Biography Works The Beginnings The European Poet At the delusive court Songs and trifles Czarnolas (The Blackwood) Collection description Digital documents
The Digital National Library Polona is proud to present the Jan Kochanowski collection containing a large body of his works safeguarded at the National Library. Jan Kochanowski was the most eminent poet of the Polish Renaissance, appreciated already by his comtemporaries. Especially worthy of note is 
Dryas Zamchana, the only surviving manuscript of this Latin piece and its 1578 printed edition from the Cracow printing house of Mikołaj Szarffenberger. The Odprawa Posłów Greckich (The Dismissal of the Greek Envoys) came out in print in Warsaw that same year. Very interesting are also other early printed editions of the poet’s works. The collection comprises translations of his memorable works, like Treny (The Laments), into Italian and English, dating from the first decades of the 20th century, and a variety of publications issued by Polish émigré publishing houses.
The project is co-financed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
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The collection presentation, the author’s life and panorama of his work by: Monika Strykowska-Bem. English translation: Katarzyna Diehl
Biography
Jan Kochanowski is the only man-of-letters of the Renaissance wave in Poland, whose work was printed almost entirely in his lifetime, and whose good fortune was that he could prepare these editions in person. This enabled him to bequeath to posterity a unique literary account of his biography – precious beyond any dispute since surprisingly little source material - given master Jan’s importance - has survived until our times. This regularity pertains, however, not only to Jan of Czarnolas (“John of Blackwood”). Mikołaj Sęp Szarzyński, “after Jan Kochanowski the foremost poet” - as Bartosz Paprocki wrote in 1584 – despite the undoubted recognition that he won already in his lifetime, did not live to see his works in print and the traces of his biography are more than sparse. His contemporaries knew his poems from copies written in hand, and his biography has remained a riddle (apart from a handful of facts evidenced in historical records practically nothing has survived. We do not even know when he died and where he was buried). The awareness of the short-lived nature of unrecorded events compells us to value with utmost reverence everything that has been saved.
Jan Kochanowski (Joannes Cochanovius) - a gentryman, a humanist, a poet, a translator, a conscious - thus properly distanced – participant of the country’s political life (though rumoured to have been a poor speaker) - was born in Sycyna near Zwoleń in the Radom county in 1530 as the son of Piotr Kochanowski of the Korwin coat of arms, at that time the Radom’s territorial officer, the owner of five villages, and Anna, née Białaczowska, of the Odrowąż coat of arms. The family was thus quite affluent, however not to the extent to be able to afford their children’s education abroad. At fourteen, however, Jan was sent to study at the academy in Cracow. However, nothing is known of his stay in the capital city. Perhaps towards the end of the 1540s he attended one of the German, Protestant universities (Leipzig, Wrocław?). In 1547 his father, Piotr Kochanowski, dies. The inheritance proceedings initiated by brothers Kasper and Jan together with their mother take place in 1550 in the court in Radom, and the next year the twenty-one-year old Jan begins to travel across Europe. He goes to Königsberg in Ducal Prussia twice, first towards the end of 1551, and than in 1555-1556 he enrolls in the local university, an influential centre of the Lutheran thought. Already before that prince Albrecht Hohenzollern paid him a regular salary, and thereafter, in April 1556, granted him a scholarship for his studies in Italy. However to enable him to eventually go there a land-secured loan had to be drawn from his parental uncle in July 1556. His first stay in Italy, chiefly in Padua, but also in Rome and Naples lasted from 1552 to 1555. He would return to Padua still a number of times. The stay in 1557 was interrupted by the news of his mother’s death. He returned the next year to travel then through Marseilles and Paris where he came in contact with the court of young Jan Baptysta Tęczyński and he ‘saw Ronsard’ (the famous founder of the Pléiade poetic group), through Flanders and Germany, to arrive in Poland in 1559.
Padua in the 16th century was an extremely important centre of intellectual life. It was the place where around the middle of the century the discussion evolved on the national language in literature and its rights led by Sperone Speroni; where Francesco Robortello, a remarkable Renaissance humanist lectured in Greek; it was where Kochanowski met his other master, Bernardino Tomitano and had the chance to meet or start friendships that were crucial for his future career with Łukasz Górnicki, Andrzej Patrycy Nidecki, Andrzej Dudycz, Andrzej Trzecieski, Paweł Stempowski or Stanisław Fogelweder. The lectures were held in Latin. Also the very first Kochanowski’s poems were probably born in Latin.
The nearly 30-year-old man had to face an important decision- what to do next? He inherited a half of Czarnolas from his parents. There was also a possibility to a start a court career. And the third - a Church benefice. The military career, it seems, did not come into play at all. Thus the next, over ten-year period began in the poet’s life: the time of his service as a courtier. It is known that in 1562 he was close to Filip Padniewski, the underchancellor of the crown (later the bishop of Cracow). A year later he served as a courtier of Jan Firlej, the grand marshall of the crown. However, Kochanowski owes the most to Piotr Myszkowski, once a Padua student, and now the underchancellor, and then the bishop of Płock and Cracow. In 1564, most surely owing to Myszkowski’s support, the poet received a presbitery in Poznań, and two years later a presbytery in Zwoleń. He also probably served since 1564 as the Secretary to His Majesty the King; though this title has found no confirmation in the historical records, this is still how he is referred to by Mączyński in his Latin-Polish dictionary and what his wife inscribed on the tombstone (the title was awarded for life). In 1567 he accompanied King Sigismund Augustus in a Radoszkowice expedition intended as a military demonstration against Ivan the Terrible at Radoszkowice near Vilnius, and in 1569 he was present, together with the King in Lublin at the famous Union of Lublin Sejm. To be able to hold a post in the Catholic Church master Jan had to take lower holy orders – as it was then practiced… In order, however, to marry in 1575 he had to resign from the Church benefice which he did.
In the court period Kochanowski definitely wrote the poems Satyr albo dziki mąż (The Satyr or the Wild Man) and Zgoda (Harmony), alongside many rhymed miniatures called Fraszki (Trifles) and Pieśni (Songs). Kochanowski’s works at that time were not just straightforward writings on contemporary public and political affairs; this poetry reflects also the situation of a man of letters in the complex system of interpersonal relationships being forged in the circle of persons who exercise power. More often than not, these relationships – social, amicable, festive – were both a source and a subject of his literary pieces.
It is not exactly known when Kochanowski left the royal court. Towards the end of the 1560s and in the early 1570s his bonds with the life among court officials loosened greatly, which obviously he expressed in his works. It is worthwhile to recall a fragment of the poetic letter – Marszałek (Marshal) written probably at that time (p. 21):
Time has come at last to dismiss my face
From those comradly feasts not in need of my clownish grace
For now it behooves me to discard the alien, provender-earning art […]
To unlearn it with crops, even frail, income-low
But to set my mind free and my heart glowingly slow.
In 1574 he was back in Cracow, perhaps to welcome the newly elected Polish king, Henry de Valois (later to become the king of France, Henri III). He was also present in Stężyca in 1575 during the deliberations on the situation in the country after de Valois’ flight. He got the floor (quite unfortunately, since he countered the argument to elect a Pole as a new king) and spoke on the new election near Warsaw that same year. Maybe because of the bitter dissapointments probably connected with that period he finally settled down in Czarnolas for good? In the middle of 1575 he married Dorota Podlodowska and soon his children began to be born. However, he did not isolate himself from the “world” – it was at that time that he got close to Jan Sariusz Zamoyski, the later chancellor and grand hetman of the crown, the founder of Zamość. It was then that during the wedding celebrations – lasting several days as it was then customary - of Jan and Krystyna Radziwiłł The Dismissal of the Greek Envoys was staged in Ujazdów near Warsaw, and its staging was taken care of by a humanist and physician, Wojciech Oczko. It was January 1578.
W 1579 the Psałterz Dawidów (David’s Psalter) comes out in print, dedicated to Myszkowski. The poet worked on this translation at least 8 years. The work constituted over one third of his whole poetic legacy in the Polish language. The creative efforts invested in the Psalmy (Psalms) bore fruit in the Treny (Laments), first published by the Lasarus’ Printing House in 1580. This cycle of nineteen poems provides a unique summary of creative experiences and deliberations on the meaning of human life and the surrounding universe. Why exactly did he pick to write the Laments? Maybe because the last years of his life spent in Czarnolas, otherwise hardly idyllic, were marked by death. First in 1577 his brother Kasper Kochanowski, a Sandomierz-based writer died, then his less than three-year old daughter Urszulka (to whom he dedicated the first edition of the Laments), and then his daughter Hanna.
After the Laments he still wrote some miniatures - often of a panegyrical and circumstantial nature. His main efforts at that time were spent on preparing the edition of his collected works. The Lyricorum libellus came out in 1580, the Fraszki (Trifles) and Elegiarum libri IV in 1584, and in 1586, already posthumously, the Pieśni (Songs) and collected works. The end came suddenly. On August 22, 1584 in Lublin where he went to attend the session of the Sejm to demand justice after the death of his brother-in-law Jakub Podlowski, a royal envoy killed in Turkey, he died of a heart attack, orphaning his wife and four daughters. His posthumous son died in 1586. Kochanowski’s tombstone in Zwoleń dating already from the early 17th century has survived until today.
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Works
Outlining the specific periods in Jan Kochanowski’s poetic work has always proved to be a challenging exercise. Towards the end of the 1550s master Jan returned to Poland from his European voyages with a sizeable folio of autographs of poems written in Latin and in Polish. At that time he already managed to win the recognition of his closest colleagues and acquaintances, and his pieces – it is known that those were the early versions of Fraszki (Trifles) - Łukasz Górnicki mentioned it in his Dworzanin (The Courtier) - and Elegiarum libri duo – circled in manuscript copies. The author adhered to Horace’s poetics. He probably polished his pieces long enough to make them as perfect as possible and, as he wrote, he thought about the reader: not only his friends, but also a broader circle of readers. His admirable poetic language brought him the title of “the father of the Polish language” already in his lifetime, and his oeuvre took the final artistic form during his work on the edition of his collected works he engaged in the final years of his life.
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The Beginnings
It has been confirmed that all his life Kochanowski created in two languages. Though the argument that he started to write poems first in Latin is merely hypothetical, it nevertheless seems very likely. Probably the earliest dated piece by master Jan – though there is still a chance of new discoveries – is a four-verse poem dedicated to Stanisław Grzepski. The addressee received it together with a volume of Seneca’s Tragedy in Königsberg on April 9, 1552. His first printed piece anonymously published in Basel in 1560, and written in 1558, was a tombstone epigram in honour of Erazm Kretkowski, in Latin. In that same period, in the years 1558/1559-1561, in the manuscript silva rerum of Jan Osmolski, a friend of Mikołaj Rej, and Andrzej Trzecieski Junior, was inscribed, together with other Kochanowski’s pieces, the famous hymn Czego chcesz Panie za Twe hojne dary? (What Willt Thou from Us, Oh Lord, for Thy Generous Gifts? ) (p. 175), undoubtedly one of his most admirable and mature poems. The hymn was soon included in Protestant hymn-books. Presumably for the first time, already in the years 1563-1564, one of those hymn-books was printed in Nieśwież.
Thanks to hand-written records and the first printed edition of the hymn What Willt Thou from Us, Oh Lord, for Thy Generous Gifts? of the early 1560s printed by Maciej Wirzbięta we know for sure that it was one of the earliest Jan Kochanowski’s pieces. Already his contemporaries were convinced of the hymn’s remarkable artistic value, and the legend connected with the poem’s reception proves to what extent. In 1612, in a foreword to Herkules słowieński (The Slavonic Hercules) by Kasper Miaskowski, Jan Szczęsny Herburt, on the basis of Jan Zamoyski’s reminiscences of his young years, gives an account of the moment of the first public reading of the hymn forwarded by Kochanowski to his friends from Paris where he then studied. The event took place during a convocation in the area of Sandomierz, at which also “the father of Polish literature”, Mikołaj Rej was present. Once he listened to the hymn, Mikołaj Rej wielding then the palm on the Polish Parnassus reportedly said:
To him, the foremost in learning, I bow and award the song of the Slavonic Goddess.
The poet had never included the hymn in the Songs collection. Even when it was printed together with the Songs, like in the years 1585-1586 in Cracow in the Lazarus’ Printing House, it appeared in a separate place as a self-standing piece.
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The European Poet
Homo bilingus – chiefly Latin iuvenilia, but also the first Polish pieces, as it is known now, appeared in his Padua times. The cultural climate of Padua and its literary audience were obviously conducive to writing chiefly Latin poetry, particularly elegies, including those most interesting, love elegies to Lydia (according to professor Tadeusz Ulewicz the real equivalent of this literary character in the Padua milieu might have been a then well-known actress, Vincenza Armani). There were also epigrams, often commemorating various events, followed by trifles, most probably odes etc. The mentioned poems together with other writings of the kind that came into being in the poet’s whole lifetime appeared in a volume of collected Latin writings Elegiarum libri IV […] Foricoenia siue Epigrammatum libellus, prepared by the author himself, and published in Cracow in the Lazarus’ Printing House in 1584. In 1580, in turn, also in Cracow the Lyricorum libellus volume was published, comprising probably later written poems. It needs to be remembered, however, that the works in Latin make about one third of Jan Kochanowski’s oeuvre, sometimes referred to in Polish as “Jan of Czarnolas” (“John of Blackwood”). To the author his Latin works were just as valuable as his writings in Polish, and, what is more, in a country whose king did not speak Polish it represented a kind of a poetic passport, a symbol of being part of the then Latin-speaking Europe. It was often the case that master Jan elaborated upon the same themes both in Polish and in Latin, either similarly or not, and by the same token he showed his attachment to the then binding literary convention.
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At the delusive court
Thus already in the years 1561-1565 Jan Kochanowski won the much awaited and fully deserved recognition. It was also expressed – this time without a trace of doubt – by Mikołaj Rej himself who gave a pen-portrait of Jan in 1561 in Zwierzyniec (The Menagerie). The famous poet wrote favourably of the younger colleague’s works seeing in him a talented elegist and comparing him to Tibullus himself, the Roman poet of the 1st century B. C., befriended with Ovid and Horace. Also Andrzej Trzecieski Junior called Kochanowski the Sarmatian Tibullus in one of his pieces that appeared in 1568. Many other poets simply emulated Kochanowski’s work. These widely expressed and very positive opinions obviously boosted young John’s poetic fame, but he also made efforts himself to establish his position as a man of letters. For instance, through dedications... The piece titled Zuzanna (Susanna) published in 1561 or the first half of 1562 had been dedicated to Elżbieta Radziwiłł née Szydłowiecka, the Psałterz (Psalter) to Myszkowski itd. At first it was easier for him to publish circumstantial poetry. Thus in 1561 after the death of the Hetman of the Crown he penned a poem O śmierci Jana Tarnowskiego… do syna jego, Jana Krysztofa, hrabiego z Tarnowa, kasztelana wojnickiego (Upon the Death of Jan Tarnowski... for his Son, Jan Krzysztof, Count of Tarnów, Castellan of Wójnik) (p. 101). Owing to his relations with the court, with Padniewski and Myszkowski, it was his good fortune to be able to author and publish the poems Zgoda (Harmony) and Satyr (Satyr) , and in 1564 or 1565 the Wirzbięta’s printing house brought out Szachy (Game of Chess), dedicated to Jan Krzysztof Tarnowski.
The most versatile period of his writing coincided with his years at the Wawel court, spent under the direct and meaningful influence of Cracow, the then capital of Poland with its incomparable cultural and scholarly atmosphere, colourful milieu of literati-courtiers and outstanding humanists, and its newly-founded printing houses. It was the time of a vibrant interest in the intellectual movements of the epoch (post-Trident catholicism), and the political amendment of the state. His early work is dominated by epics – the tragic Zuzanna (Susanna) (published in Cracow, ca. 1562) considers the value of courage (virtus), the facetious Szachy (Game of Chess) (the Cracow edition, most probably between 1562 and 1566) teach how to fight thrilling, yet bloodless knightly duels over a lady. The political-ideological piece Zgoda (Harmony) written in the early 1560s, and published in 1564 in Cracow rebukes the spirit of partiality and dispute, present in all political groupings of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, among the clergy excessively attached to the material world and among other extremely fragmented religious communities, to finally refer all the feuding sides to Trident, where a breakthrough Sobor had just come to an end. Published more or less at the same time as Satyr albo Dziki Mąż (Satyr or the Wild Man) it enlarges the criticism contained in Zgoda (Harmony). Satyr, the narrator of the poem, “the alien” of an ancient, Greek genealogy, acts as a defender of good, old customs, bringing back the thought of idyllic, primeval nature. This role authorizes him to observe, and thus also criticize the contemporary Polish relations and lifestyles, which held “the common good” for nothing. Satyr (Satyr) soon attracted a number of followers. Already that same year an anonymous author wrote Proteus, whereas in 1566-1567 the Satyry (Satires) came out by Marcin Bielski, comprising a piece titled the Rozmowa nowych proroków, dwu baranów o jednej głowie (Conversation of the New Prophets, Two Rams with One Head, Old Citizens of Cracow) directly referring to Kochanowski’s poem. Kochanowski himself referred to Harmony and Satyr in his dialogue Wróżki (Fairies) (p. 35), written no sooner than in 1564, and published posthumously in 1587.
Readers may be influenced by reprimand just as well as by praise. Panegyrics served the latter purpose, just as they were instrumental in consolidating one’s position at a court. They worked as specific acts of politeness, but also as a literary pretext to define role models. One of such pieces was the earlier mentioned epicedium O śmierci Jana Tarnowskiego… do syna jego, Jana Krysztofa, hrabiego z Tarnowa, kasztelana wojnickiego (Upon the Death of Jan Tarnowski... for his Son, Jan Krzysztof, Count of Tarnów, Castellan of Wójnik), as well as the famous Pamiątkę wszytkimi cnotami hoynie obdarzonemu Janowi Baptiście hrabi na Tęczynie, bełskiemu wojewodzie y lubelskiemu staroście (A Token of Remembrance of the Generously Gifted with all Virtues John Baptist, the Count of Tęczyn, the Voivode of Bełz and the Starost of Lublin), written around 1564. Two hundred years later the nearly three-hundred verse, tragic love story of Jan Tęczyński, recorded in chronicles, still served Niemcewicz as a grateful material for a novel. An envoy’s mission to the king of Sweden allowed Jan Tęczyński to meet there a princess with whom he fell in love and who reciprocated his affection. However, mindful of his duties, he went back to his homeland. The expedition to bring his bride to Poland soon thereafter ended in Tęczyński’s apprehension at the sea by the Danish and his death in prison. The Token mourns over his death. It shows the dignity of the family, and the main character’s virtues and praiseworthy services rendered to his dear country. The piece expresses the relieving conviction that the hero’s virtue will guarantee his soul eternal peace, and the fame immortalized in the poet’s rhymes will overcome death.
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Songs and trifles
Jan Kochanowski’s original programme, however, was to create new Polish poetry in compliance with European standards. His poetic manifesto, which draws upon his hitherto experience as an artist and outlines his future path, is contained in the poem titled Muza (The Muse) (p. 45) dating from the end of the 1560s (its first extant version comes from the edition of collected works dated 1585/1586). The Renaissance artist acts as a proud creator, an individualist, and to some extent a guarantor that the glorious deeds will be held in collective memory. For fame to become a reward for virtue – one needs a creator who will save it from oblivion. This subject is by no means new – it appeared already in Neoplatonism, and in the 16th century it was picked up by poets of the French Pléiade. The Muses become a source of “reward for virtue”, and that is what chiefly predetermines the dignity of the Renaissance author. Only comprehension of this fact will enable full appreciation of the richness of the songs written both before and after The Muse. In 1586 the Januszowski printing house brought out Pieśni… Księgi dwoje (Two Books of Songs), comprising 25 songs of the first book, 24 songs of the second book, Pieśń świętojańska o Sobótce (The Song of St John’s Eve), Pieśń (The Song) (i. e. the hymn What Wilt Thou from Us, Oh Lord? ), the epicedium O śmierci Jana Tarnowskiego (Upon the Death of Jan Tarnowski) and Pamiątka (A Token of Remembrance). The remaining songs – thirteen in all – that Kochanowski left out, were published in 1590 in the volume Fragmenta albo Pozostałe pisma (Fragments or Other Writings). Having practically no predecessors in Polish poetry, master Jan developed a genre model that lasted for decades. The songs – humanistic in spirit and style, often Horatian or Petrarchan, widely known, though not immediately published – built the language and the poetic form of Polish lyrics. They vary greatly in subject, use either an elevated or a casual style, yet they maintain specific formal discipline: if playful, than never frivolous, if they contain autobiographic elements, than never straightforward details from the poet’s life etc. Identification of the lyrical self, or of the subject in the world of nature, people and things becomes here a prime philosophical and moral category.
The otherwise ephemeral trifles also capture the image of a man, the tone of events, the lyrical moment… Kochanowski wrote them all his life, and prepared them to go print before his death. They were not dated and had not been arranged in a chronological order. They were published in 1584 by the Drukarnia Łazarzowa (The Lazarus’ Printing House) belonging to Jan Januszowski, Łazarz Andrysowicz’s inheritor and the poet’s friend. That first edition probably complied with the author’s will. From the next edition – already before the century’s end – the same publisher himself removed nine more frivolous pieces, of which eight were included in the supplement Dobrym towarzyszom g’woli (For the Sake of Good Companions). On the title page of this first edition appears the date… 1584, which is naturally false. The Lazarus’ Printing House resorted to similar practices several times. The word fraszka (a trifle) means something trivial, petty, insignificant. Its other meaning refers to a literary miniature concerning not very serious topics. The Fraszki may be addressed to concrete persons. The author may use real person’s names and quote anecdotes. This, however, does not mean that the Fraszki constitute a mere review of social life or the author’s life. The literary substance of the Fraszki, as well as the references to antiquity, and to the ancient Greek anthology of epigrams in particular, provide an illustration for a broader reflection, practically identical with the ideas conveyed in the Songs: though human efforts and struggle with the changing fortune are almost futile, we are still obliged to care about clear conscience and faithfulness to virtue. However, while the Songs are dominated by a solemn tone supported by the genre’s formal discipline (just to mention the clear prevalence of the four-verse isosylabic stanza aabb, diversified by an enjambement as a stylistic means), in the Fraszki we encounter a predominant frivolous tone (though at the same time frequently bitter), plus a significant diversity of form: richness of the types of verse and stanza construction. The serious and virtuous poet-creator of the Songs resorts here to mild derision, and also praises ephemeral events and the visible world. By means of combining the epic elements with lyricism Kochanowski created the fraszka – his own literary genre, popular until today. Due to this diversity of content and form the task of defining the fraszka has proved difficult. It has a lot in common with an epigram, but Kochanowski’s fraszki exemplify both lyrical, erotic and meditative poems. Most of them address somebody or something, like Do fraszek (To Trifles), Do doktora (To the Doctor), Do Kachny (To Kachna), are written for the sake of someone or something, e. g. Na fraszki (For Trifles), Na dom w Czarnolesie(For the House at Blackwood), are on someone or something, just to mention O Miłości (On Love) etc. The fraszka ends in a punchline, usually humorous, winding up the thought developed from the beginning of the poem – later often to become a famous saying. The diversity of style in Kochanowski’s fraszki, a brilliant play with convention and stereotype reveal the poet’s self-awareness, his capability to have full control over the language as an instrument of expression.
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Czarnolas (The Blackwood)
The beginning of the 1570s when Kochanowski retired to his estate in Czarnolas marked a turning point in his poetic work. We do not know when and for how long Kochanowski really left the court; from his pieces we may guess that there must have been some sort of a conflict or at least master Jan’s surfeit with the futility of the court atmosphere. We know instead that in the 1570s the poet often travelled to Cracow where he took the floor on matters of vital importance for the country and where he took an active part in national events. From one of the few surviving Kochanowski’s letters from Czarnolas to Stanisław Fogelweder, his old friend from the Padua times, dated “6 octobris 1571” we learn that already thirty psalms had been ready by then. This means that psalms were born already in the court period, but most of the work was probably done at Czarnolas. In 1579 the Lazarus’ Printing House brought out the Psałterz Dawidów przekładania Jana Kochanowskiego (David’s Psalter as Translated by Jan Kochanowski), the crowning achievement of Master Jan’s literary talent. It was a translation, or in fact a paraphrase of the David’s Psalter, based on the Latin patterns set by Buchanan and Marot, but first of all on the Vulgata. Until mid 17th century 25 separate editions of the Psalter had come out. The psalms immediately gained tremendous popularity, and were adopted by all creeds of the then Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania – which was an immense success, given the strenuous efforts of Rennaisance humanists to produce new translations of the psalms, since the Vulgata “distorts the Word of God” and there were already over a hundred pre-Luther translations. Kochanowski’s psalms were also greatly admired abroad. These translations have survived in church singing until today. Being the fruit of extremely painstaking, pioneering artistic work the psalms ushered in an immense variety of new forms and verse written in the Horatian manner. The 150 pieces included the following kinds of psalms: propitiatory, worship, dogmatic, messianistic, historical, thanksgiving and penitential. The Siedem psalmów pokutnych (Seven Penitential Psalms) by John of Blackwood came out also in 1579, but as a separate edition. The lyrical subject of all psalms is David, the king, the commander, the triumpher, but also a sinner and a penitent, and an unhappy father who had to flee his country for fear of his son. However, most importantly it is David – the poet – it is worth remembering that such a creation of the lyrical subject is taken from the original. The image of the Creator emerging from Kochanowski’s psalms is consistent; God gives a man a stable foundation enabling him to find order in the world’s chaos and his own place on earth.
The lyrical subject in the Treny (Laments) published for the first time in Cracow by the Lazarus’ Printing House in 1580, and dedicated to his daughter Ursula, is explicitly identical with the poet, and the presence of psalm stylization here is very characteristic. The greatly desired earthly happiness at Czarnolas turned out to be the poet’s programme rather than a fact, and, what is more, death weighed heavily on the existence of the family: first in 1577 the poet’s brother, Kasper, died, and then in 1578 or 1579 the above-mentioned Urszulka, and soon also Hanna. The grief, and the eventual viewpoint crisis evokes painful questions in the poet’s mind, filled with doubt and helplessness (though naturally not every ideological breakthrough is preceded by a personal drama). The answers are sought in various religious systems – be they ancient or Christian – with that neither of them provides certainty… At first then everything is undermined: the fundamental stoical virtue, and Cicero’s authority, and the effectiveness of any rules. The cyclical nature of the composition of the Laments not fully compatible with the construction of epicedia as recommended by normative poetics enables instead the final consolation contained in the Lament XIX titled Sen (The Dream). The tone in the Laments is elevated and grandiloquent, they are filled with apostrophes and rethorical questions. The ancient and biblical motifs occur, yet not to play ornamental functions - everything is harnessed to serve a great philosophical monologue. The heroine of the cycle of poems is the little, deceased Urszulka, and also the poet in two roles: as a consolee and a consoler – surrounded by the silent world of things and words that has lost any attraction. How to rediscover now the disturbed beauty of the universum? The feeling of pain, regret, and sadness increases to reach the stage of full contradiction. The rejection of Stoicism, leading to loneliness, as well as the crisis of humanist ideas do not end up in a catastrophe – the lyrical subject, like David, assumes a penitential tone and rejects rebellion. What remains is loneliness in the face of God and sensible awareness that heaven gives eternal peace. The concept of a hero contained in the Laments make this cycle of poems a unique, and at the same time prominent contribution to European poetry.
Czarnolas was the place were the Laments were born, but the cycle was not the only poetic pearl to which Kochanowski gave an exquisite artistic form in that period. In writing other pieces he continued his earlier expressed thoughts, motifs and topics. The Pieśń świętojańska o Sobótce (The Song of St John’s Eve) (p. 301), i. e. the “first Polish idyll”, political-patriotic pieces, such as the Pieśń o spustoszeniu Podola przez Tatarów (The Song on the Ravaging of the Podolia by the Tartars) of (p. 317), Gallo crocitanti (p. 204) (a witty, but stinging reply to Philippe Desportes’ poem slandering Poland in order to justify Henry de Valois’ flight), or the Iezda do Moskwy (The Ride to Moscow) (a poem, published in 1583, glorifying in heroic verse the participation of Krzysztof Radziwill in Bathory’s expedition against Moscow in 1581). It was all circumstantial, nearly panegyric writing. The eventful King Stefan Batory’s stay at Zamech, near Biłgoraj, where he participated in a hunt organised by Chancellor Jan Zamoyski in 1578 saw the staging of a performance featuring mythological characters, a Master and nymphs of the woods (Dryads). They delivered welcome pieces written by Jan of Czarnolas. One the works was Dryas Zamchana, translated by the author into the Polish (Dryas Zamechska), and the second was the Latin Pan Zamchanus. The texts were published still that same year in Lvov.
The year 1578 saw a yet another milestone event, also for the history of Polish literature, namely the staging of the Odprawa posłów greckich (The Dismissal of the Greek Envoys) during the wedding ceremonies of Jan Zamoyski and Krystyna Radziwiłłówna on January 12th. The Dismissal was a Renaissance tragedy, written in white verse, probably around mid 1560s. Thereafter the play was published in Warsaw also in 1578 by Szarffenberger (it was the first dated monographic publication to come out in Warsaw). The staging was arranged by Wojciech Oczko, a humanist and a physician. One of the wedding guests noted that the audience received The Dismissal as an encouragement to hostilities before the expected war with Moscow. The Dismissal is a drama about the self-inflicted misfortune of Troy, the misfortune that could have been avoided. However, the piece carries a more universal message as well: the states where private interests prevail over justice must perish. Of course this applies also to Poland. In formal terms The Dismissal is characterized by regularity – it was composed according to the recommendations of the Renaissance poetics. All the same it represents a fully original work – master Jan did not model it on any specific literary text.
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Collection description
The Digital National Library Polona proudly presents Kochanowski’s works, as well as publications on his life and work held in the National Library and exempt from copyright infringement. The Jan Kochanowski collection is made up of selected early printed books, such as the first edition of The Dismissal of Greek Envoys of 1578, the Pieśni trzy Iana Kochanowskiego: O wzięciu Połocka, O statecznym słudze R.P., O uczciwej małżonce (The Three Songs by Jan Kochanowski: On the Conquest of Polotsk, On a Sedate Servant of the Commonwealth, On an Honest Spouse) published in Warsaw in 1580, the Iezda do Moskwy y posługi z młodych lat […] Krisstopha Radziwiła […] opisane przez Iana Kochanowskiego z Czarnolasu (The Ride to Moscow and the Services of Young Years […] of Krisstoph Radziwill […] described by Ian Kochanowski of Blackwood) published in Cracow (The Lazarus Printing House, 1583), also a Cracow edition of the Laments of 1585, or a Warsaw edition of 1767 of Jan Kochanowski’s collected works Rymy wszystkie w jedno zebrane procz tych które wolnieyszemi żartami uczciwych czytelnikow odrażały (All Rhymes Collected in One Volume Excluding those that with More Frivolous Jokes Repelled Honest Readers). Undoubtedly the jewel of the collection is the Dryas Zamchana – the only preserved manuscript of Jan Kochanowski’s idyll and its edition of 1578 from Mikołaj Szarffenberger’s printing house. The collection features all 19th century collective editions, as well as editions of individual poems held in the National Library (their list basically overlaps with the content of the latest edition of the Karol Estreicher’s Polish Bibliography of the 19th Century).
The publications dated 1901-1939 cover all domestic and foreign collective editions, as well as individual pieces, edited by Stanisław Adamczewski, Aleksander Brűckner, Bronisław Chlebowski, Enrico Damiani, Henryka Gaertner, Henryk Galle, Bohdan Janusz, Jan Lorentowicz, Stanisław Łempicki, Kazimierz Nitsch, Tadeusz Sinko and others. Particularly noteworthy is the translation of Kochanowski’s Latin poems authored by Julian Ejsmond. This outstanding piece of writing won the first state literary award in independent Poland in 1919. The work was published again in 1930 to mark the 400th anniversary of Kochanowski’s birthday. The collection contains also 19th and 20th century translations of Kochanowski’s poems into English, Czech, German, Romanian and Italian.
The section on wartime and post-war publications (until 1976) covers reprinted editions of 16th century originals, bibliophilic publications, works containing newer commentaries by contemporary historians of literature and editors (Konrad Górski, Mieczysław Jastrun, Julian Krzyżanowski, Stefan Papée, Tadeusz Ulewicz, Wacław Walecki, Wiktor Weintraub and others) and works in Polish brought out abroad.
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