Abstract
The article presents chosen 16th and 17th-century Old Polish parenetic texts about personal examples to follow for people from the courtly circle and for the women. The parenetic content of these texts are analysed in the article considering the occurrence of ideas similar to Plato’s concept of virtues (aretai) – wisdom, bravery, temperance and justice, known later in Christian tradition as cardinal virtues. Their universality makes them a good basis to describe characteristics of the majority of personal examples. In the first part of the article the author outlines the historic and literary background of creating parenetic texts in the European culture since the ancient times to the 17th century. In the second part four Old Polish texts written by: Łukasz Gornicki, Stanislaw Herakliusz Lubomirski, Jan Kochanowski and Erazm Otwinowski, describing personal examples of a courtier and a woman are analysed. In each of the texts the author is looking for ideas similar to Plato’s virtue concept and presents the characteristics of ideal courtier and woman.
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