GORNICKI, Lukasz

(1527-1603)

One of the most important writers of the Polish Renaissance, Lukasz Gornicki is most known for his Polish version of Baldesar Castiglione's* Courtier. Born in Oíwiecim in a burgher's family, Gornicki was sent at the age of eleven to his uncle, Stanislaw Gasiorek of Bochnia, a court poet, to study in Cracow at St. John's Parish School. In 1545 Gornicki went to Pradnik to the court of Bishop Maciejowski; he then went to Padua for the next several years. Gornicki returned to Poland and in 1559 entered the court of King Zygmunt August (Sigismund Augustus), where as librarian and secretary in the royal chancellery he joined the luminaries of Renaissance Poland, including Jan Ko-chanowski,* Nidecki, Frycz Modrewski, Kromer, and Zamoyski. He was raised to the rank of nobleman in 1561 and gradually acquired offices and possessions. It was during his years at court that, at the encouragement of the king, he translated the Italian writer Castiglione's Il cortegiano (The Courtier). The fruit of several years of work, Dworzanin polski (The Polish Courtier) was not a mere translation. Goírnicki adapted the Italian text, transplanting its main ideas into the mainstream of Polish court culture. In his version, Gornicki's major achievement was to produce in Polish the rich, reflective language characteristic of the original.

Goírnicki is recognized as a master of Polish Renaissance prose, even if he is not a writer of great originality. Other publications include A Conversation be­tween a Pole and an Italian on Polish Freedoms and Laws, published in 1587, and History of the Polish Crown from 1538 to 1572, published in 1637.

Bibliography

M. Mikosí, Polish Renaissance Literature: An Anthology, 1995.

Michael J. Mikos