| Mikołaj Rej | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 4, 1505 Żurawno, Poland (now Zhuravno, Ukraine) |
| Died | between September 8 and October 5, 1569 (aged 64) Rejowiec, Poland |
| Occupation | Poet, writer, politician, musician |
| Nationality | Polish |
Mikołaj Rej or Mikołaj Rey of Nagłowice (February 4, 1505 – between September 8 and October 5, 1569) was a leading Polish poet and prose writer of the Renaissance, as well as a politician and musician. He was the first Polish author to write exclusively in the Polish language, and is considered (with Biernat of Lublin and Jan Kochanowski), to be one of the founders of Polish literary language and literature.[1]
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Rej was born into a noble family at Żurawno, near Halicz. His father had moved to Ruthenia from Nagłowice, near Kraków, Poland; invited by archbishop Jan Wątróbka. He married Barbara née Herburt there – the mother of Mikołaj. Though young Rej received little formal education in Lwów; and, at the age of 13 attended but one year at the Kraków Academy, he managed to educate himself by studying Latin literature.[1]
Around 1524 Rej began his service at the court of voivode Andrzej Tęczyński in Sandomierz. There, he acquired most of his vast knowledge in the field of humanities. He returned to his family’s town of Topola and married Zofia Kosnówna (Kościeniówna), a relative of the archbishop of Gniezno. In 1531 Rej moved to Kobyle, in the Chełm area, which was bequeathed to his wife, and thereafter frequented the court of Hetman Mikołaj Sieniawski. In 1541 or 1548 Rej converted to Calvinism. He took part in synods and founded Protestant schools and communities on his lands.[1]
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 King Zygmunt II August as a lifelong possession and two towns, one of them Rejowiec, founded by Rej in 1547. Rej died at Rejowiec in 1569.
In 1543 Rej debuted as a writer, under the pen name "Ambroży Korczbok Rożek," with his most famous book, A Brief Discussion among Three Persons: a Lord, a Commune Chief and a Priest (Krotka rozprawa między trzemi osobami, panem, woytem a plebanem).[2] Rej's works touch on a large array of matters. He authored prose works that described the ideal of the Polish nobleman, criticized the Catholic Church, and showed a genuine solicitude for his country. His prose syntax is strongly influenced by Latin style.
His poetic meter discloses a deliberate effort to impart to the medieval metrical model a regularity that it had lacked. Rej's works include:
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"A niechaj narodowie wżdy postronni znają, |
"Let it by all and sundry foreign nations be known |
In commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the birth of Mikołaj Rej, Poland's Sejm (parliament) declared 2005 to be the Year of Mikołaj Rej. In 1994–97, Mikołaj Rej's descendant and namesake, Nicholas Andrew Rey (1938–2009), served as American Ambassador to Poland.