„Kto widział salamandrę, żywiącą płomieniem?”
“Who has seen a salamander, feeding fire?”

A salamander in the eyes of Old Polish authors

Author(s): Robert Mileszczyk
Subject(s): Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Polish Literature, 16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: salamander; fire; humanism; literary tradition; Konrad Gessner; Ulisses Aldrovandi; Jan Jonston; Edward Topsell
Summary/Abstract: The article aims to explore the motif of salamander in old Polish literature, as well as the literary traditions which contributed to its perception in the old ages. The reflections are embedded in the context of the works of ancient writers and medieval compendia (Aristotle, Pliny, Isidore of Seville), the treatises containing information on salamander and the works of modern naturalists (Gessner, Aldrovandi, Jonston, Topsell). The reading of this material allows us to learn about the state of knowledge of old humanists on this amphibian and enables to verify their attitudes towards the information resource inherited from antiquity. Similar thought patterns are present in Old Polish writers’ works, who oscillated between repeating data taken from classical canons, skepticism about them or an open polemic with their authors.

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