Obraz Niemca w oczach Polaka, obraz Polaka w oczach Niemca. Studium nad staropolskimi traktatami kosmologicznymi przełomu XV i XVI wieku

Abstract

In this article the author discusses scientific and cultural Polish-German relations at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries. These considerations are based on the old Polish cosmographers: Wojciech of Brudzew, Jan of Głogów, Wawrzyniec Korwin and Jan of Stobnica. These works show that German scholars were regarded as scientific authorities and were an inspiration and source of knowledge for Polish scholars. However, the cosmological treatise by Jan of Głogów shows that Poles associated Germans with vice and crime, as evidenced by the example of Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea, who was attributed German origins. The picture of Germans and their lands painted by Old-Polish cosmographers is apparently based on ancient and later authors, especially Solinus, Strabon and Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini. Significant excerpts from these works were also made available to Polish readers to show them a multifaceted panorama of the Germanic lands. Wawrzyniec Korwin’s treatise also contains the opinions of Germans about Poland and Poles. The western neighbors of Poland–Lithuania were particularly keen on Cracow and its famous university and academic staff. The two nations were undeniably fascinated by each other’s science.