Warneńczyk uwielbiony, czyli o miejscu "Fragmentum XXI" względem "Satyra" i innych politycznych utworów Jana Kochanowskiego
Warneńczyk Glorified, or on the Place of "Fragmentum XXI" in Relation to "Satyr" and Other Political Works of Jan Kochanowski

Author(s): Radosław Rusnak
Subject(s): Cultural history, 16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, History of Art
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Jan Kochanowski; Sigismund II Augustus; Ladislaus of Varna; Battle of Varna; Polish-Turkish relations; Polish Renaissance poetry
Summary/Abstract: This article deals with four poetic fragments by Jan Kochanowski, published posthumously by his publisher Jan Januszowski and known under the collective title "Bitwa z Amuratem u Warny" (sometimes also "Włodzisław Warneńczyk"). Some scholars treat them as part of a never-completed poem about the Jagiellonian dynasty; they contain two eulogies for King Ladislaus III, killed at Varna, linking him to Sigismund II Augustus, who ruled in the times of Kochanowski. The author considers the possibility that the poet might have planned to produce a work in which the apologia for his contemporary, generally regarded as shying away from military matters, would be accompanied by an affirmation of the heroic death of his medieval predecessor, taking into account both the problematic fame of Ladislaus III as responsible for breaking the truce concluded earlier with the Turks, and the generally friendly relations maintained by the Kraków court with Istanbul. The most likely time for Kochanowski to consider a similar epic was towards the end of Sigismund Augustus’ reign (1570–1572), a period when papal diplomacy was seeking Poland’s participation in the Holy League against the Ottoman state, a project that was unlikely to win the king’s approval but which nevertheless enjoyed some interest among the nobility.

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