Simonis Starovolsci[i] Scriptorum Polonicorum Έκατονταʹς, Seu Centum Illustrioum Poloniae Scriptorum Elogia et Vitae

Abstract

The article focuses on The Centurion by Shimon Starowolski. The given book can be considered the first history of Polish literature. The Centurion consists of biographies of a hundred Polish writers.The biographies are modeled on Plutarch’s Parallel Lives, as well as the works of Paolo Giovio and Albert le Mira. The authors of the article set themselves two goals: to describe the work that is very significant for Polish culture and to show, how the method of compiling biographies, developed by Starowolski, fits into recent discussions concerning the theory of communication. The biography of Starovolsky himself is given against the background of important historical events of his time. Starovolsky was the author of theological, homiletic, legal works, and panegyrics. Collections of biographies were the genre thanks to which he went down to cultural history as the first biographer, the first bibliographer and the first literary historian. The approaches he developed to the study of Polish literature have not lost their relevance to this day. Starovolsky’s Centurion contains biographies of authors of various texts: religious, historical, legal, philosophical ones and those related to fiction. All biographies are written according to a single model, significant for Polish and European culture, and include poetic eulogies. As an example, the article examines the biography of Andrzej Schön, an almost forgotten writer of the 16th–17th centuries. The second part of the article considers Starovolsky’s Centurion from the point of view of modern requirements of social communication and mass media. Starovolsky appears before the reader as a successful PR specialist, focused on creating a positive image of his native country and the Jagiellonian University. From this point of view, Starowolski’s Centurion can be viewed as a fundamental work on the history of (old) Polish literature and proves that its author has significant (modern) communicative intuition.