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Biography His work How Rej’s writing began A brief conversation… Concerning faith The life of Joseph The merchant Postilla His view of himself Digital documents
 The Mikołaj Rej collection contains a large body of works safeguarded at the National Library. One portion comprises works written by Rej himself, the prince of the greatest artists of the Polish Renaissance. The collection also includes works about Rej that are not under copyright protection. The greatest treasure of the collection is the unique copy of Krótka rozprawa między trzema osobami, Panem, Wójtem, a Plebanem [A brief conversation between three persons: a Squire, a Bailiff, and a Parson] from 1543. This volume comes from the Potocki collection in Krzeszowice, which was transferred to the National Library following World War Two. Also noteworthy are the several old print editions of Rej’s hymns (with musical notation), published in the late 1660s in the Kraków printing house of Mateusz Siebeneicher. Our collection is completed by nearly all of the 19th-century editions of Rej’s collected works, which – given Poland’s tribulations in that century – were none too numerous. The collection begins with a brief, chronological presentation of the life and oeuvre of Mikołaj Rej.
The project is co-financed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
To display the list of digital documents from this collection click "Publications list" in the menu on the left side of the screen
Presentation of the collection, biography of Rej, and a panorama of his work by Monika Strykowska-Bem. English translation: Philip Earl Steele
Biography
Mikołaj Rej (1505-1569) is the foremost of the greatest writers of the Polish Renaissance. He fully appreciated the value of the Polish language and enjoyed such authority and influence that he was able to excite a veritable fashion for writing in Polish. Hence, by no means was he alone in that period in employing Polish in a public context – be that political or artistic. But it was he alone who wrote for “everyone”, and always bore the reader in mind. In fact, in one of his final works Rej was careful to bid his reader farewell. Dubbed “the father of Polish literature”, Rej’s ill fortune was that the literary paradigms he succeeded in seeing established for Polish were dethroned by the extraordinary achievements made by that master a quarter century his junior: Jan Kochanowski of Czarnolas. But Rej was a true one-man orchestra. He was a poet, a master of prose, a translator, an eager participant in that epoch’s religious and ideological disputes, the author of pedagogical and moralist works, as well as a talented businessman who, via methods that were at times controversial, amassed a nearly magnatial fortune.
This outstanding man of letters, this multi-talented volcano of energy, Mikołaj Rej of Nagłowice (as the family then appended their name) was born on February 4, 1505 in Żurawno, not far from Galich upon the Dnister in today’s Ukrainian province of Ivano-Frankivsk. We know the very day of his arrival in the world thanks to information found in  The life and times of that upright Polish nobleman Mikołaj Rej of Nagłowice, an otherwise anonymous work (though likely written by either Andrzej Trzecieski or… by Rej himself) that mentions a “meat-less Tuesday, Anno Domini 1515”. That year was corrected on the basis of other events from Rej’s life, and the fourth of February was identified by Hieronim Łopaciński. As a young man, Mikołaj’s father Stanisław had moved from Nagłowice to Ruthenia, where he took advantage of the protection of his relative Jan Wątróbka of Strzelce, the archbishop of Lwów (today’s Lviv). The poet’s mother, Barbara née Herburt, who “enjoyed no mean name in Ruthenia”, was Stanisław’s second wife. Nor was Barbara wed for the first time: she had twice been widowed, first by Jakub Klusz, next by Jan Żórawiński.
Young Mikołaj began to attend school quite early – from 1514 to 1516 he was in Skalmierz, and from 1516 to 1518 he was in Lwów. In that same year, 1518, the thirteen-year old Rej was enrolled for one year at the Secondary School Academy in Kraków, after which he returned to Żurawno. But his real education, that is, his intensive efforts at self-improvement, did not begin until several years later, when in about 1524 he was accepted into service of the court by his relative Andrzej Tęczyński, then the voivode in Sandomierz. In result, Rej came to have vast knowledge, although his erudition, especially in the humanities, did have its imperfections. However, the legend that he was unlearned is plainly unjust. Perhaps it arose from the statement made in The life…, that rather than learning, Mikołaj preferred to enjoy himself. More likely it arose as a way for Catholic adversaries to type-cast him as the sophomoric Protestant, only to be juxtaposed with the venerable learning of Catholic tradition, embracing simple, Biblical truths.
 The young gentryman was forced into responsibility quite early, for his father’s death in 1529 demanded that he regulate matters of the estate. He soon settled in the family’s town of Topola and married Zofia Kosnówna (Kościeniówna), who was closely related to the archbishop of Gniezno, Andrzej Boryszewski. In 1531 he moved to the Chełm area east of Lublin. His wife’s dowry bequeathed to him the town of Kobyle, a portion of Siennica near Chełm, and half of Stajny. Thanks to royal favor, Rej was able to lease the second half. He then began to administer these and other inherited estates scattered about the Chełm area, near Kraków, and in Ruthenia on the Dnister. In time, with having expanded his holdings, Rej founded Rejowiec (1547) and Oksa (1554). On March 29, 1541 for 200 florins he purchased in perpetuity a large home on Grodzka street in Kraków’s Old Town. In 1565 he acquired a home in Lublin. He also received gifts from the king and wealthy lords (for example, the villages of Popkowice and Skorczyce in the Lublin region from Paweł Bystram). On February 13, 1546 he received from King Zygmunt the Old the village of Temerowce in recognition of his translation of the Latin Psalter written by J. van den Campen. In 1552 King Zygmunt August awarded Rej with Dziewięcioły and portions of Obrazowice and Dziemierzyce. Among other sources of income, Rej also collected tolls in Chełm.
Throughout his entire adult life Rej conducted diverse financial transactions. He often borrowed large sums, was sometimes a lender – he took some lands in lease, and sometimes leased his own. He valued grants, took income from them, but sometimes neglected to invest in them. For instance, in Dziewięcioły an audit from 1564 indicated that Rej had simply plundered the estate. At the same time he expanded a brewery and raised livestock (fish, included). He waged numerous legal battles with his neighbors, whether over property boundaries, flooded meadows, damaged causeways, or over the peasants who were wont to flee to his estates. Rej battled with the Abbey in Jędrzejów for a whole decade over fish ponds. He did not pay the collegiate church of St. Anne the interest on the 600 złoty sum he had received, and stopped tithing – something which met which Church anathema. He lived high and in grand style. He had his own music troupe, and they even performed before Poland’s king. Rej could afford to offer public service, to give opulent dowries for his daughters, and to pursue hunting and his publication work.
Rej is hailed as an “apostle” of the Reformation in Poland. No doubt he first encountered the ideals of the Reformation at the court of Tęczyński, and subsequently at the court of Michał Sieniawski. In the early 1540s he became a Lutheran, later he turned to Calvinism. Initially he associated with Kraków’s circle of humanist reformers, which included Andrzej Trzecieski Sr. and Bernard Wojewódka, a pupil of Erasmus. This was a milieu that took interest in the new religious trends, although it avoided open activity. But Rej’s ties to the leadership of the Reformed Church in the Kraków region kept to an informal character. This is evinced in the fact that he did not attend any of the numerous synods held in 1557. In 1558 he attended but one, in Książ on July 26. Just less than a year later he was present at the synod convened in Pinczów on June 13. Moreover, Rej did not really introduce Protestant ecclesiastical structures to his estates, he did not tithe, did not contribute to ministers’ salaries, nor to the other needs of his Church. Nonetheless, he wrote and published texts in Polish – hence, ones understandable for all – that conveyed the teachings of the Gospels. In Kraków, dominated as that city was by Catholics, publishing was not easy, and this is likely the reason why Rej first made use of the printing house of Bernard Wojewódka in Breść Litewski. Wojewódka died in 1554. Soon thereafter it seems all but certain that Rej meaningfully contributed the wherewithal in 1556 to open, and later to operate the Kraków printing house of Maciej Wirzbięta. Rej remained associated with that printer’s for the rest of his life.
From the 1530s Rej was an active participant in Poland’s public life. He was in the capital Kraków when the Sejm (Diet) met in 1536, 1540, and 1541. In all certainty he joined the ranks near Lwów in 1537, when a levy en masse was summoned. In 1542 he was not only a deputy to the Sejm convened in Piotrków, but was also a member of the four-person delegation that submitted a reform program to King Zygmunt the Old. He was again present in Kraków in 1543 and 1545 as a deputy to the deliberations of the Sejm. During that latter occasion he and his minstrels performed for the king. Rej’s presence in Kraków at the Sejms of 1546-47 has also been confirmed. He was then nominated a royal courtier and became friends with Hieronim Szafraniec of Pieskowa Skala, the monarch’s favorite. In 1550 Rej spent considerable time in Kraków. He was sent to beseech King Zygmunt August to convene a Sejm devoted to the matter of protecting the Kingdom’s south-eastern lands. At the close of that year he defended Mikołaj Oleśnicki, who had been charged with evicting the Paulines from Pinczów. In 1552 he was again in Piotrków at the deliberations of the Sejm. It was no doubt then that he won the assistance of Michał Radziwiłł the Black before the king in the case of Jakub Przyłuski, who had just printed a collection of laws that saw him charged with publishing heretical views. In 1554 Rej and others created the royal commission that sought to mitigate the tensions on the Polish-Lithuanian border. He attended the deliberations of the Sejm in 1556, 1557, and 1559 as a deputy from the Halicki district (in Ruthenia). He also went to Piotrków to the Sejm of 1562/63, but not as a deputy this time. At issue for him was the settlement of land-ownership matters. Rej defended Michał Sieniawski before the king, as Sieniawski had been charged with secretly compacting with the margrave of Brandenburg Joachim concerning the succession to the throne after Zygmunt August. In December 1563 Rej was present at the Sejm’s deliberations in Warsaw, where he remained until March the next year. In 1564 he again represented Ruthenia at the Sejm convened in Parczew. He spoke out on public affairs for the last time in 1569 at the Sejm held in Lublin, where he presented deputies with a proposal for electing the king.
Rej died later that year – in Rejowiec, it would seem. To this day we do not know exactly when or where he was buried. The date of his death fell between September 8 and October 5. Perhaps he was buried in Oksa – that was the wish expressed in The life…. He left behind three sons, five daughters, and vastly expanded land holdings. Rej’s work of religious admonition Postylla (1557) inspired the Jesuit Jakub Wujek to publish his own such collection, one that took a polemical stand vis-à-vis Rej’s pronouncements. Many of Rej’s contemporaries noted a contrast between the moralizing found in his writings and the way he conducted himself. In this context the statement made by Rej’s fellow Protestant Jan of Woźnik is often quoted: "he wrote the life of a Christian, but he lived the life of a rascal". The 19th century saw renewed interest in Rej, if only to mention how he appeared as a literary character in the stories of no less than Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, and Klementyna née Tańska Hoffman.
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His work
Mikołaj Rej of Nagłowice evinced little attachment to his works. He wrote much, often doing so under various pseudonyms – or even anonymously. Nor did he take care to preserve his writings for posterity. Thus, it should come as no surprise that many of his works have not survived to our times. Neither should it be surprising that researchers have had to expend considerable efforts to prove his authorship of existing texts. But among his works to have vanished are not only special occasion poems, but also Księgi niemałe de neutralibus (lost in 1553-1554), Septempsalmy (lost prior to 1547), Książki nadobne o potopie Noego [Ornamented books on Noah’s Ark], and the dialogue Gęś z Kurem [A goose with a rooster]. Moreover, the 1540 work Spectrum albo Nowy czyściec disappeared in the 19th century, as did the original printing of the hymns Przyczyna gniewu Pańskiego [The cause of Divine wrath]. The edition of Kot ze Lwem [A cat with a lion] was simply worn to dust by reading. As if that were not enough, almost none of Rej’s correspondence has survived. Hence, with the catalogue of his works incomplete, a full image of his literary achievement cannot be constructed.
Rej was one of those fortunate artists who met with esteem during their own lifetimes. His opinions were sought out, he was paid homage, and lauded in the prologues and epilogues to the many editions of his works. He was also challenged often, heavily borrowed from – even plagiarized. During Poland’s counter-reformation of the 17th century Rej’s popularity declined, although he was still held up as an artist who had done much for Polish culture. But it was not until Adam Mickiewicz’s lectures in Paris (1841) that the Old Master regained a central place in Polish literature and attracted the attention of researchers, including the monographs of Stanisław Windakiewicz and Aleksander Brückner. In 1905 the four-hundredth anniversary of Rej’s birthday was celebrated and saw new publications about him. The four-hundredth anniversary of his death was honored by scholars in 1969, as was the five-hundredth anniversary of his birth in 2005. Work into a critical edition of his Dzieł wszystkich ["entire works"] begun in 1953 brought to light one exciting discovery after another – for instance, that Rej’s language (ever earthy, colloquial, and plain) was simply replete with vulgarities. Not once, therefore, did specialists find themselves facing the dilemma of maintaining scholarly objectivity – and maintaining a minimum of decorum.
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How Rej’s writing began
To date we have no information on, not even the year of Mikołaj Rej’s debut. When in 1543 A brief conversation… was published, Rej must have already produced a body of work. After all, he was 38 years old then. It would seem all but certain that his first works were religious hymns, translations of the psalms, and dialogues. Many have been lost forever, for instance, the dialogue Gęś w Kurem. Some survived only in fragments, like Kostyra z Pijanicą. One of his dialogues, Warwas z Lupusem, was reconstructed in the 20th century on the basis of a Czech translation in the Polish Rej would have used. This dialogue, which considers the superiority of one estate over another, focuses on the female gender. Lupus wishes to marry, and Warwas and Dykas are to counsel him in this matter – something they gladly do, concentrating on the sundry failings of women of all types. Of course, the faults they discuss completely disqualify any and all spousal candidates for poor Lupus. This changes at the end of the discussion when one Paszczek arrives and, employing Warwas and Dykas’ own arguments, adroitly turns the tables on them, proving, for instance, that “no wolf will ever bear a sable”. This not only improves the satire – via depriving the text of a simplistic interpretation – but outright elevates it. Indeed, Rej may lay claim to being Polish literature’s first feminist!
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A brief conversation…
Today there exists but a single (damaged) copy of A brief conversation between three persons: a Squire, a Bailiff, and a Parson, as published in 1543 in the Kraków printer’s of Maciej Szarfenberg. Notably, it was published under the nom de plume Ambroży Korczbok Rożek. This copy, in the late 19th century belonging to the Kraków library of Count Adam Potocki, was discovered by Roman Zawiliński, who in 1892 reprinted the work in a series on Polish writers being put out by Kraków’s Academy of Learning (as volume number 23). The eminent Aleksander Brückner recognized A brief conversation… as Rej’s very finest achievement. The work addresses the acute political and social problems of the era. Rej, a passionate participant in the deliberations of the Sejm and in opinion-making circles, was intimately acquainted with the details of social and political life, and A brief conversation… demonstrates that fact abundantly. So much so, that many of the work’s allusions have yet to be clarified.
A brief conversation…, numbering over two-thousand, predominantly eight-syllable lines, is a political treatise written in the form of a dialogue, a genre with its own poetics. The work is a careful program statement of the camp supporting the “Noblemen’s democracy” in the Polish Kingdom. That camp struggled during sittings of the Sejm for constitutional reform that included establishing limits on the preponderant power of the magnates and the throne, strengthening the position of the gentry, and overhauling the country’s defense, court system, and treasury. A brief conversation… also takes up matters of custom, poignantly criticizing upper-class profligacy, gluttony, extravagant dress, and wanton passion for the hunt and gambling. A brief conversation… also scorns the clergy: its self-interest, lavish customs, and cacophonous liturgy. But the work is not anti-Catholic in that it does not seek to undermine theological dogmas.
The dialogue begins with an introduction entitled Toward goodly companions. Next the Squire and Parson speak five times, and the Bailiff four times. The work closes with the admonitions of a personified Polish Commonwealth and concludes with the passage Toward he, who has read this. The Squire, Bailiff, and Parson express themselves in a manner that varies depending on the topic under discussion. This fact, i.e., that there is no individualization of the figures’ speaking style, stems from the genre’s conventions. In other words, the style changes in regard to the subject matter, not the speaker. Legal issues are discussed in legalese, issues pertaining to the landed gentry in that particular vernacular, and so on. Abounding in proverbs and colorful sayings A brief conversation… simply sparkles with its linguistic opulence and cornucopia of observations on 16th-century mores.
Thematically the work was organized in a carefully constructed order. It begins with a discussion of ecclesiastical matters (the Squire, Bailiff, and Parson), next the Parson addresses issues pertaining to lay offices, and then the Bailiff expounds on the many forms of payments – rents, tithing, and military taxes. The Squire, in turn, speaks out against the burdens the gentry is made to bear (e.g., masse en levy, courts). The Bailiff and Squire then discuss profligate lifestyles. Hence, each person expresses himself concerning matters he well knows. The final words of the conversation are left to the Parson. They are bitter and full of irony, and directed at those with power. The personification of the Commonwealth (a term the gentry understood literally in that day) summarizes the antagonistic dialogue of the representatives of Poland’s three estates before going on to rebuke all – the king for his weakness, and his subjects for their lack of public spirit and profligacy. The form of the dialogue, the venerable literary device of personification, and the peasant (a full-participant in the disputes) place A brief conversation… well within Europe’s Renaissance tradition.
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Concerning faith
The 1540s have begun. Rej is in his prime and is attaining success in his political, financial, and artistic activities. He participates in the Sejm, his counsel is sought by the powerful, he skillfully expands his holdings, and with his own troupe of minstrels performs before the king. He most holds to Andrzej Trzecieski and the milieu of people who at European universities acquired humanistic culture and an appreciation for the new trends in Christianity’s development. It must have been in those years that Rej’s translation of the Psalter of David was published, most likely in Kraków. This was a paraphrase of the Latin text written by J. van den Campen, the professor of Hebrew and friend of that era’s greatest Latin poet, Dantyszek (Dantiscus), who spent the year 1534 in Kraków. Van den Campen’s work was also published in Kraków, two years before Rej’s translation. Rej so desired good relations with King Zygmunt the Old that he dedicated his work to him. Thus, he could not include in his work themes that were stridently Protestant. And he succeeded – just a couple years later the king bestowed Rej with the town of Temerowce in gratitude for his Polish-language Psalter.
From Rej’s biography we also know about his authorship of a work published in 1543 in Kraków by the printer’s shop of Helena, the widow of Florian Ungler. This was Catechismus, to jest Nauka barzo pożyteczna każdemu wiernemu krześcijaninowi [Catechism, that is, very useful learning for each faithful Christian]. Catechismus was a paraphrase of the catechism written by Urban Rhegius, a Lutheran. A magnificently preserved copy of this work was discovered in the early 20th century in the library of Warsaw’s Archbishop Wincenty Chościak Popiel, and was published in 1910 by Franciszek Pułaski in the series on Polish writers being put out by Kraków’s Academy of Learning (as volume number 56). Catechismus was recognized as the first Calvinist catechism in Polish.
Over the ensuing years Rej’s writings become ever more emphatic, blunt, and direct in expressing views sympathetic to Protestantism. Indeed, he often aired them as vitriolic challenges or as satire meant to embarrass Catholics.
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The life of Joseph
In 1545 the printer’s “Ungler’s widow”, as it was then dubbed, published Żywot Józefa z pokolenia żydowskiego, syna Jakubowego, rozdzielony w rozmowach person [The life of Joseph, of the Jewish people, son of Jacob. A work divided into dialogues]. The single surviving copy of the book, safeguarded at the Kórnicka Library, does not bear the author’s name. This work (in all probability Rej’s first such) was dedicated to Hungary’s Queen Izabela Zapolya in the aim of consoling her after her young son Jan was made a vassal to Suleyman the Magnificent. The book’s main hero is the son of Jacob and Rachel, who is sold in captivity in Egypt and subsequently tempted by the wife of Potiphar, later imprisoned, and then released thanks to his gift of being able to interpret dreams. Rej’s work contains elements of a mystery play, a morality play, and a school-production humanist play. Although it has few staging cues, on their basis a reconstruction of how the play was performed is possible. Protestant writers (particularly German ones) often made avail of this story from Genesis, especially in dramas – for it wonderfully illustrated the belief that salvation is something the human cannot merit. Rather, salvation comes from Christ’s sacrifice. However, the adventures of Rej’s Joseph concern not only Protestant dogmas, but also how unflagging virtue is richly rewarded. There was a time when Rej’s story was thought to be derived from the 1536 work by Cornelius Crocus (Comoedia sacra, cui titulus Ioseph), but that hypothesis was eventually disproved.
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The merchant
The anonymous work Kupiecz, to iest Kstałt a podobienstwo Sądu Bożego ostatecznego [The merchant, that is, the shape and likeness of the Day of Judgement], with its foreword by the Lutheran writer and publisher Jan Seklucjan, came out in Königsberg (today’s Kaliningrad) in 1549. But no less a scholar than Aleksander Brückner was convinced that the work arose together with A brief conversation…. Perhaps its later publication date was due to the author’s caution: King Zygmunt the Old (who died in 1548) was somewhat reluctant toward the religious innovations coming from Western Europe…
The merchant… was modeled after the 1540 drama written by the Bavarian Lutheran Thomas Naogeorg, Mercator seu Iudicum – but Rej’s work is twice as long. Naogeorg had endeavored to combine the traditional morality play with the poetry of humanist drama. His Mercator represents everyone who, faced with death, lays aside his good deeds as burdensome and stands before God clothed only in his faith. Rej made full use of that work, including its heroes and the order of its scenes. However, he arranged his work differently, changing Naogeorg’s five acts into two parts and embellishing the whole with a large number of colorful scenes and the richness of colloquial speech. In the first part Rej’s ailing merchant summons the help of a priest, who gives him the “drink of good deeds”. But it doesn’t help, and thereby prompts the merchant to contemplate what means might ensure salvation. In the second part Paweł and Kozmus, sent by Christ, offer the sick and humbled man the proper drink. Our hero then vomits up his good deeds only to stand before the Divine Court (portrayed as an Old Polish court) freed of the burden of his own merits. Events then proceed differently than for the Prince, Bishop, and one Gardyjan – who are condemned because their good deeds do not outweigh their sins.
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Postilla
In early 1557 in Kraków the Wirzbięta printer’s first published Świętych słów a spraw Pańskich… Kronika albo Postilla, polskim językiem a prostym wykładem też dla prostaczków… uczyniona, a work Rej dedicated to King Zygmunt August. Known simply as Postilla in English, this work of religious admonition enjoyed considerable popularity: hence, it was reprinted in 1560, 1566, 1571, and 1594. In 1600 a Lithuanian translation was published, and a Ruthenian translation can be found in the manuscript evangeliaries in Poland’s eastern city of Przemyśl. But this was not the first Polish postilla. In about 1545 Bernard Wojewódka, who studied under Erasmus of Rotterdam, began translating the Lutheran postilla of Antonius Corvinus (but it is not certain if he completed that work). In 1556 in Königsberg (today’s Kaliningrad) Jan Seklucjan published Postilla for the Polish home by Grzegorz Orszak. Rej’s work, in turn, inspired Jakub Wujek (the Jesuit scholar most remembered for his translation of the Bible into Polish) to produce his own postilla. The first such work for Catholic Poland, Wujek’s postilla directly challenged that of Mikołaj Rej.
A 'postilla' is a collection of sermons. The name comes from the Latin phrase post illa verba, meaning “after these words” – that is, after the words read from one of the Gospels. The order of sermons in Rej’s Postilla derives from the traditional arrangement for lections – passages of the Bible designated for reading during subsequent Sundays and holidays. In translating these passages Rej relied on the Vulgate and on work done by Erasmus. Nor was he unfamiliar with medieval translations into Polish. Each sermon was concluded with a prayer, and the lovely woodcuts decorating the edition illustrate the themes of sermons and subject matter of lections. Hence, Rej’s Postilla served both Protestant clergymen and the reader at home.
Though deeply cognizant of the issues that separated Catholic and Protestant theologians, Rej’s Postilla emphasized moral questions above all, and gave dogma less attention. Beseeching all to read the Gospels, Rej’s sermons addressed issues of everyday life – and not, as was then the custom, matters drawn from literary tradition. Rej portrayed daily life with that flair all his own – and with an opulent Polish and penchant for detail. In line with the habit in Old Poland, Rej perceived the Bible as a compilation of situations and events that “prefigured” the human drama of every age. This gave him a canvas upon which to describe current events in light of Biblical messages. Rej looked upon even those matters that strongly divided rival Christian confessions with forbearance, benevolence, and amusement. He seldom betrayed zealousness, and ever sought to balance views. Thus, it is altogether difficult to indicate features in his Postilla that are stridently Calvinist.
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His view of himself
In 1558, just one year after Postylla came out, Wirzbięta published Wizerunk własny żywota człowyeka poczciwego, w ktorym iako we zwierciedle snadnie każdy swe sprawy oględać może, dedicated to castellan Jan Amor Tarnowski. Known as ‘A faithful image of an honest man’ in English, the work was republished in 1560 and 1585. It loosely borrows on the 1531 work by the rationalist, free-thinking Platonist Palingenius (i.e., Pietro Angelo Manzolli) entitled Zodiacus vitae. Palingenius’ work has twelve chapters, each connected with one of the signs of the zodiac – and with an exposition of humanist ethics. It is a treatise on moral philosophy written in a rationalist spirit. Rej’s work, in contrast, is allegorical. Its construction rests upon the figure of a young man who wanders about the residences of twelve ancient philosophers and learns to discern virtue from vice. The philosophers (among them Diogenes, Epicurius, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle) comment on the events and human deeds they witness, something that provides a perfect canvas for the author’s epic talent in capturing Polish mores. This Rej does with his telltale satirical wink of an eye. But there is also novelty here in his writing, namely, in the beauty of the stylized landscapes he presents. Palingenius, as a Platonist, maintains a distance to the world, for him a mere reflection of the desired and perfect world of ideals. Rej expresses disdain for the world, conceived both as a fleeting harbor of nothingness, as well as a huge arena wherein one must struggle for position. This is the world Rej’s Wizerunek tells of.
'A faithful image of an honest man' at once and forever entered the Polish canon. Its impact is to be noted in the work of many of Old Poland’s greatest writers, if only to mention Jan Kochanowski and Sebastian Grabowiecki. The Calvinist scholar Piotr Statorius, author of the first Polish grammar book, relied primarily on Wizerunek in illustrating the rules governing proper Polish.
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Number of publications in collection:57
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