The aim of this study is to present the findings of a comparative analysis that covers—on the one hand—the theory of tragedy presented in Poeticarum institutionum libri III by Jakob Pontanus (Spanmuller), the classical and Renaissance poetics and commentaries on which he based his work, as well as the ancient tragedies that belonged to the literary canon in Jesuit colleges, and—on the other hand—Pontanus’s theoretical approach mentioned above and his tragedy Elezarus Machabaeus.

The works of Pontanus have previously been discussed by Joseph Bielmann. However, Bielmann did not present them against the background of the Greek and Roman tragedies or the statements of the ancient theorists on drama, the Renaissance theoretical reflection on tragedies, or the playwriting practice resulting from this reflection. Consequently, his characterisation of the Elezarus Machabaeus is untenable, and his comments on Pontanus’s theory of drama need reviewing. Determining whether Pontanus respected the rules of ancient tragedy or whether he openly violated them is important because he was one of the most outstanding Jesuit humanists and a person of authority in his community. If we take into account the fact that Elezarus Machabaeus was the first tragedy printed by the Jesuits, the Poeticarum institutionum libri tres was one of the first printed Jesuit textbooks of this kind, and Pontanus himself was also the author of other books recommended for reading in Jesuit colleges and participated in the work of the committee for the evaluation and approval of the Jesuit school act, his views on the imitation of ancient models should be considered influential at least to a moderate degree and at least in some literary circles of his time. This matter is addressed in the introductory part of this paper. It also contains a short presentation of Pontanus’s textbook against the background of other Jesuit poetics, as well as of his main sources in the field of drama theory. Subsequently, the author presents Pontanus’s concept of drama and then discusses his piece taking into account the context of ancient and contemporary drama theory and practice of writing.

In the light of this comparative reading, Eleazarus Machabaeus seems to be generally based on ancient models despite certain peculiarities, such as the composition and absence of choruses, which may be surprising at first. Both Pontanus’s tragedy and his theoretical approach should be regarded as classical in nature.

Women’s Rules of the Game: A Dispute over Women in the Dialogue Il merito delle donne by Moderata Fonte

This paper concerns Moderata Fonte (Modesta dal Pozzo), a female Venetian writer who lived in the 16th century, and a dialogue she wrote, Il merito delle donne (On the Value of Women), in which seven women gathered in a garden have a lively discussion about men and their flaws. The author of the study presents the book and Fonte’s biography in the context of the early-modern dispute over women (querelle des femmes). She then analyses Il merito delle donne in terms of the functionality of both the genre in which it was written and the convention of play (game) that is relevant to the work, in order to answer the question of the importance of these devices for the topic Fonte raises. Skowron writes about what makes Il merito delle donne different from other dialogues published at the time by women, as well as from Balthazar Castiglione’s famous Book of the Courtier (Il libro del Cortegiano), and in discussing the motif of the play she uses the definition of the ludic element of Johan Huizinga of Homo ludens. She points to the presence of particular determinants of play in Il merito delle donne, wondering how the voluntary basis of the game, limited time and space, imposed rules or a situation different from ordinary life affect the female characters’ freedom to express their opinions in discussion, as well as the reception of the work itself. Il merito delle donne owes its unique character to its form because it allows not only different views in a dispute over women to be presented, but above all it involves the reader in a discussion which does not end with the last page of the dialogue.

The “Anagrams” of Marie Casimire Sobieski The “Anagrams” of Marie Casimire Sobieski

This article concerns the residence in Rome from 1699 to 1714 of Marie Casimire Sobieski, widow of King John III. She belonged to the Accademia dell’Arcadia with occult tradition, and collected cabbalistic manuscripts which today are held in the Jagiellonian Library (Ms 2284). They include numerology predictions (fols. 160r–162v, 194r) described by the queen as “anagrams”. The deciphering of these predictions by replacing the numbers with the corresponding letters of the Latin alphabet enabled the determination of the names and titles of twenty-one persons. The veracity of the deciphering is confirmed by the first two letters of the name which are placed above each numerological representation and by the year of birth of a given person. In addition to Marie Casimire’s son Jakub Ludwik, these are the relatives of the Sobieski family and people related to it by marriage as well as figures of importance to the political life of the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century. It was the abbot Pompeo Scarlatti, the ambassador of Maximilian Emmanuel, Elector of Bavaria, in Warsaw, who made the queen interested in numerology; he accompanied her on her journey to Italy and remained at her court in Rome. Marie Casimire took an interest in numerology predictions after a tragedy in 1704, when her sons Jakub Ludwik and Konstanty were kidnapped and imprisoned by Augustus II, to be released only two years later. However, the majority of these predictions date from the years 1711–1713. Contrary to the tradition of maintaining secrecy, binding at Italian academies, the queen disclosed some of the methods of numerology prophesying; however, except for one case, she did not reveal the content of the prophecies hidden behind the obtained numbers.

Notes on Francesc Eiximenis’ Book of Angels

Francesc Eiximenis, a Catalan Franciscan and writer who lived in the 14th century, is not very well known today outside the narrow circle of Catalan researchers of the Middle Ages, even though he was a very popular author at the time and was eagerly translated into other languages. He was most enthusiastic about using his native language, i.e. Catalan, in which he wrote treatises on the truths of faith, theological questions, and social and political issues. The purpose of this study is to introduce Eiximenis and to present a Polish translation of an excerpt from the first book of his angelological treatise entitled Llibre dels angels (Book of Angels). Rozalia Sasor’s translation, together with an initial critical commentary on the text, is the first contemporary edition of this part of the treatise. The paper, which is at the same time an introduction to the translation, is divided into four sections. In the first one, Sasor briefly discusses the state of knowledge about Francesc Eiximenis in Poland; in the second one, she presents his biography with a special emphasis on the time of his studies and his theological and philosophical interests, and in the third she characterises the Llibre del angels and the circumstances surrounding the creation of the work. It is worth noting at this point that the aforementioned characteristics focus on the properties of the language of the original, which contributed to the success of Llibre dels angels among readers; it also takes up the previously undiscussed problem of the sources of the treatise. The paper ends with a comment on the Polish translation, in which Sasor explains how she prepared the source text for translation as there is no contemporary critical edition of the first three books of Llibre dels angels; she also discusses the translation strategy she adopted. The whole publication is completed by a translation of selected excerpts from the first part of Llibre dels angels, i.e. chapters 1–7, 9, 14, and 16–17, with critical commentary.