renaissance decorated books acquired in Italy. In the second part the author reveals the circumstances in which the poem was written. The deliberations here touch upon the problem of authorship. Although some researchers made aconjecture that the author would have been Leonardo Mansueti (1414–1480), the Master General of the Dominican Order and Jacob’s friend, a hypothesis that an anonymous Cracow scholar would have been the grateful poet is more convincing. The author reminds a long-standing relationship between Jacob and the University of Cracow. As a patron of the university the bishop made it a gift of his library. The third part contains analysis of the text. The poet drew a picture of a bishop-good shepherd and a wise statesman devoted to the country. To construct such a figure, typical for Renaissance literature in the next century, he employed the classical rhetoric, astrology and especially the Stoic philosophy. The analysis leads to the conclusion that To Jacob of Sienno can be one of the first Humanistic panegyrics in Poland. It can be considered a result of Jacob’s patronage on literature and fine arts. At the end the author asserts that the bishop courts in Poland in the 15^th century were important centres of Humanistic culture, among them Jacob’s court. Future research on this topic can shed new light on the beginnings of the Renaissance in Poland. Additionally, the paper provides critical edition of the Latin text and its Polish translation with commentaries.

Polish 16th-century War-Time Propaganda in Action: The Case of Atlas Księstwa Połockiego (1580)

The paper’s objective is to demonstrate: a) Stanisław Pachołowiecki’s Atlas Księstwa Połockiego (Rome 1580) as the first part of a major propaganda action conducted by the royal chancellery; b) the course of its publication; c) who was engaged in its production. At fi rst, the author reminds that Atlas was made during the Livonian War. The main commissioners were King Stephen Báthory and Chancellor Jan Zamoyski. The next part presents the chief propagandistic text created by the Polish chancellery, Edictum regium de supplicationibus, printed in Polatsk in early September 1579. It is an account of the circumstances of the capture of the city by Stephen Báthory’s army. The author reviews the text’s distribution and translation into English among other languages. It turns out that Edictum, issued several times in 1579, provides the most signifi cant context for the Atlas. The author argues e.g. that the Atlas was to be a commentary for the edict. Next, the process of the publication of maps is explained. The author discusses the circumstances in which the decision to publish them was made, as well as the criteria for selecting cartographic material and the fi nal redaction. He then indicates who was responsible for delivering the text to Rome, when it happened, who was engaged in its publication, and when it was published. The comparison of the dates of the Atlas’s shipment to Rome and publication of other texts enables the author to hypothesise about a coherent propaganda action. He shows that its aim was, above all, to win foreign public opinion. In result, several diff erent types of texts were created: a historical narrative (Edictum – two diff erent Polish editions), a collection of maps (Atlas), a Latin panegyric speech by A. Patrycy Nidecki and a Latin and a Polish odes by J. Kochanowski. The last part of the paper presents the connections between various persons forming the human network directly or indirectly related to the publication of the Atlas and the Polish propaganda action.

The paper deals with the problem of cartographic imagination in Polish Renaissance literature. The other problem discussed is the impact of cartographic reason on establishing the early-modern national and European identity of the Poles. The methodological approach of the paper is inspired mainly by critical cartography (J. B. Harley). The term ‘map’ is defined here in its relatively broad meaning. It is not limited only to material representations, but it is also understood as a performance, a gesture and a form of thinking (D. Woodward, J. Pickles). The main text examined here is Ode II 24 by the Polish Renaissance poet Jan Kochanowski (1530–1584). The poem concludes his lyrical cycle published posthumously in 1585 and it is a Polish imitation of Ode II 20 by Horace (Non usitata nec tenui ferar). In the first part of the paper the author describes the context of the 16th-century use of maps. The cartographic revolution of that time had a great impact on art, literature and philosophy etc. Renaissance humanists all over Europe lived within the maps and used them as a tool or as a means of expressing, defining and shaping their ideas. In this part of the paper it is shown when and where Kochanowski would have consulted or watched and read maps. The second part of the text compares the poem by Kochanowski and its Horatian model. The author recalls the conclusions of previous interpretations by J. Ziomek, L. Szczerbicka-Ślęk and others. Kochanowski’s version is almost a translation, but the Polish poet rewrote Horace’s ode in a specific way. He changed the ancient names of places and put in their place the names of the regions of 16th-century Europe. In the subsequent analysis, the author argues that this is not only an example of Renaissance metonomasy, but it also shows the more complex process of replacing one cartographical imagination with another. While the cartographic imagination of Kochanowski was based on the Ptolemaic tradition and its early-modern transformations, Horace’s ode evokes the tradition of maps similar to the Porticus Vipsania in Augustan Rome and copies the Tabula Peutingeriana. Therefore, the metacartographies of the poets should be seen as different. The final part of the paper shows yet another difference between the two poems. While the gaze of the Roman poet goes beyond the limina of the Roman Empire, Kochanowski is looking only at the European and not very distant Mediterranean regions. The author concludes with the hypothesis that this European orientation became typical for Polish poetry of the 16th and 17th centuries. This Europocentric focus is one of the distinct features of Polish literature that made it different from the literatures of the countries interested in overseas colonial endeavours.

* This work was supported by the National Science Centre (Poland) under the Grant The Relationship Between Polish Literature and Cartography in the 16th and the First Half of the 17th Centuries (Związki literatury polskiej i kartografii w XVI I I poł. XVII w.) UMO-2014/15/B/HS2/01104 (K/PBO/000337), DEC-2014/2015/B/HS2/01104. Polish text: “Humanistyczna mapa Europy Jana Kochanowskiego (Pieśń 24 Ksiąg wtórych),” in: Literatura renesansowa w Polsce i Europie. Studia dedykowane Profesorowi Andrzejowi Borowskiemu, red. J. Niedźwiedź, Kraków 2016, pp. 251–273.

The main goal of the paper is to answer the question of what was unique about the use of books in Vilnius between 1522 and 1610.
The reason to take a closer look at the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is the fact that it has always been a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious city. This observation allows the author to assume that the use of books there could have been different than in other European cities of the time.
To find possible answers to the question posed, the author traces the changes in production, distribution and reading of books in the city. The research is based on several sorts of sources, such as printed books, manuscripts and documents from Vilnius archives (mainly the municipal archive, the Catholic chapter, the castle court etc.). He was supported by contemporary studies about early modern Vilnius scriptoria and printing houses (Kawecka-Gryczowa, Topolska, Nikalaieu), bookbinders (Laucevičius), book writing (Ulčinaitė, Narbutienė, Narbutas) and the history of the city (Frick).
At the beginning of the paper the author recalls the main facts about Vilnius in the 16^th century. The city had increasingly grown in importance as a political, economical and cultural centre of the Jagiellonian monarchy.
The central part, divided in four chronologically arranged chapters, focuses on several problems, among them: the beginnings of Cyrillic prints and Skaryna’s printing house, languages and alphabets of books (Latin, Ruthenian, Polish, Lithuanian, German, Hebrew, Yiddish and Arabic), book production, dissemination, storage and reading. The author notices that a significant contributing factor to the spreading book culture in Vilnius was the royal court and chancery. He puts emphasis on the significance of humanistic schools that were established in Vilnius in the 2^nd half of the 16^th century by four different Christian confessions (Calvinist, Catholic, Lutheran and Orthodox). The most influential one was the Jesuit Academy of Vilnius. This process was accompanied by the establishment of no less than 11 printing houses. Having said that, the author argues that books printed in Vilnius, imported to the city and held in its libraries reflect a fruitful competition between main religious communities.
At the end, the author reaches the conclusion that the use of books in Vilnius was similar to other European cities of the time, yet the capital of Lithuania still seems to be a good deal more complex a case. He ventures a hypothesis that the book can be deemed as one of the tools or factors by which religious or ethnic identity in Vilnius was defined.

Translated from Polish by Kaja Szymańska

The Seweryn Udziela Ethnographic Musem in Cracow holds an impressive collection of old engravings, among which there are also copperplates by Cornelis Galle. He used selected prints from Amorum emblemata (1608) and Amoris divini emblemata (1615) by Otton van Veen and Pia desideria (1624) by Herman Hugo to create his own emblematic cycle on metaphysical relations between the Soul and Amor Divinus. The drawings from the works of Veen and Hugo were very popular in the seventeenth century and inspired numerous poets and editors around Europe. In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, it was Hugo’s Pia desideria that aroused particular interest. The cycle was imitated and translated by e.g. Mikołaj Mieleszko SJ, Zbigniew Morsztyn, Aleksander Teodor Lacki, and Jan Kościesza Żaba. On three of Galle’s prints stored in the Cracow museum, an anonymous author wrote epigrams, unknown until now, that accompany the images taken from the cycle by Veen (no. 8 and 21) and by Hugo (II 5). This emblematic microcycle was, with all probability, written down at the end of the seventeenth or at the beginning of the eighteenth century by a nun or a monk in one of the Lesser Polish convents or monasteries. Possibly, the origins of the cycle may be linked with the Carmelite convent in Cracow. And whether it is the actual place where the cycle was created or not, it is a good point to begin studies on the employment of emblematic practices in Catholic convents and monasteries in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. Imported copperplates and woodcuts were a typical piece of the equipment of a cell. They were hung on the cell walls or were simply collected in sets of prints and often exchanged as gifts among nuns or monks, e.g. on the occasion of the New Year (an example of such a gift from 1724 is given in this paper). It was a common practice to write notes of diverse character on the reverse side of such prints, e.g. autobiographic details, short prayers or excerpts from sacred texts and religious literature. Still, the main purpose of the emblems was their application in everyday meditations and other forms of personal prayers. The three subscriptiones in the Ethnographic Museum in Cracow are also prayers of this kind, combining word and image.

* Publication of this paper was financed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland under the grant 643/P-DUN/2018. Polish version: R. Grześkowiak, J. Niedźwiedź, “Nieznane polskie subskrypcje do emblematów religijnych Ottona van Veen i Hermana Hugona. Przyczynek do funkcjonowania zachodniej grafiki religijnej w kulturze staropolskiej”, Terminus 14 (2012), issue 25, pp. 47–68.

Multi-Literacy in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: A New Research Approach

The paper deals with the problem of using different languages of writing in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 15th–17th centuries. Among them there were: Latin, ­Polish, Ruthenian, Church-Slavonic, Lithuanian, German, Yiddish, Hebrew, Arabic and Greek, written in five alphabets: Latin, Cyryllic, Hebrew, Arabic and Greek. The author noticed that this multi-lingualism and multi-alphabeticism was omitted in Polish studies about history of literature of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He argues that including these two issues in the studies on the Commonwealth’s history is crucial to better understand the muli-cultural and multi-ethnic character of this country. One of the main questions of the paper is about the relationship between a script and an identity. The author notices that comparative approach can be especially productive in such research. He enlists similar borderline processes in use of writing in medieval and early modern England, Sicily, Malta, Cyprus, Venice, Dubrovnik, Moldova and Andalusia. It is illustrated by a few cases of use of the Cyryllic, Latin and Arabic alphabets. The author draws a comparison between the 16th-century literary languages of Spanish Moriscos and Lithuanian Tatars. Both these languages were based on the written version of a vernacular language (Romance and Byelorussian) in the Arabic alphabet.
 

Sources, contexts and circumstances of the writing of Oda o zdobyciu Połocka (An Ode on the Capture of Polatsk) by Jan Kochanowski

The author set himself two aims. First, to demonstrate how the most important poet of the Polish Renaissance, Jan Kochanowski (1530–1584), participated in the propaganda campaign led by the chancery of the Polish King, Stephen Báthory, during the Livonian War in the year fought in the years 1577–1582. Second, to attempt to discover the sources and textual inspirations for the Ode on the Capture of Polatsk or Ode 12 (Warsaw 1580), a Latin propaganda work commissioned from the poet by the Chancellor of Poland, Jan Zamoyski. To this end, the author placed the ode in a broad context of sources from the epoch, such as poems, pamphlets, maps, letters, etc.
In the first part of the paper, the circumstances that accompanied the writing of the ode are discussed. The author explains the relations between Kochanowski and Zamoyski and reminds the pressure exerted by the Chancellor on the poet, so that he quickly finishes texts that are supposed to praise the victory over Muscovites.
Kochanowski’s writing technique is also discussed. The author notes that the poet’s work resembled that of a philologist: preparing for writing a poem or a cycle of poems, Kochanowski made himself familiar with many various authorities. Thus he worked on the paraphrase of Psałterz (Psaltar 1579) and Treny (Laments 1580). According to the author, this was also Kochanowski’s modus operandi when he was writing Ode 12 and other texts on the war with Muscovy. In this part of the paper, all his works related to this subject are briefly discussed.
In further parts, the author presents the sources that Kochanowski consulted when writing Ode 12. These include, first of all, previous poetic works, such as Horace’s odes and Latin poems written after the victory in the Battle of Orsha (1514). The author demonstrates that Kochanowski drew inspiration e.g. from Carmen de victoria Sigismundi by Joannes Dantiscus. Another significant sources used by the poet were chronicles and chorographies of Muscovy (Herberstein, Gwagnin), as well as drawings and maps depicting the capture of Polatsk. He was probably provided with iconographic accounts by Zamoyski’s messengers in January 1580. The author mentions that maps constituted a significant element of the chancery’s propaganda strategy. In this part, he observes that the same sources were used by Kochanowski for his Jezda do Moskwy (The Ride to Muscovy 1583) and by Gerard Mercator for his map Russiae pars amplificata (1595).
The most important authorities consulted by Kochanowski included the accounts of the capture of Polatsk that he obtained directly from the royal chancery. In the last part of the study, the author compares several narrative sources with the ode. He arrives at the conclusion that the narration in Ode 12 basically reflects the description of the siege present in other sources and that it is very detailed for a lyrical work. He also shows the rhetoric means used by Kochanowski to intensify the propaganda effect.
At the end, the author places Ode 12 in the context of other renaissance utterances on the relation between history and poetry. He refers to the contemporary reflections of Antonio Minturno and Julius Caesar Scaliger.