Mikołaj Rej

Mikołaj Rej
Born	February 4, 1505(1505-02-04) 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]

Life

Oksza coat-of-arms, hereditary in Rej's family

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.

Works

The Image of a Good Man's Life (1567)

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:

• Krótka rozprawa między trzema osobami: Panem, Wójtem i Plebanem (A Brief Discussion among Three Persons: a Lord, a Commune Chief and a Priest, 1543), written under the pen name Ambroży Korczbok Rożek.
• Żywot Józefa (The Life of Joseph, 1545).
• Żywot Człowieka Poczciwego (The Life of the Honest Man).
• Kupiec (The Merchant, 1549).
• Zwierzyniec (The Zodiac, 1562).
• Zwierciadło (Speculum), incorporating the three-book prose Wizerunek własny żywota człowieka poczciwego (The Image of a Good Man's Life, 1567–68).
• Rzecz pospolita albo Sejm pospolity (The Commonwealth, or the General Sejm).

Quotation

"A niechaj narodowie wżdy postronni znają, iż Polacy nie gęsi, iż swój język mają."

"Let it by all and sundry foreign nations be known that Poles are no Anserinae — they have a language of their own."[3]

20th century

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.

See also

• Polish literature
• List of Polish poets
• List of Poles

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c} The Mikołaj Rej collection, with biography and body of works. National Digital Library (Cyfrowa Biblioteka Narodowa Polona), 2006. (English)
2. ^ Rej, Mikołaj (1505-1569), "Krotka rozprawa między trzemi osobami, panem, woytem a plebanem," National Digital Library. Retrieved September 28, 2011.
3. ^ "Do tego co czytał" ("To What He Read," 1562). Rej, the first Polish author to write exclusively in the Polish language, is saying that Poles need to break with the tradition, still current in the Renaissance, of writing in Latin—a language that reminds him of the gabbling of geese. It has been asserted that Rej here uses "gęsi" not as a noun ("geese") but as an adjective ("anserine"); thus he would actually be saying: "that Poles use not Anserine [i.e., Latin] but a tongue of their own."

References

• Czesław Miłosz, The History of Polish Literature, University of California Press, 1984, ISBN 0520044770.

Persondata
Name	Rej, Mikolaj
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	February 4, 1505
Place of birth	Żurawno, Poland (now Zhuravno, Ukraine)
Date of death	October 5, 1569
Place of death	Rejowiec, Poland