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.

Translated from Polish by Kaja Szymańska

The paper examines the presence of astrology in the heraldic work Orbis Polonus by Szymon Okolski dating from the mid-1600s. While due to a growing fascination with Neoplatonism and hermetic writings, astrology had enjoyed popularity since the Renaissance, in Okolski’s case its influence came mostly through early-modern books of emblems and compendia of symbols. It is, therefore, important not only to track down astrological motifs in the works of Alciatus, Cesare Ripa, Giulio Cesare Capaccio, Julius Wilhelm Zincgref, and Diego de Saavedra to compare them with those found in Orbis Polonus, but also to recognise the fact that emblematics had a great impact on how Okolski perceived the import of his heraldic work as such.

The novelty of Okolski’s project consisted in treating armorial bearings as universal symbols and interpreting them not only in accordance with the rules of heraldry, but also through a wide range of cultural sources, trends, and traditions. In order to make the symbolic significance hidden in coats of arms more apparent, the author tried to organise the heraldic entries in a new way. Apart from the usual parts describing the coat of arms (delineatio), its origins (origo) and the family that used it (linea familiae), he introduced subchapters dealing with its symbolic meaning. He called them “considerations”, “precautions”, or “omens” depending on which aspect of the symbolic explanation he wanted to emphasise. Especially the third of these dovetails with astrology because the symbolism of the coat of arms, including motifs derived from, or related to, astrology, is presented as the best path that should be taken by a family bearing a particular coat of arms. All the while, however, these auguries are made based on symbols as such and not on careful observation of stars, planets or comets, and Okolski was not concerned with the destiny of individual people but with more general tendencies that affected the virtue of noble families, and virtue is for Okolski the foundation of nobility.

* This study is the result of a project financed by the National Science Centre allocated by Decision no. DEC2012/05/B/HS2/04124. 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: M. Piskała, “Astrologia – emblematyka – heraldyka. O kometach, księżycach i gwiazdach w herbarzu Szymona Okolskiego”, Terminus 17 (2015), issue 1(34), pp. 39–59.

Translated from Polish by Kaja Szymańska

One of the most popular panegyrical forms in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was the so-called “stemmata”. Similar to emblems, these visual works consisted of an illustration presenting a coat of arms and an epigram, often featured on the reverse side of the title card of texts printed in the old-Polish period. This paper discusses selected cases in which, influenced by emblems, lemmas are incorporated into the structure of stemmata. The study explains how the lemma is introduced in a stemma and how it affects the latter’s meaning. Particular attention is paid to cases in which mottos are treated as the title of a combination of a coat of arms and a poem. Another subject analysed here is “academic stemmata”, a sub-genre of the heraldic poem that consists of several features characteristic of emblems. The presence of lemma in the structure of stemmata is recognised as the consequence of a trend to liven up this visual form. Making the emblem more attractive was a way to draw the attention of readers, increasing its author’s chance of communicating a panegyrical message. This effect was desired not only by the authors of stemmata but above all by their powerful patrons. The presence of lemma in the structure of heraldic poems also relates to the role of mottos in the Jesuit educational system. Mottos and verba aurea were treated by Jesuit teachers as a very useful medium for presenting moral and parenetic subjects, and it was fairly easy for authors of stemmata to use them for panegyric purposes.

The lemma’s role within the stemma’s structure was twofold; it created a special connection between the stemma and the main text and simultaneously linked the fictional world of literature with the real one. The popularity of “classic stemmata” in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth led to the creation and popularisation of other hybrid forms composed of a coat of arms and other textual elements.

* 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: B. Czarski, “Lemmata w staropolskich konstrukcjach stemmatycznych jako przejaw hybrydyzacji gatunkowej”, Terminus 14 (2012), issue 25, pp. 157–178.

Translated from Polish by Kaja Szymańska

This paper was inspired by the lack of studies that would show examples of military-erotic symbols in religious literature associated with the emblem tradition. The works discussed here, namely prayer books by Andrzej Gabriel Kasperowicz, anonymous Atak niebieskiej twierdzy [The attack of the heavens or The attack into the fortress of heavens] and Wojsko serdecznych afektów [The army of heartfelt affections] by Hieronim Falęcki, retain high formal and semantic discipline; as a result, they are examples of interesting phenomena of Baroque culture. In the first part of the study, Słomak presents three prayer books in which the concept is based on an analogy with the organisation of the army of Christ. In the second part, she presents a book in which the theme of war is combined with the theme of “holy erotica”. In part three, she discusses a print whose composition refers to the structure of military detachments. It is conceived as a collection of “affections” whose task is “to conquer” heaven and the hearts of readers. Characteristically, the formula of the discussed books will be understandable only if we reconstruct their reference to the popular allegorical images (to be found in the collections of emblems, in many treatises on religious themes or in descriptions of the great ceremonies of that era); therefore, it is necessary to take into account the emblematic model that clearly influenced their final shape.

* 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: I. Słomak, “Militaria w wybranych modlitewnikach XVIII wieku – wobec tradycji emblematycznej”, Terminus 14 (2012), issue 25, pp. 69–84.

Translated from Polish by Kaja Szymańska

* 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. The study was conducted under the Research Grant entitled Politropia: wczesnonowożytne teorie i koncepcje figuratywności (Politropia: Early modern theories and concepts of figuration), financed by the National Science Centre under Decision DEC-2013/11/D/HS2/04529. Polish version: W. Ryczek, “Odrodzenie retorycznego feniksa”, Terminus 19 (2017), issue 2(34), pp. 469–476.

Translated from Polish by Kaja Szymańska

Jan Januszowski, best known as Jan Kochanowski’ friend, was the most distinguished printer of the Polish Renaissance. Januszowski, a lawyer educated in Cracow and Padua, was an extremely versatile man: an outstanding printer, as well as a prolific writer and translator. For all his achievements, he was ennobled by Sigismund III Vasa, and—happily—the diploma of nobility of Jan Januszowski, penned on parchment and splendidly illuminated, survived to the present day. The illumination of the document is rich and sumptuous. It shows the coats-of-arms representing the provinces of the Polish Kingdom and Grand Duchy of Lithuania and small portraits: three of them depict Polish kings, the fourth is of Januszowski himself—it is one of the very few known portraits of Polish Renaissance intellectuals and the oldest portrait of a Polish printer. The document’s decoration is not only beautiful, but also meaningful, as its content and composition reflects the nature of the state—the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth—and suggests Januszowski’s important place in its structure and strong links between the printer and the most important dignitaries of the country.

* 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: J. Kiliańczyk-Zięba, “O dyplomie nobilitacyjnym Jana Januszowskiego i portrecie renesansowego wydawcy”, Terminus 10 (2008), issue 1, pp. 61–87.