Jan Kochanowski

Piotr Wilczek (Uniwersytet Warszawski/ University of Warsaw)

Ed. by Ewa M. Thompson, Rice University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.8.3: Polish Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Roman Koropeckyj (University of California, Los Angeles), Ewa M. Thompson (Rice University)

Dates

Born 1530
Died 22 Aug 1584
Activity 1562-1584

Places

Born in Poland
Active in Poland

Activities

Primary

Playwright / Dramatist
Poet

Resources

Kochanowski's Works

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Jan Kochanowski is a major representative of the Polish Renaissance and the most significant poet in Slavic literatures before the nineteenth century. He was born c. 1530 in Sycyna near Radom to a middle-class noble family, and died in August 1584 in Lublin. After completing elementary education at local schools, he studied at the Kraków Academy (later known as Jagiellonian University) between 1544 and c. 1547. After that date he may have studied in Wroclaw (then Breslau), Leipzig, and Wittenberg. In 1552 he visited Königsberg, the capital of the Duchy of Prussia, a Lutheran state ruled by the Polish king’s cousin, Duke Albrecht von Hohenzollern. At that time, Königsberg (now Kaliningrad) was an important academic, cultural, and publishing center. In 1552–55, 1556–57,…

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2019 words

Citation: Wilczek, Piotr. "Jan Kochanowski". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 November 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12589, accessed 25 November 2024.]