Korespondencja Lwa Sapiehy do Radziwiłłów (w latach 1586–1622).
The correspondence of Lew Sapieha addressed at the Radziwiłł family (in the years 1586–1622).

A contribution to the perception of Stephen Báthory and Sigismund III Vasa in Lithuania

Summary/Abstract: The topic of this paper is the representation of the two kings of Poland – Stephen Báthory and Sigismund III Vasa – emerging from the correspondence of Lew Sapieha addressed to the Radziwiłłsof Birża: Krzysztof ‘the Thunder’ and his son Krzysztof (d. 1640), as well as Mikołaj KrzysztofSierotka of the Nieśwież line of the family. A look at Sapieha’s writings allows to capture the differences in his descriptions of the two monarchs and also enables identifying the rhetorictools aimed at making the king’s policies favourable in the eyes of the addressees. Sapieha’s lettersare testaments of his unusual ability to depict reality colourfully; most of all, however, they enrich the knowledge on the art of epistolography in the past centuries, a topic which remains not fully explored by literary historians.

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