Although the Polish literary language began to develop much earlier, it is Mikołaj Rej who is considered ‘Poland’s Dante’ as the father of national literature and the creator of an original Polish style. Mikołaj Rej, the Renaissance writer, poet, and translator, was born in Żurawno in Red Ruthenia [eastern Galicia] on 4 February 1505. by…
The intellectual history of the 16th century was the most prolific in Poland. At the end of the 15th century, the rich Polish nobility began to send their offspring on “Italian trips”, cultural and educational expeditions to universities on the Apennine Peninsula. In Padua, Rome, Venice and Florence, young Poles encountered Renaissance ideas which “fell…
Military victories will always hold a prominent place in the collective memory. This in part is due to their nature. When an enemy invades our country, the efforts the political community is forced to take is an existential challenge. The alternative, a defeat, would mean the deaths of many people and the country’s loss of…
By means of this statement, submitted at the sitting of the Sejm in 1564, King Zygmunt II August (Sigismund II Augustus) ceded to the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland the hereditary right of the Jagiellons to govern the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Since Zygmunt had no male successor to the throne, this move was to facilitate…
