288 SERENISSIMA
relations with particular countries or regions, and were authorized to observe
the proceedings of the Senate and of the Senate committee. In addition there
were referendaries, copyists, interpreters, and archivists - some twenty persons
in all. In the early years of the Union, the personnel of this Polish secretariat was
quite outstanding. Its list of employees included names like Jan Kochanowski,
Lukasz Gornicki, Andrzej Frycz-Modrzewski, Jan Zamoyski, Marcin Kromer,
Stanislaw Hosius - and claimed a high proportion of the leading intellects and
artists of the day. In addition to its main task of foreign correspondence, the sec-
retariat had to compose reports, to prepare ambassadors' instructions, to issue
their twofold letters of credence from King and Senate, and to keep the records.
Zygmunt-August was particularly interested in their work, and personally
inspected the inventories. From 1503 onwards, ambassadorial reports were kept
in the Libri Legationum, and the general diplomatic correspondence in the
Metryka Koronna, or 'Crown Register.'
The languages of Polish diplomacy were many and varied. In the sixteenth
and seventeenth century, the primary language was Latin, used both for official
documents within the Polish service itself and also for communication with
most foreign countries. All of Western Europe and Scandinavia, together with
Prussia and Courland, lay within the Latin sphere. The first attempt in Warsaw
to use French occurred in 1636, when Richelieu's envoy, de Rorte, dared to put
the opening sentences of his oration to the Senate into his native tongue.
Thereafter French made headway for the purposes of informal conversation,
especially in the Francophile court of Jan Sobieski, but not as an official lan-
guage. Sobieski wrote to Charles II of England either in French or in Latin,
addressing him as 'Tres Affectionne Frere', and signing himself as 'Bonus
Frater'. Polish was common enough in ambassadors' instructions and in reports
for internal circulation, and in the time of the Great Elector was still understood
by the Prussian diplomats. Italian, too, was in current use, having been strongly
implanted into the Polish service by the Court of Queen Bona Sforza, and by a
long line of Paduan graduates. Both Zygmunt-August in the sixteenth century
and Jan Kazimierz Vasa in the seventeenth habitually used Italian in their every-
day speech and correspondence. Zygmunt HI used German.
Communication with the East was more difficult. In dealings with Muscovy,
it was standard practice for the representatives of the Republic to use Polish
when acting on behalf of the Kingdom or of the joint Sejm, and to use Ruthenian
(Old Byelorussian) when acting specifically on behalf of the Grand Duchy. The
Tsar and his representatives replied in Russian. In dealings with the Tartars, a
similar convention existed where each side expressed itself in its own tongue. In
formal documents, such as the Treaty of Cecora of 1595, one copy would be
drawn up in Polish, and another in Tartar, the latter written in Serbian or
Cyrillic letters. In dealings with the Turks, Latin, Polish, Italian, or Turkish
would be used in accordance with the varying abilities of available interpreters
and secretaries. In 1568, the Porte appointed an islamized Pole as envoy to
Poland - one Ibrahim Bey, whose name prior to his capture in a Tartar raid, had