Renaissance Studies
in Honor of
Joseph Connors
edited by
Machtelt Israëls and Louis A. Waldman
with
Guido Beltramini, Bianca de Divitiis,
Anthony D’Elia, Alison Frazier,
Giuseppe Gerbino, Guido Guerzoni,
Estelle Lingo, and Marica Tacconi
Florence
Villa I Tatti
The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies
2013
The Polish Castiglione:
Łukasz Górnicki, Padua, and the
Education of the “Domestic Pole”
Michael T. Tworek
i
H
ighly praised and widely read throughout Europe since it
first appeared in 1528, Baldassare Castiglione’s Il cortegiano
made its Polish debut in Cracow as Łukasz Górnicki’s
Dworzanin polski (The Polish Courtier) in 1566. Górnicki was
more than qualified to translate and transpose the learned disputations of
Castiglione’s courtiers into Polish. Though born into a modest burgher
family, Górnicki (1527–1603) had become a successful courtier and
official of the Polish kings through his service at various courts in his
youth and subsequent studies in Padua.1
Górnicki’s aims were simple – to free his reader from ignorance and
demonstrate the proper behavior for a courtier to the “Polak domowy”
(“domestic Pole”) – one who had never traveled outside of PolandLithuania nor received the benefit of a foreign education.2 A translation,
Górnicki claimed, would not have worked because of the vast cultural
gap between Italians and Poles. Rather, he had to make his work palatable
to Polish sensibilities by excluding or adapting certain discussions and
topics from the original, while preserving its elegance and wisdom.
Nevertheless, Górnicki left in topics and references that only a courtier
who had studied and traveled in the Italian peninsula could have
understood. Why would he have included material incomprehensible to
the beneficiaries of his work? An examination of the preface of The Polish
Courtier in light of Górnicki’s education and court experience reveals not
1. In 1561 Sigismund Augustus ennobled Górnicki.
2. Łukasz Górnicki, Dworzanin polski (The Polish Courtier), ed. Roman Pollak,
Wrocław 1958, p. 49. This is the standard critical edition based on the 1566 edition.
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the polish castiglione
only the importance of Italy’s place in the Polish Renaissance but also
Poland’s place in the Italian Renaissance.
Górnicki entered Polish court life as an adolescent, serving Samuel
Maciejowski (1499–1550), Bishop of Cracow. After finishing preliminary
studies in Cracow and accompanying royal diplomats to Vienna and
Königsberg, Górnicki with the financial help of Maciejowski, studied
in Padua for two long periods (ca. 1543–48, 1556–59). Although we
cannot pinpoint the precise dates of his stays since he did not officially
matriculate, Padua greatly affected Górnicki. Firstly, after returning
to Poland, he maintained close friendships and court connections with
former Polish Paduans such as Jan Kochanowski (1530–1584), the leading
vernacular poet of the Polish Renaissance, and Andrzej Patrycy Nidecki
(1522–1587), an outstanding classical scholar and collaborator of Carlo
Sigonio and Paolo Manuzio. Given their similar careers and mutual
acquaintances, the educational paths of other Polish Paduans such as
Kochanowski closely mirrored Górnicki’s.3 Secondly, Górnicki’s training
in law, philosophy, and classical literature in Padua clearly marked not only
his Polish Courtier but also his works on Polish-Lithuanian government
and society and his later translations of ancient authors.4 Finally, his
admiration for and familiarity with Italian language (Tuscan in this case),
customs, and literature were prominent characteristics of Paduan Poles.
Padua’s impact upon Górnicki was clear; to quote a contemporary fellow
Paduan: “Patavium virum me fecit.”5
His wide humanistic learning, courtly experience and contacts, and
familiarity with Italian culture certainly contributed to Górnicki’s
becoming the personal secretary of the Polish king, Sigismund Augustus
(1520–1572), in 1559. Reared in the highly cultured, humanist atmosphere
around Bona Sforza, his Italian mother, Sigismund recognized how
classically trained courtiers educated abroad added to the prestige of his
court and strengthened royal authority.6 The arrival in 1518 of Bona and
her large retinue of attendants in Poland had revolutionized the royal
court and the role of the courtier politically and culturally.7 Based on her
experiences in Milan, Bari, and Naples, Bona wanted simultaneously to
strengthen royal authority and make the Polish court a more attractive
place for courtiers, since Polish nobles preferred to remain in their lands
or at the courts of local magnates. She increased artistic patronage and
diversified the hierarchy of king and nobles through elaborate ceremonies
and dress. These Italian ‘graftings’ required more people at court to
perform these expanded duties. Similarly, the rise of Poland-Lithuania
as a major European power, along with the accompanying cultural
and political demands, required well-rounded courtiers, well versed in
the classics and foreign languages, and capable of wit and charm.8 For
Sigismund Augustus, Górnicki proved the ideal fit.
Unsurprisingly, Górnicki showed his erudition and his gratitude for
his success at court by dedicating The Polish Courtier to Sigismund. Just as
Castiglione had honored friends and learned contemporaries as characters,
Górnicki paid homage to “the highest virtues of dignity” present in his
former patron, Samuel Maciejowski, and his courtiers.9 A famous patron
of the arts and a graduate of Padua himself, Maciejowski attracted leading
intellectual figures to his Italian-styled palace near Cracow. Many of them
belonged to the Akademia Padewska mie˛dzy Polaki (Paduan Academy
among Poles) – an informal group of humanists who had studied in Padua
and maintained close contact with each other in emulation of academies,
such as the Accademia degli Infiammati of Padua, which they had
encountered in Italy. They themselves testified to the growth of learning
in Poland, to which Górnicki had referred in his dedication. Górnicki,
like them, would contribute to this flourishing by bringing Castiglione’s
work to Poland as well.
3. Raphael Löwenfeld, Lukasz Górnicki: Sein Leben und seine Werke. Ein Beitrag zur
Geschichte des Humanismus in Polen, Breslau 1884, pp. 29–30.
4. Another Italian-related work is Rozmowa Polaka z Włochem o wolnościach i prawach
polskich (published posthumously in 1616).
5. Attributed to Jan Zamoyski, a powerful magnate and military leader (hetman) of
the Polish crown.
6. Maria Bogucka, Bona Sforza, Warsaw 1989.
7. Kenneth F. Lewalski, “Sigismund I of Poland: Renaissance King and Patron”,
Studies in the Renaissance, XIV, 1967, pp. 49–72.
8. David J. Welsh, “Il Cortigiano Polacco (1566)”, Italica, XL, 1963, pp. 22–27.
9. Górnicki (as in n. 2), p. 30.
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the polish castiglione
To do so, Górnicki had to reveal the vast cultural and intellectual lacunae
that still remained. “Castiglione”, Górnicki pointed out, “wrote in Italian
for Italians, whose customs are very far removed” from those of Poles.10
The gulf that Górnicki perceived was not necessarily between Italy and
Poland but rather between “domestic Poles” and those who had studied
abroad in Italy. Through a clever combination of rhetoric, humor, and
erudition, Górnicki’s preface offered a rationale for his transposition that
contrasted the seemingly “simple” tastes of Poles with the “sophisticated”
ones of Italians. For the “domestic” Pole had not accepted the influx
of Italian influences without resistance or suspicion. Górnicki even had
one of the main interlocutors who typified the “domestic Pole” lambast
the excessive preoccupation of Italianate Poles with bookish pursuits,
lamenting the days when Poles spent their time rather with swords.
However, the more Górnicki claimed that certain topics (and hence the
need to exclude them) were incomprehensible to Poles, the more obvious
his critique of “domestic Poles” became. The irony of his critique would
not have been lost on Górnicki’s fellow Italophiles.
Italian anecdotes and customs, Górnicki suggested, did not have a place
among Poles. References to serenading would also have to go, as Poles
“did not love from the windowsill”, as would discussions on comedy and
tragedy, since they had not seen them nor knew what a histrio was – at
least those Poles who did not “have any literas” did not.11 Furthermore,
expressions such as “matto nato” or “come puo esser egli dotto, se non
ha letto”, he claimed, could not be rendered into Polish.12 If translated,
perhaps, they might have offended a “domestic Pole”. As for literature,
Górnicki would leave out Italian writers such as Boccaccio, since “those
Poles who do know them are those who have lived in Italy”, and would
instead include Polish writers such as his friend Kochanowski.13
Perhaps most drastically, Górnicki excised female characters from his
work because “it was not agreeable to include them in a Polish dialogue”,
for the simple reason that Polish ladies were “not as learned as Italian
ones nor would their ears tolerate certain things spoken here and there”.14
However, later in The Polish Courtier, in his courtiers’ discussion of the
ideal woman, Górnicki cited Kochanowski’s mother as a prime example
of a courtly Polish woman known for her wisdom, learning, and wit,
and ushered forth strong arguments (in part from Il cortegiano) for the
intellectual equality of women.15 Certainly, many domestic Poles (not
all, of course) would have missed the irony of this contrast, given their
strong opposition to the power that cultivated women, such as Bona,
could exercise in a court setting.
As regards philosophy, Górnicki conceded that Poles only understood
it “corporeally, considering the words, not the meaning”.16 He lamented,
quite ironically once more, the impossibility of translating “Facci sentir
quelli odori spirituali, che vivifican le virtù dell’intelletto”, because he
feared that his Polish readers would take his rendering, perhaps that of
the “odori”, too literally.17 Górnicki hinted that his “domestic Pole” was
a practical man with little time for excessive philosophical pondering.18
He was no Marsilio Ficino, Górnicki noted, however, when it came to
the task of translating difficult philosophical concepts into Polish, and did
not see the value of translating them since they were not translatable into
Italian either and were “all Latin [in origin] anyway”.19
Despite such claims, Górnicki still engaged in philosophical discussions
– especially Platonic debates, for instance on beauty – throughout his
work by adapting other related dialogues from Castiglione or, more
significantly, by drawing from commentaries of Ficino. While his
“domestic” readers would probably have known little or nothing about
Platonic philosophy, much less anything about Florentine translators of
10. Górnicki (as in n. 2), p. 53.
11. Górnicki (as in n. 2), p. 53.
12. Górnicki (as in n. 2), p. 55.
13. Górnicki (as in n. 2), p. 56.
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14. Górnicki (as in n. 2), p. 53.
15. Górnicki (as in n. 2), p. 331.
16. Górnicki (as in n. 2), p. 60.
17. Górnicki (as in n. 2), p. 55; see Balth. Castiglione, Il libro del cortegiano, Venice
1528, IV, 64, p. 234. It is uncertain whether Gornicki’s use of quelli instead of quegli
is his mistake, the printer’s, or one in the edition of Il cortegiano he read.
18. Górnicki (as in n. 2), p. 55.
19. Górnicki (as in n. 2), p. 59; James Hankins, “Renaissance Philosophy and Book
IV of Il Cortegiano”, in Baldesar Castiglione: The Book of the Courtier, trans. Charles
Singleton, ed. Daniel Javitch, New York 2002, pp. 377–388.
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Plato, Górnicki’s fellow Paduans and those educated in Italy would have
delighted in recognizing allusion after allusion from texts of classical and
vernacular authors that they had read and discussed while studying in
Italy. If, indeed, someone truly did not like his Courtier (or felt that he
could offer a better rendering), Górnicki quipped, then that person could
always turn to the original.20
For all his irony in the preface, The Polish Courtier illustrates Górnicki’s
serious aims on two important levels. On the one hand, it highlights
the strong cultural differences in Poland-Lithuania between those who
studied abroad and those who did not. These groups, in Górnicki’s mind,
comprised, very broadly, two different communities with different ideas
of what constituted “Polish”. While the specific disagreements ranged
from political privileges and religion to language and learning (in this
case), the broader differences between them lay in whether development
within these areas should be static or dynamic, open to outside influence
or not. On the other hand, The Polish Courtier is Górnicki’s attempt to
demonstrate how Polish could become a language of learning, literature,
and culture only by emulating, adapting, and ultimately reshaping the
best aspects of foreign culture and localizing them. Górnicki rendered the
lessons from Castiglione meaningful and useful for those Polish nobles
who had not studied abroad and frequently were suspicious of all things
and persons “foreign”, such as Bona Sforza. What better way for Górnicki
to dispel their fears and ignorance than by showing how his Paduan
education had enabled him to enrich Polish language and culture with
his Courtier? While his Polish Paduan readers would have appreciated
the finer points of erudition in his book, his “domestic” readers could
see that Castiglione and Italy had more to offer them than just garrulous
diplomats, vegetables, and scheming queens.
20. Górnicki (as in n. 2), p. 56.
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