Między duchem walki a duchowością wojny. Wzór rycerza prawego w zwierciadle Szymona Starowolskiego
Between a Fighting Spirit and the Spirituality of War. The Ideal of a Righteous Knight in the Mirror of Szymon Starowolski

Author(s): Dorota Bylewska
Subject(s): History, Language and Literature Studies, Literary Texts, Studies of Literature, Philology
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: Szymon Starowolski; paraenetic literature in 17th century; mirror; Antonio Possevino
Summary/Abstract: The subject of this article is the 17th‑century mirror of Szymon Starowolski’s workPrawy Rycerz (The Perfect Knight), which continues the literary tradition of creating the idealof a knight. The superior category determining the direction of interpretation is the image ofthe ideal knight presented in this treatise. A reference point for the analysis was the oppositionbetween the primeval fighting spirit and the spirituality of a Christian soldier. Starowolski construed the ideal of a righteous knight – defender of the Catholic church based on the paraenetic tradition. Hence, it was necessary, on the one hand, to study the topics of service to God, just war and knighly virtues retained in literature, to which Starowolski alludes. On the other hand, we had to take into consideration that Starowolski wrote Prawy Rycerz (The Perfect Knight) in response to the neglect he saw on the political and social scene.Open criticism of the military and the call for revival of the military tradition is a very important element of interpretation, which has brought Starowolski’s paraenetic message up to date. Focusing on the created ideal, the author of the article also pointed to the richness ofintertextual references (both to ancient literature, the Bible and Starowolski’s contemporarywritings) and their role in textual rhetoric.

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