Marcin Bielski

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Marcin Bielski. Woodcut by an anonymous illustrator from the 16th century

Marcin Bielski (pronunciation [Marzin Bjelski]; * 1495 in the village of Biała near Pajęczno , in today's Łódź Voivodeship ; † December 18, 1575 ibid) was a Polish historian and poet during the Renaissance .

Life

Bielski belonged as a nobleman to the Prawdzic coat of arms community . He was initially the courtier of the Lesser Poland magnate Piotr Kmita Sobieński and was in the military service of the Polish crown . In 1531 he took part in the battle of Obertyn against the Principality of Moldova . After studying at the Jagiellonian University , Bielski worked as a poet and historian.

He was buried in his native Pajęczno. From a marriage he left a biological son, Joachim Bielski (1540–1599), who continued his fatherly and professional legacy and was also the royal secretary.

Literary work

Bielski was highly productive and was one of the first Polish intellectuals to prefer the Polish language to Latin , which was still used as a scholarly language in the sixteenth century . His collection of biographies of well-known philosophers ( Zywothy Philozophow ) is famous, but above all his world chronicle ( Kronika wszystkyego swyata ), which was supplemented and continued by his son after his death. Because of this work, Bielski is considered to be the successor to Jan Długosz (1415–1480), who introduced history as an independent field of knowledge in Poland. Here, among other things, he spread the thesis that the Szlachta - and thus himself - descended from the ancient Sarmatians , who had subjugated the docile Slavs . He saw the rule of the republican nobility in the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania legitimized over the mass of the rest of the non-aristocratic population through this racial ideological origin myth . The Nobel Prize for Literature, Czesław Miłosz, estimated that the quality of the Bielski Chronicle would lie "between the popular fantasies of the" trash literature "of that time - which, however, corresponded to contemporary" teaching ", especially in relation to foreign, exotic countries - and scholarly research". Bielski also wrote a treatise on the art of war ( Sprawa rycerska ) from his pen, which is now considered an important source for the development of the Polish military, as well as numerous other works. After his death, several satirical poems by Bielski were published, including Seym mayowy ("The Sejm in May"), Seym niewiesci ("The Sejm of women") and Sen mayowy ... pustelnika ("The dream of a hermit in May").

Works

  • Zywothy Philozophow, to iest mędrczow nauk przyrodzonych. Y też innych mężow, cnotami ozdobionych ku obyczajnemu nauczaniu człowieka każdego ... , 1535
  • Kronika wszystkyego swyata , 1551, 1554, 1564 Online
  • Kronika polska , Kraków, 1597 Online
  • Sen mayowy pod gayem target name yednego pustelnika , 1586
  • Seym niewieści , 1586
  • Rozmowa nowych prorokow dwu baranow o yedney głowie ... , 1587
  • Sprawa rycerska online

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Norman Davies , In the Heart of Europe. History of Poland , CH Beck, Munich 2006, p. 298
  2. ↑ Czesław Miłosz, The History of Polish Literature , University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles 1983, p. 54
personal data
SURNAME Bielski, Marcin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish nobleman, soldier and chronicler
DATE OF BIRTH 1495
PLACE OF BIRTH Poland
DATE OF DEATH December 18, 1575
Place of death Poland