Zodiacus vitae, an influential philosophical poem by Marcello Palingenio Stellato, enjoyed popularity in Early Modern Europe, as evidenced by over sixty foreign editions, several translations and a 16th-century Polish-language paraphrase. Despite the latter being a testimony to Palingenius’work being read by the most prominent Renaissance humanists in Poland, the poem’s readership in Old Polish literature has remained largely unknown. The goal of this article is, therefore, to outline a new map of its readership in Early Modern Poland, Pomerania and Silesia, citing its presence in book inventories, public libraries, book collections and monastery libraries. Zodiacus circulated for instance in the 16th and 17th centuries among booksellers and bookstore owners in the most important printing centre in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth − Lviv (Piotr of Poznań, Baltazar Hybner) and Cracow (Helena Unglerowa, Franciszek Jakub Mercenich). It was no less popular in the private book collections of the townspeople, physicians, noblemen and aristocracy. Among the owners of the poem can be found for example: famous scholar and professor Jan Brożek, historian at the court of King Stephen Bathory –Giovanni Michele Bruto, poet Jan Gawiński, reformer of education and the mayor of Toruń−Henryk Stroband. Some light on the problem of the Zodiacus’popularity is also shed by an analysis of copious amounts of marginal notes in over seventy extant copies of Palingenius’work preserved in Polish libraries.

Lucent Cracks of Heavens: Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski, Stars and an “Etrurian Poet”

The paper tries to display the links between a catalogue of metaphors contained in Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski’s handbook entitled Characteres lyrici, seu Horatius et Pindarus and Giambattista Marino’s Canzone delle stelle. Based upon his college lectures (Połock 1626/1627), Sarbiewski’s work offers practical rules for the composition of lyrical poetry and some theoretical considerations. Among many “ornaments related to the lyrical invention”, a very important stylistic device mentioned by the Jesuit poet and theorist is a “definition by accumulation”(definitio conglobata), that is, a series of extended metaphors or other figurative expressions, for example periphrasis, metonymy or allegory. This rhetorical strategy serves as a useful instrument in reintegrating the art of invention with amplification aimed particularly at the accumulation of different words or figures. As the “ornament of the lyric invention”, the definition described by the author appears no to be restricted only to effective searching for ideas and concepts; it is also a valuable tool for achieving unusual power of expression and for exercising composition and style.

Sarbiewski quotes an example concerning the stars, taken, as he says, from „a contemporary Etrurian poet”. In his commentary to the edition of Characteres lyrici, Stanisław Skimina identified this poet as Dante, which was subsequently taken for granted by many scholars. Recently, the poet in question has been proved to be Giambattista Marino, famous for his style characterized by many extravagant conceits, excessive figures, and other complicated rhetorical patterns. The authors analyze Sarbiewski’s catalogue in the context of Canzone delle stelle, dealing with the way the Polish poet understands and changes the original. While translating Marino’s poem into Latin and listing metaphorical “definitions”of stars, he retained freedom of creative interpretation. For this reason, in his catalogue one may find far-reaching textual changes, for example misreading of words, omission of some figures or simplification of meanings.

Academiae voluntas mihi potior est… Letters by the Livonian humanist and lawyer David Hilchen to the professors of the Academy of Zamość1603–1609

This paper is an annotated edition of 44 letters written by humanist lawyer David Hilchen from Livonia (1561–1610) to the professors of the Academy of Zamość, and a response by poet Szymon Szymonowic to Hilchen. A preliminary analysis of these letters, all from 1603–1609, reveals a dichotomy in Hilchen’s portrayal of the academic environment designed by Jan Zamoyski. In the first decade of its activities (almost until the death of Jan Zamoyski in 1605) it is depicted by Hilchen as a mental locus amoenus, a place for beautiful minds. It should be noted that this expression served a purpose of denoting a specific concept rather than being used as an amplificatio. Zamoyski's death brought on the academy’s decline, which was then depicted by Hilchen using motifs characteristic of the locus desperatus: the loss of light and warmth, the rise of calumny, and the deterioration of the quality of education. Yet according to Hilchen’s letters, despite external political and partly religious pressures, even stronger friendships and greater loyalty developed between the members of the academy. In shaping and describing this strategy of humanist friendship against desperation and calumny in everyday situations, Hilchen referenced inter alia the experiences of his previous correspondent, Justus Lipsius, as expressed in Lipsius’ letters, his treatise De Constantia and his speech De Calumnia. Not being an academic sensu stricto himself, Hilchen therefore stood up for its humanist and academic ideals. 

* Research in Poland in 2021–2022 was supported by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA/Ulam).