This article examines an idiosyncratic, lavishly illustrated mid-Tudor English printed book, John Heywood’s The Spider and the Flie (1556), a book condemned both in the sixteenth century and since as incomprehensible and virtually unreadable. The article argues, rather, that the book’s gestation period was long and complex, but that, once this is understood, the book becomes readily comprehensible, in both its structure and implications. It looks briefly at evidence for ownership of the book, and then moves to discuss what it, along with Heywood’s collected volumes of proverbs and epigrams, can contribute to a discussion of early-modern popular literature, the subject of the UNA Europa funded network, Popular Respublica Litteraria, to which this article is a contribution.

Poseł moskiewski (‘The Muscovite Envoy’) by Jan Żabczyc is one of many epic poems focusing on political issues in the beginning of the seventeenth century in the Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth. Discussed by a few philologists, mainly in the twentieth century, the poem was still deserving of a systematic analysis. This study aims to fill this gap and thoroughly investigate the subject of diplomacy in the poem. The author proposes to examine Żabczyc’s work using the methodology known as New Diplomatic History. There are several epic poems in early modern Polish literature exploring the subject of diplomacy (e.g. Przeważna legacyja by Samuel Twardowski or Poselstwo i krótkie spisanie rozprawy z Moskwą by Eliasz Pielgrzymowski), yet few of them illustrate diplomatic actions between allied countries and sovereigns as Żabczyc’s poem does.

The article is divided into three main parts. First, the author introduces the subject, genre and historical background of the poem. The main content of the poem is a legation from False Dmitry to Cracow sent in order to keep an alliance with the Commonwealth by wedding per procura of Dmitry and Maryna Mniszech. Similar works of literature from the seventeenth century are also presented. The second part focuses on the details of the poem, referred to as a diplomatic poem, in New Diplomatic History’s language, since the subject of diplomacy determines the structure, the nature of the characters and the main purpose of their actions: agreement and settlement, as opposed to victory over the enemy as the subject of heroic poems. The third part provides a detailed analysis of diplomatic ceremonies, gifts, habits and customs, e.g. speeches and table seating during the wedding. It also proposes an interpretation of the tzar and aristocrat’s wedding as an image of the alliance between Russia and the Commonwealth.

It is concluded that Poseł moskiewski is a short but important poem in the history of Polish epics. As a representative of diplomatic literature, it is unique among early modern Polish epic poetry.

This edition of the life of Blessed John Cantius comes from the 7th edition of Lives of the Saints compiled by Piotr Skarga in 1610. The Life of Blessed John of Kęty is a pioneering work of the project ‘Critical Edition of Piotr Skarga’s Writings. Part 2: Lives of the Saints, Polemical and Catechetical Writings’, led by Magdalena Komorowska. Piotr Skarga was one of many men of letters commemorating the life of the pious professor and later patron of the Jagiellonian University, but the extraordinary popularity of Skarga’s hagiographical collection brought wide recognition to John of Kęty. The edition is preceded by an introduction to the reading, containing biographical information about St. John of Kęty, a description of the elements that create his hagiographical image, with particular emphasis on the miracles at his intercession, a short analysis of this life against the background of the entire collection of Lives of the Saints, and the principles of publication.

The paper is devoted to David Allan Frick, an American scholar, translator, and professor at the University of Berkeley. The author briefly presents the biography of Frick and analyses his books, focusing on Frick’s research on early modern Polish literature and culture.