Sources, contexts and circumstances of the writing of "Oda o zdobyciu Połocka" (An Ode on the capture of Polatsk) by Jan Kochanowski

The author set himself two aims. First, to demonstrate how the most important poet of the Polish Renaissance, Jan Kochanowski (1530-1584), participated in the propaganda campaign led by the chancery of the Polish King, Stephen Báthory, during the Livonian War in the year fought in the years 1577-1582. Second, to attempt to discover the sources and textual inspirations for the Ode on the Capture of Polatsk or Ode 12 (Warsaw 1580), a Latin propaganda work commissioned from the poet by the Chancellor of Poland, Jan Zamoyski. To this end, the author placed the ode in a broad context of sources from the epoch, such as poems, pamphlets, maps, letters, etc. In the first part of the paper, the circumstances that accompanied the writing of the ode are discussed. The author explains the relations between Kochanowski and Zamoyski and reminds the pressure exerted by the Chancellor on the poet, so that he quickly finishes texts that are supposed to praise the victory over Muscovites. Kochanowski’s writing technique is also discussed. The author notes that the poet’s work resembled that of a philologist: preparing for writing a poem or a cycle of poems, Kochanowski made himself familiar with many various authorities. Thus he worked on the paraphrase of Psałterz (Psaltar 1579) and Treny (Laments 1580). According to the author, this was also Kochanowski’s modus operandi when he was writing Ode 12 and other texts on the war with Muscovy. In this part of the paper, all his works related to this subject are briefly discussed. In further parts, the author presents the sources that Kochanowski consulted when writing Ode 12. These include, first of all, previous poetic works, such as Horace’s odes and Latin poems written after the victory in the Battle of Orsha (1514). The author demonstrates that Kochanowski drew inspiration e.g. from Carmen de victoria Sigismundi by Joannes Dantiscus. Another significant sources used by the poet were chronicles and chorographies of Muscovy (Herberstein, Gwagnin), as well as drawings and maps depicting the capture of Polatsk. He was probably provided with iconographic accounts by Zamoyski’s messengers in January 1580. The author mentions that maps constituted a significant element of the chancery’s propaganda strategy. In this part, he observes that the same sources were used by Kochanowski for his Jezda do Moskwy (The Ride to Muscovy 1583) and by Gerard Mercator for his map Russiae pars amplificata (1595). The most important authorities consulted by Kochanowski included the accounts of the capture of Polatsk that he obtained directly from the royal chancery. In the last part of the study, the author compares several narrative sources with the ode. He arrives at the conclusion that the narration in Ode 12 basically reflects the description of the siege present in other sources and that it is very detailed for a lyrical work. He also shows the rhetoric means used by Kochanowski to intensify the propaganda effect. At the end, the author places Ode 12 in the context of other renaissance utterances on the relation between history and poetry. He refers to the contemporary reflections of Antonio Minturno and Julius Caesar Scaliger.