118 JOGALIA
the last two Jagiellons one can talk of Poland's Zloty Wiek, her 'Golden Age',
with no hint of hyperbole.
The flowering of the Renaissance in the sixteenth century was preceded in the
fifteenth, by the steady germination of a strong humanist tradition. In the halls
of the Jagiellonian University, under a series of outstanding rectors from Paulus
Vladimiri to Bishop Tomicki, and in intimate circles forming round the Princes
of the Church, from Cardinal Olesnicki to Archbishop Laski, the theocratic val-
ues of the Middle Ages had long been under attack from wide-ranging philo-
sophical and scientific speculation.
Printing, the technical vehicle of the new ideas, flourished from an early date.
The first work printed in Cracow, a Latin almanac, was produced by Piotr
Straube in 1473. In 1491, Swejbold Vehl (Szwajpolt Fiol) printed the first ever
book in Cyrillic, an Oktoich hymnal, and was fined by an inquisitorial court for
his pains. Jan Haller, another Franconian, and Kasper Hochfeld, had the dis-
tinction of publishing Poland's first illustrated work, Jan Laski's legal
'Statutes', in 1506. Florian Ungler (d. 1536) printed the first book in
Polish-Biernat of Lublin's Raj duszny (The Spiritual Paradise) in 1513; the first
Polish grammar - Zaborowski's Ortografia in 1516; and Bernard Wapowski's
celebrated map of Poland in 1525. Hieronim Wietor (d. 1546), founder of a firm
which lasted over a century, produced a work in Greek; the first ever book in
Romanian; and in 1519 Maciej Miechowita's Cronica Polonorum. This last
item is best remembered as the first printed work in Poland to be withdrawn by
the ecclesiastical censorship, for naming the lady who, in 1493 on return from
a Roman pilgrimage, had first introduced syphilis to Poland. So much for firsts.
Material prosperity contributed greatly. In wealthy cities like Cracow and
Danzig, art and commerce thrived in harness. Magnates like Chancellor
Krzysztof Szydlowiecki (1467-1532) or Bishop Jan Lubranski of Poznan
(1456-1520) gloried in the prestige of patronage. Noblemen could afford to send
their sons abroad for an education. The universities of Germany and Italy were
flooded with Polish students as never before or since.
The ultimate spark was provided by the Jagiellonian Court. Sigismund I,
whose elder brother Ladislas reigned in Bohemia and Hungary from 1490 and
whose Queen Bona Sforza inspired an important influx of Italians, presided in
Cracow over a brilliant cosmopolitan circle. His son, Sigismund-August, Grand
Duke of Lithuania, created an environment where royal servants, to be
respected and successful, were themselves required to be poets, philosophers,
and scientists. They set an example for the whole of educated society. Poland in
the early 1500s was well prepared for the Renaissance, and for two or three gen-
erations blazed with its inspiration.
Names in themselves mean little. But the sheer quality of those who
contributed to the intellectual and artistic life of the age is truly outstanding,
especially in an area where, in later periods, such figures can be very sparse
indeed. Among the foreigners, it is necessary to mention Buonacorsi (Calli-
machus), Padovano, Berucci, Retyk, Santagucci; among the natives, Janicki,