Polish literature

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Polish literature is the literary tradition of Poland. The majority of Polish literature was written in the Polish language, though other languages used in Poland over the centuries (including Latin, Yiddish, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Belarusian and German) have also contributed to Polish literary traditions.

1 Middle Ages
2 Renaissance
3 Enlightenment to the present
4 See also
5 External links

The earliest monuments of Polish literature date to the Middle Ages. Most were religious tracts transcribed by local copyists from Latin works popular in western (i.e. Christian) Europe. The first substantial books were created about the 11th century, when the first scriptoria were founded on Polish soil.

The first recorded sentence in the Polish language reads: "day ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai" ("let me grind, and you take a rest") and was a paraphrase of the Latin "Sine, ut ego etiam molam". The circumstances in which this phrase was written reflected the cultural conditions in early Poland. The sentence appears in the Latin chronicle Liber fundationis, the history of the Cistercian monastery in Henryków, Silesia, written between 1269 and 1273 by a German abbot, known simply as Piotr (Peter), and referred to an event almost 100 years earlier, supposedly uttered by a Bohemian settler, Bogwal ("Bogwalus Boemus"), a subject of Bolesław the Tall, when he felt compassion for his wife who "very often stood grinding by the quern-stone." [1]

Notable works of literature from the medieval period include:

Chronicle of the Bavarian Geographer (11th century)
The Holy Cross Annals (early 12th century)
Chronicles of Gallus Anonymus
The Chronicles of Wincenty Kadłubek (13th century)
The Chronicle of Janko of Czarnków (14th century)
The Czerwińsk Breviary
The Holy Cross Sermons: the oldest extant manuscripts of fine prose in the Polish language.
Queen Zofia's Bible (earliest Polish-language Bible)
The Puławy Psalter
Saint Florian's Breviary (late 14th century, partially in Polish)
Bogurodzica: a hymn in praise of the Virgin Mary, written down in the 14th century though popular at least a century before; one of the earliest texts printed in Polish.
The Gradual of King John I Olbracht of Poland
Missal of Erazm Ciołek (ca. 1515)
Statua synodalia Wratislaviensia (1475): a printed collection of Polish and Latin prayers
Florian Ungler's Hortulus Animae (1513): the first book printed entirely in Polish
Jan Długosz's Chronicle (15th century)
Davids' Psalter.
Jan Łaski's Communae Poloniae Regni privilegium
Jan Długosz's Catalogus archiepiscoporum Gnesnensium

Several short Polish texts of the period were influenced heavily by western literature. These include Bogurodzica (Mother of God), a short hymn praising the Virgin Mary, which served as a national anthem, and Rozmowa mistrza Polikarpa ze śmiercią (Master Polikarp's conversation with death).

In the early 1470s the first printing houses were set up in Kraków and Wrocław. Twenty years later, the first Cyrillic printing house was founded in Kraków by Eastern Orthodox Church hierarchs.

The most famous Polish works of the late medieval/early renaissance period are the Latin Missal of Bishop Ciołek and Olbracht's Gradual.

With the advent of the Renaissance, the Polish language was finally accepted on an equal footing with Latin. Polish culture and art flourished under Jagiellonian rule, and many foreign poets and writers settled in Poland, bringing with them new literary trends. Such writers included Kallimach (Filip Buonaccorsi) and Konrad Celtis. Many other Polish writers studied abroad or at the Kraków Academy, which became a melting pot for new ideas and currents. In 1488 the Nadwiślańskie Bractwo Literackie (Vistula Literary Guild), the world's first writers' club, was created at Kraków.

One of the last Polish writers to use Latin as his principal vehicle of expression was Klemens Janicki (Ianicius), who became one of the most notable Latin poets of his time and was laureled by the Pope. Other writers such as Mikołaj Rej and Jan Kochanowski laid the foundations for a Polish literary language and modern Polish grammar.

Notable Polish writers and poets active in the 16th century included: