Mikołaj Rej
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| Mikołaj Rej | |
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| Born | February 4, 1505 Żurawno, Poland (now Zhuravno, Ukraine) |
| Died | between September 8 and October 5, 1569 Rejowiec, Poland |
| Occupation | Poet, writer, politician, musician |
| Nationality |  Poland |
Mikołaj Rej or Mikołaj Rey (Nicholas Rey) of Nagłowice, Poland (February 4, 1505 – between September 8 and October 5, 1569) was one of the best-known Polish poets and writers of the Renaissance, as well as a politician and musician. From 1541 or 1548 he was a Calvinist. He is considered one of the founders of Polish literature.
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[edit] Life
[edit] Early life
Rej was born into a noble family at Żurawno, near Halicz. His father had moved to Rus from Nagłowice, near Kraków in Poland.
Although young Rej received little formal education in Lwów and attended but one year at the Kraków Academy, he managed to educate himself by studying Latin literature.
In 1531 he moved to the Chełm area, and thereafter frequented the court of Hetman Mikołaj Sieniawski.
He converted to Calvinism, took part in synods, and founded Protestant schools and communities on his lands.
[edit] Writer
In 1543 Rej debuted under a pen name with the book, A Brief Discussion among Three Persons: the Lord, the Commune Chief and the Priest. Rej took part in sejms and thought his writing an important social mission. He was the first Polish writer to receive a substantial reward for his output. By the end of his life, he owned several villages. He received Temerowce from King Zygmunt I the Old, and Dziewięciele from Zygmunt II August as a lifelong possession and two towns, one of them Rejowiec, founded by the author in 1547.
[edit] Present day
In 1994-97, Mikołaj Rej's descendant and namesake, Nicholas Rey, served as American Ambassador to Poland.
Poland's Sejm declared the year 2005 the Year of Mikołaj Rej, in commemoration of the 500th anniversary of his birth.
[edit] Quotation
"A niechaj narodowie wżdy postronni znają,
iż Polacy nie gęsi, iż swój język mają."
("We'll have it that all and sundry nations be aware
that Poles are no geese, they have a language that they share.")
[edit] Works
- Krótka rozprawa między trzema osobami: Panem, Wójtem i Plebanem (A Brief Discussion among Three Persons: the Lord, the Commune Chief and the Priest, 1543), written under the pen name, Ambroży Korczbok Rożek.
- Żywot Józefa (The Life of Joseph, 1545).
- Psałterz Dawidów (David's Psalter, 1546) — a Polish prose paraphrase of a Latin translation.
- Kupiec (The Merchant, 1549).
- Zwierzyniec (The Zodiac, 1562).
- Zwierciadło (The Mirror), incorporating the three-book prose Żywot człowieka poczciwego (Life of the Good Man, 1567-68).
- Rzecz pospolita albo Sejm pospolity (The Commonwealth, or the General Sejm).
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Czesław Miłosz, The History of Polish Literature, University of California Press, 1984, ISBN 0520044770.
