Renaissance and Humanism from the Central–East European Point of View – Methodological Approaches

This volume shows the panorama of the contemporary studies of the Polish Renaissance, presented here in the Italian and transalpine context, taking into consideration its characteristics. An important aspect of this volume is the specification of the research needs and the definition of new directions of studies and their methodology. A large, multiethnic and multireligious state, which was Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth (Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów) shaped its modern identity in the sixteenth century. This period gave rise to the flowering of literature and art, creating the Golden Age of Polish culture. The ideas of Renaissance humanism proved to be vitally attractive for the domestic elites and contributed to the creation of the foundations of the political system of the Commonwealth, becoming its pride—a republic with an elected king, where both passive and active electoral rights were vested in the entire Gentry Nation. The Latin Culture of the Renaissance became also an integrating factor for this multilingual state organism, and Latin, together with Polish was the main medium of communication among nobility (who accounted for about 10 percent of the inhabitants of the Republic).

The disintegration of this commonwealth, the loss of independence for more than a century (1795-1918), and then loss of sovereignty for another half of a century (1939-1989) and then isolation between Poland and the West resulted in the fact that the culture of this area was not included in the studies of the European Renaissance, which were commenced in the nineteenth century. This gap has been seen until today in the Western course books and more general overviews. The purpose of this volume is, at least to a limited degree, to fill in the lack of scientific analyses of the Polish Renaissance in western languages and also to invite foreign scholars to a debate about Polish humanistic literature.

Particular chapters concentrate on the following issues: From the History of the Renaissance Idea; The State of Research on the Renaissance Humanism: Poland Case; Editing of Primary Sources; Old and Contemporary Translation Studies; The Renaissance Genres (Theory and Practice).