Samuel Twardowski
Encyclopedia
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, diarist, and essayist who gained popularity in 17th century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. It was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe with some and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century...
, called by his contemporaries 'Polish Virgil
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...
.'http://www.info.kalisz.pl/biograf/twardows.htm
Life and works
He was a member of Polish nobility (szlachtaSzlachta
The szlachta was a legally privileged noble class with origins in the Kingdom of Poland. It gained considerable institutional privileges during the 1333-1370 reign of Casimir the Great. In 1413, following a series of tentative personal unions between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of...
), born in Lutynia
Lutynia, Pleszew County
Lutynia is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Dobrzyca, within Pleszew County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. It lies approximately north-east of Dobrzyca, west of Pleszew, and south-east of the regional capital Poznań....
in Wielkopolska. He was educated in Jesuit school in Kalisz
Kalisz
Kalisz is a city in central Poland with 106,857 inhabitants , the capital city of the Kalisz Region. Situated on the Prosna river in the southeastern part of the Greater Poland Voivodeship, the city forms a conurbation with the nearby towns of Ostrów Wielkopolski and Nowe Skalmierzyce...
. He took part in the 1621 battle of Chocim
Battle of Khotyn (1621)
The Battle of Khotyn was a battle fought between a Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth army and an invading Ottoman Imperial army. Here, for a whole month , the Commonwealth forces halted the Ottoman advance...
. Twardowski was one of the less wealthy nobles and earned his living as a retainer at magnate
Magnate
Magnate, from the Late Latin magnas, a great man, itself from Latin magnus 'great', designates a noble or other man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or other qualities...
s' courts of various reacher families (such as Zbarascy, Wiśniowieccy, Leszczyńscy). During The Deluge
The Deluge (Polish history)
The term Deluge denotes a series of mid-17th century campaigns in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In a wider sense it applies to the period between the Khmelnytsky Uprising of 1648 and the Truce of Andrusovo in 1667, thus comprising the Polish–Lithuanian theaters of the Russo-Polish and...
, at first he supported the Swedes, but later joined the Polish king Jan Kazimierz Vasa.
He served as a secretary of Krzysztof Zbaraski
Krzysztof Zbaraski
Krzysztof Zbaraski was a Polish-Lithuanian member of the gentry social class...
on a diplomatic mission
Diplomatic mission
A diplomatic mission is a group of people from one state or an international inter-governmental organisation present in another state to represent the sending state/organisation in the receiving state...
to Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
in 1622-1623. During that time he authored a diary describing the journey in verse
Verse (poetry)
A verse is formally a single line in a metrical composition, e.g. poetry. However, the word has come to represent any division or grouping of words in such a composition, which traditionally had been referred to as a stanza....
: Przewazna legacja J.O. Ksiazecia Krzysztofa Zbaraskiego (“The Important Mission of His Grace Duke Krzysztof Zbaraski”, published in 1633).
He also wrote about other historical events; that became a recognizable theme in his works. His most famous and respected work was Wojna domowa z Kozaki i Tatary, Moskwa, potya Szwedami i z-Wegry (“A Civil War with the Cossacks and Tatars, Muscovy, and then with the Swedes and Hungarians, published in 1681 in Kalisz
Kalisz
Kalisz is a city in central Poland with 106,857 inhabitants , the capital city of the Kalisz Region. Situated on the Prosna river in the southeastern part of the Greater Poland Voivodeship, the city forms a conurbation with the nearby towns of Ostrów Wielkopolski and Nowe Skalmierzyce...
). Wojna domowa is a narrative poem, whose style was inspired by classical and Renaissance authors. It is an account of the Zaporozhian Cossacks' revolt, the Chmielnicki Uprising. That revolt was one of the largest, and the Cossacks under the leadership of Bohdan Khmelnytsky
Bohdan Khmelnytsky
Bohdan Zynoviy Mykhailovych Khmelnytsky was a hetman of the Zaporozhian Cossack Hetmanate of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . He led an uprising against the Commonwealth and its magnates which resulted in the creation of a Cossack state...
struggled against the Polish-Lithuanian nobility who controlled the regions of modern Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
in the mid-17th century. The revolt shook the entire Poland-Lithuania. Twardowski gives first hand accounts of the 1649 siege of Zbaraż and the 1651 battle of Berestechko
Battle of Berestechko
The Battle of Berestechko was fought between rebellious Zaporozhian Cossacks, led by Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, aided by their Crimean Tatar allies, and a Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth army under King John II Casimir. It was the largest land battle of 17th century.Lasting from June 28 to June 30,...
. His work is was considered one of the most authoritative histories of the period.http://www.huri.harvard.edu/ucrainica/histories.html
His other historical works included the Książę Wiśniowiecki Janusz ("Prince Janusz Wiśniowiecki
Janusz Wisniowiecki
Janusz Wiśniowiecki , koniuszy wielki koronny from 1633, starost of Krzemieniec.In 1631 after the death of Jerzy Zbaraski inherited Puławy.Married to Katarzyna Eugenia Tyszkiewicz...
", published in 1648), poem Satyr na twarz Rzeczypospolitej ("Satire on the face of Rzeczpospolita
Rzeczpospolita
Rzeczpospolita is a traditional name of the Polish State, usually referred to as Rzeczpospolita Polska . It comes from the words: "rzecz" and "pospolita" , literally, a "common thing". It comes from latin word "respublica", meaning simply "republic"...
", 1640), another epic poem Władysław IV ("Władysław IV Vasa", published in 1649) and Wojna domowa ("Civil war").
Twardowski also wrote Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
pastoral romances, in which he employed the technique of Spanish verse narratives. Those poems include as Nadobna Paskwalina (“Fair Pasqualina”,published in 1655) and mythological themes, in Dafnis w drzewo bobkowe przemieniela sie (“Daphne Transformed into a Laurel Tree”, published in 1638).
Four of his poems were translated into English by Michael J. Mikoś and issued in Polish Baroque and Enlightenment Literature: An Anthology. Ed. Michael J. Mikoś. Columbus, Ohio/Bloomington, Indiana: Slavica Publishers. 1996.