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 POLAND (LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE) 651 nus (1270), and the celebrated "History of Po- land " by Dlugosz (1480). The principal centre of scholarship and science was the university of Cracow, the first foundation of which was laid by Casimir the Great (1347), and which among its teachers and alumni counted some of the most distinguished scholars of Europe, among others Copernicus, whom Poland claims as its son and citizen. The first Polish printing press was established at Cracow toward the close of the reign of Casimir IV. (1490). Among its earliest productions is the great collection of Polish laws by the chancellor of King Alexander, John Laski (1506). In the succeeding reigns of Sigismund I. and his son Sigismund Augus- tus, the last two of the Jagellons (1506-72), Polish literature was first and rapidly devel- oped, the 16th century being regarded by many as its golden age. The poetical style especially rose to an astonishing degree of perfection. The satirist Rej (born in 1515), and John Kochanow- ski, the great lyrical poet (1532-' 84), are both called the fathers of Polish poetry. Of the two younger brothers of the latter, Peter translated Tasso's ''Jerusalem Delivered," and Andrew Virgil's ^Eneid. The poets Szarzynski, Ry- binski, Klonowicz, Miaskowski, and Grochow- ski were contemporaries of the Kochanowskis. The reformation, which found an easy spread in Poland, produced numerous translations of the Bible into the national language, for Lu- therans and Socinians as well as for Catholics. Among the theologians of that age the great Catholic pulpit orator Skarga (died 1612) and the Protestant author Niemojewski deserve particular mention. Martin and his son Joa- chim Bielski, in the latter part of the 16th century, wrote a Kronika pohka, G6rnicki Dzieje w koronie polsMej (" History of the Po- lish Crown Lands"), Stryjkowski (died 1582) a " Chronicle of Lithuania," and Paprocki (died in 1614) works on heraldry. Others wrote in Latin : Orzechowski the Annales Polonice; Kromer, archbishop of Ermeland (died in 1589), De Origine et Rebus Gestis Polon&rum. Szy- monowicz (Simonides), an author of celebrated Latin odes, and of equally excellent Polish idyls (SielanM), and Zimorowicz, his rival in the latter species of composition, flourished during the reign of Sigismund III. (1587-1632); but in the second half of that reign Polish litera- ture began rapidly to decline, Latin being the principal object and medium of instruction. The disastrous wars and civil strifes of that and the following reigns of the Vasa dynasty exer- cised a pernicious influence. Sobieski restored only the glory of Polish arms, and the succeed- ing Saxon rule inaugurated a period of general relaxation. During a century and a quarter pedantry, bad taste, and impurity of language prevailed. Of the better poets of that epoch may be mentioned the Jesuit Sarbiewski (Sar- bievius, died in 1640), who wrote in Latin only, and earned the title of the Sarmatian Horace ; Opalinski, a writer of satires (died in 1655); Twardowski (died in 1660); Kochow- ski, who accompanied John Sobieski to Vienna, and in the epic Wieden wyzvcolony (" Vienna Delivered ") sang the glory of his hero ; Bar- dzinski ; Morsztyn, the translator of Corneille ; and Elizabeth Druzbacka (1687-1760), whose Pochwata lasow (" Praise of the Woods "), Cztery pory rolcu ("The Four Seasons of the Year "), &c., appear as the precursors of a bet- ter literary age. The historians wrote mostly in Latin: Piasecki (1585-1649) a liberal his- tory of his times (Chronicon Gestorum in Eu- ropa)-, Starowolski (died in 1656), among other works, a Status JRegni Polonice Descriptio ; Kojalowicz (died in 1677) an excellent Historia Lithuania ; Andrew Wengierski (died in 1649) and Lubieniecki (died in 1675) histories of the Reformed church in Poland. Among those who contributed most to the introduction of a better era were the brothers Joseph and Andrew Za- luski ; the former, who was bishop of Kiev (died in 1774), especially by the collection of a library of more than 200,000 volumes. More power- ful still was the influence of the great reformer of public education, the Piarist Konarski (died in 1773). The courts of the exiled king Lesz- cynski in Lorraine, and of Poniatowski in War- saw, as well as the residences of the princes Czartoryski and Jablonowski, were centres around which the representatives of reform in politics, social life, education, literature, and science grouped themselves. The politically unhappy reign of Poniatowski, the last king of independent Poland, thus became in a literary point of view the most distinguished. Piramo- wicz wrote for schools ; Bohomolec translated French dramas; Trembecki, Kniaznin, and Wengierski composed fine lyrical or descrip- tive poems; Naruszewicz a great "History of Poland " and an admirable translation of Tacitus ; and Krasicki miscellaneous works in verse and prose, by which he merited the dis- tinction of being called the Voltaire of Poland. This purified literary activity survived the divisions and fall of Poland. The poets Go- debski, Wenzyk, author of Okolice KraTcowa ("The Environs of Cracow "), and Dmochow- ski, the dramatists Felinski, Kr6pinski, Osin- ski, and Boguslawski, and the eminent his- torical or political writers Czacki, Albertrandy, Kollontaj, Stanislas Potocki, Ossolinski, and Staszyc, belong principally to the beginning of the present century. The most popular poets of the next following period were Karpinski, Brodzinski, Woronicz, and especially Niemce- wicz, who was also distinguished as a histo- rian, and in his ballads (Spiewy historyczne) surpassed all his predecessors. He was, how- ever, soon afterward himself eclipsed in epic poetry by Mickiewicz, the founder of the ro- mantic school of Polish poetry, around whom numerous young disciples grouped themselves at Wilna. To the romantic school belong most of the more recent poets of Poland, many of whom wrote, after the revolution of 1831, in exile; the Ukrainians Malczewski, author of the admirable epic "Maria," Goszczynski,