The Panegyric Poetry of Cyprian Bazylik. Poems Dedicated to Mikołaj ‘the Black’ Radziwiłł and Mikołaj ‘the Red’ Radziwiłł

Abstract

Cyprian Bazylik was a Renaissance poet, printer in Brest Litovsk, translator, and composer strongly associated with the house of Radziwiłł. He wrote in Polish language. The article discusses two poems from the year 1566, dedicated by Bazylik to the late Mikołaj ‘the Black’ Radziwiłł (January 1566) and the living Mikołaj ‘the Red’ Radziwiłł (June 1566). Both poems are one of the oldest examples of panegyric poetry in Polish language in the Great Duchy of Lithuania and they were not analized before from religious point of viev. They are contained within the editorial framework of two publications, edited by Tomasz Falconius, a Lithuanian adherent of antitrinitarianism, which are editions of parts of the Brest Bible and which were published by Bazylik in the Brest printing house. In both texts, the panegyric content is surprisingly perfunctory, while Bazylik (known as a reformed Evangelical) appears in them as an unambiguous adherent of antitrinitarianism. The poems are an interesting testimony to the situation of the Polish Brethren in Lithuania after the death (in 1565) of the patron of this religious belief, Mikołaj ‘the Black’ Radziwiłł. Unusual tone of the poem dedicated to Radziwiłł the Red – Bazylik asks for help and in the same time submits religious threats – shows the bad situation of Lithuanian antitrinitarians which happened in the period of half a year. But it also shows the high self-dignity of the poet.