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Sigismund I of Poland: Renaissance King and Patron

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2019

Kenneth F. Lewalski
Kenneth F. Lewalski*
Affiliation:
Rhode Island College
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Extract

Sigismund's marriage to Bona Sforza in 1518 is perhaps the most familiar event in Polish Renaissance history. Bona's journey to Cracow with a retinue of 287 persons, followed by that of her adviser Prosper Colonna with an added company of fifty-eight Italians, suggests something on the order of an Italian invasion of the Polish court. The construction of the Sigismund Chapel and the completion of the remodeling of the royal residence at Wawel by Italian architects and sculptors in the years following the Sforza union strengthen the association between Sigismund's enthusiasm for Italian art and his Italian marriage.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in the Renaissance , Volume 14 , 1967 , pp. 49 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1967

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References

1 Adam Darowski, Bona Sforza (Rome, 1904), p. 134. Brief articles on Bona appear in Biografia universale anticae moderna (Venice, 1822-41), II, 18 and Polski Słownik Biograficzny [Polish Biographical Dictionary] (Cracow, 1935- ), II, 288-294. The most substantial study of Bona is by Władyslaw Pociecha, KrSlowa Bona (1494-155J), czasy i ludzie Odrodzenie [Queen Bona … the era and people of the Renaissance], 3 vols. (Poznan, 1949-58). A recent general study is Kazimierz Chlijdowski's Krölowa Bona (Warsaw, 1960).

2 In La Pologne Immortelle (Paris, 1916).

3 Access to Poland has changed considerably since Paul O. Kristeller compiled his bibliography ‘Latin Manuscript Books before 1600', Traditio vi (1948), 227-317 and IX (!953), 393-418 without the opportunity of visiting eastern Europe. In a subsequent article ‘Renaissance Manuscripts in Eastern Europe', Renaissance News, XII (Summer 1959), 83-90, Kristeller reported on his visit to Poland in 1958 and commented on manuscript losses during World War 11 as well as postwar scholarship on the Renaissance. Another American scholar, S. Harrison Thomson, called attention to the extensive research being done in Poland in a brief report on Slavic studies at the Eleventh Annual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America: see Renaissance News, XVIII (Spring 1965), 81-84. Thomson noted the establishment of a periodical Odrodzenie i Reformacja w Polsce in 1956 devoted to Renaissance and Reformation studies and the publication of the proceedings, in five volumes, of a conference on the Renaissance sponsored by the Polish Academy of Science in 1953 (Odrodzenie w Polsce: materiaty sesji naukowej P.A.N. 25-30 paźdźiernika 1953 roku, 5 vols. [Warsaw, 1955-58]).

4 My comments on the origins and development of Polish humanism are based largely on Oscar Halecki's ‘The Renaissance in Poland: Cultural Life and Literature', Cambridge History of Poland (Cambridge, 1950), I, 273-286. Additional information was obtained from Paul Cazin, ‘La Renaissance en Pologne', Centre d'etudes Polonaises. Année 1935-36. Stances et Travaux (Paris, 1937), pp. 21-29; Kazimierz Lepszy, ‘Kultura Polskiego Odrodzenia', Historia Polski, ed. T. Manteuffel (Warsaw, 1958), 1, pt. 2, 343-415. There are two special studies on Polish participation in the councils: Ludwik Grosse, Stosunki polski z soborem bazylejskim [Polish relations with the Council of Basle] (Warsaw, 1885) and Teofil Zegarski, Polen und das Basler Konzil (Poznan, 1910). Ignacy Zarebski has an article focusing on Gregory of Sanok and aspects of the early Renaissance in Poland, 'Problemy wczesnego Odrodzenia w Polsce: Gregorz z Sanok, Boccaccio, Dlugosz', Odrodzenie i Reformacja w Polsce II (1957), 5-52.

5 A Survey of Polish Literature and Culture (New York, 1956), p. 46. Henryk Barycz has written extensively on cultural relations between Poland and Europe: Polacy na studiach w Rzymie w epocie Odrodzenia, 1440-1600 [Poles studying in Rome during the Renaissance era] (Cracow, 1938); Dzieje nauki w Polsce w epoce Odrodzenie [Polish learning during the Renaissance] (Warsaw, 1957); Historja Uniwersytetujagielloiiskiego w epoce humanizmu (Cracow, 1935); Uniwersytet Jagiellonski w źyciu narodu Polskiego [The Jagiellonian University in the life of the Polish nation] (Wroclaw, 1964); ‘Rozwój nauki w Polsce w dobie Odrodzenia’ [Development of learning in Poland during the Renaissance] Odrodzenie w Polsce (Warsaw, 1956), II, pt. 1, 35-153. A recent article by Otakar Odlozilik, ‘Prague and Cracow Scholars in the fifteenth century', Polish Review IX (Spring 1964), 19-29 treats the close ties between the Jagiellonian and Charles universities.

6 Abel Mansuy, Le Monde Slave et les classiques Francais aux XVIe-XVIIe sihles (Paris, 1912) discusses the influence of Ronsard on Kochanowski (pp. 43-47), the interest of Rabelais and Montaigne in Slavic culture and the treatment of Poland by the French chroniclers of Henry III, king of Poland in 1573-74.

7 P. Fox, ‘The Reformation in Poland', Cambridge History of Poland, I, 328. A recent and more detailed study in English on the Reformation in Poland is G. H. Williams, The Radical Reformation (Philadelphia, 1962).

8 Historical Essays (London, 1957), p. 54.

9 Information on Callimachus in Poland can be found in F. F. de Daugnan, Gli Italiani in Polonia del IX secolo al XVIII (Crema, 1905-07), II, 191, 234-237. Special studies in Poland include Józef Skoczek, Legenda Kallimacha w Poise (Lwow, 1939); Jerzy Zathey, 'W sprawie badań nad Kallimachem', [Studies on Callimachus] Odrodzenie i Reformacja w Polsce in (1958), 53-77. The detailed study of Kazimierz Morawski, Histoire de Universite de Cracovie, moyen age et renaissance, 3 vols. (Paris, 1900-05) is indispensable for the study of intellectual history in this period.

10 Conrad Celtis: The German Arch-Humanist (Cambridge, Mass., 1957), pp. 15-17. For other treatments of Celtis in Poland see G. Bauch, Deutsche Scholaren in Krakau in der Zeit der Renaissance (Breslau, 1901), pp. 37-40; Aleksander Bruckner, Tysiqc lat kultury Polskiej, 3d ed. (Paris, 1955), 1, 447-455; Jan Dabrowski, ‘Les relations de Cracovie et son universite avec la Hongrie a l'epoque de l'humanisme', La Renaissance et la Reformation en Pologne et en Hongrie. Studia Historica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae Lin (Budapest, 1963), 460-462. The latter volume, which I will refer to often in this article, will henceforth be cited as Studia Hungarica.

11 For relations between Polish humanists and Erasmus see Konstanty Żantuan, 'Erasmus and the Cracow Humanists: the purchase of his library by Laski', Polish Review X (Spring 1965), 3-36. Another lengthy treatment of Erasmus and Poland is by Stanislaw tempicki, Renesans i Humanizm w Polsce (Cracow, 1952), pp. 109-134. Casimir Miaskowski has two works on Erasmus and Poland collected under the title Erasmiana (Paderborn, 1900-01): ‘Beiträge zur Korrespondenz des Erasmus von Rotterdam mit Polen’ and ‘Die Korrespondenz des Erasmus von Rotterdam mit Polen.’ P. S. Allen refutes the claim that Erasmus did visit Poland in 1518 on the occasion of Sigismund's marriage; see app. XVI in Opus Epistolarum Des. Erasmi Roterodami (Oxford, 1906-58), VII, 618-621.

12 Parallels between the Renaissance in Hungary and Poland and close ties between them in this period have been developed in several articles in Studia Hungarica. This volume is a substantial contribution to the study of the Renaissance in eastern Europe; many of the articles are in French and German.

13 Ksiega o czasach króla Zygmunta [Book on the Times of King Sigismund] (Warsaw, i960), p. 22. Józef Skoczek, Wychowanie Jagiellonów [The education of the Jagiellos] (Lwow, 1932), pp. 57-95 treats the education of Sigismund and his brothers.

14 Młode lata Zygmunta Starego [The early years of Sigismund the Elder] (Warsaw, 1893) is a close study of Sigismund's visits to Hungary. Two other important works on the subject are Wladyslaw Tomkiewicz, ‘Relations artistiques polono-hongroises a la fin du 15e et au debut du 16e siecle', Studia Hungarica, pp. 493-499 and Jan D^browski, 'Zwi^zki poczatkow i rozwoju Odrodzenia w Krakowie z Odrodzeniem na Wjgrzech', [The connection between the beginning and development of the Renaissance in Cracow and the Renaissance in Hungary] Krakowskie Odrodzenie: Referaty z konferencja (Cracow, !954). PP- 138-155. Subsequent references to the latter volume of essays will be cited as Krakowskie Odrodzenie. The Hungarian historian Adrian Diveky has written several articles on Sigismund in Hungary but many of them are unobtainable or in Hungarian; his brief article ‘Ungarn und die Polen', in Ungarn und die nachbarvolker, ed. Stefan Gal (Budapest, 1944), pp. 61-69 is useful but general.

15 Młode lata Zygmunta, pp. 219-232.

16 Studia Hungarica, p. 495.

17 Gli Artisti Italiani in Ungheria (Rome, 1936), p. 93. Other biographical information on Francesco della Lora can be obtained in Daugnan, Italiani in Polonia, 11,268; Emmanuel Benezit, Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs (Paris, 1948-55), iv, 48; Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon des Bildenden Kunstler (Leipzig, 1907-47), xn, 301; Polski Stownik Biograficzny, vn, 76-77. Further bibliography can be obtained in the survey of Italian artists in Poland from the Renaissance to the eighteenth century in Stanislaw Lorentz, ‘Relazioni artistiche fra l'ltalia e la Polonia', Accademia Polacca di Scienzi e Lettere (Rome, 1961), xv, 1-35.

18 Pawinski, Młode lata Zygmunta, pp. 257-260; also Adam Chmiel, Wawel: materyaty archiwalne do budowy zamku [Wawel: archival materials on the building of the palace] (Cracow, 1913), II, 9-14.

19 S. S. Komornicki, ‘The Renaissance in Poland: the Fine Arts', Cambridge History of Poland, 1, 287. This general survey of Renaissance art has been extremely helpful to me as a point of departure and as a reference; written in 1938, it has not yet been superseded by any other publication in English. Another useful general study is Alfred Lauterbach, Die Renaissance in Krakau (Munich, 1911). On the John Albert Tomb see Helen and Stefan Kozakiewicz, ‘Polskie nagrobki renasansowe: stan, problemy i postulaty badan', [Polish Renaissance tombs: conditions, problems and postulates of their study] Biuletyn Historii Sztuki xv (1953), 3-5; Józef Lepiarczyk, ‘Znaczenie Krakowa dla sztuki renesansu w Polsce', [The significance of Cracow in Renaissance art in Poland] Krakowskie Odrodzenie, pp. 125-137. Like Komornicki, Lepiarczyk points out that there was some slight Italian influence in an earlier tomb of Wladyslaw Jagiello but that the John Albert cenotaph was the first major work in Italian Renaissance style.

20 Delle istorie del suo tempo (Venice, 1565), Lib. XIII, p. 305.

21 Réau, p. 9.

22 This brief résumé of the political and social setting of Sigismund's reign is based largely on Oscar Halecki's History of Poland (New York, 1943), pp. 106-116 and W. Pociecha's chapter ‘Zygmunt (Sigismund) 1, 1506-48', in Cambridge History of Poland, I, 300-321. Two political biographies of Sigismund have also been helpful: Zygmunt Wojciechowski, Zygmunt Stary, 1506-1548 (Warsaw, 1946) and Anna Dembinska, Zygmunt I. Zarys dziejów wewnetrzne-politicznych z latach 1540-48 (Poznan, 1948). Economic and social conditions are treated in the chapter ‘Rozkwit gospodarczy mista' by S. Arnold and M. Bogucka in Historia Polski, I, pt. 2, 107-146.

23 Decius, Ksiega, pp. 28-31; Lukasz Górnicki, Dzieje w Koronie Polskiej z przytoczeniem niektorych postronnych rzeczy od roku 1538 az do roku 1572, ed. H. Barycz (Wroclaw, 1950). PP- 279-282; Marcin Bielski, Kronika Martina Bielskiego, 3 vols., (Sanok, 1856), II, 1096.

24 See the laudatory letter of Erasmus to Sigismund dated 15 May 1527 in Opus Epistolarum Des. Erasmi, VII, 59-65.

25 GH elogi vite brevemente scritte d'huomini illustri diguerra, antichi et moderni (Florence, 1554), pp- 398-400.

26 Bielski, Kronika, II, 1032 mentions that Pope Clement vn sent Sigismund a costly sword and cap on the occasion of Grand Master Albrecht's submission to vassalage in Cracow in 1525.

27 Decius, Ksigga, p. 30.

28 T. Lubomirski, Trzy Rozdziały z historyi skarbowoici w Pohce [Three chapters in the history of the treasury in Poland] (Cracow, 1868), p. 29.

29 ‘Bonerowie', Rocznik Krakowskie vu (1903), 83. Brief biographies of Jan and Seweryn Boner appear in Polski Slownik Biograficzny, II, 297-301.

30 Boner patronage is discussed rather thoroughly by Ptaśnik, Bonerowie, pp. 83-122. Additional information on patronage in Sigismund's court is found in Kazimierz Morawski, Czasy Zygmunta na tie prqdow Odrodzenia [The era of Sigismund in the light of Renaissance currents] (Warsaw, 1922).

31 Réau, pp. 9, 19 and Adam Bochnak, ‘Problematyka Krakowskiego Renasansu', [Problems of the Cracow Renaissance] Krakowskie Odrodzenie, pp. 112-114.

32 Kronika, II, 939.

33 Ksiega, p. 130. S. Komornicki has written a special study of Francisco della Lora's construction, ‘Franciszek Florentczyk i palac wawelski', Przegląd Historii Sztuki I (1929), 57-69.

34 See Marian Sokolowski, ‘Die italienischen Ktinstler der Renaissance in Krakau', Reperturiumfur Kunstwissenschaft VIII (1885), 412.

35 Biographical information on Berecci can be found in Thieme-Becker, in, 379-380; Daugnan, 11, 266 and in Pokki Stownik Biograficzny, 1, 467-469.

36 Acta Tomiciana; Epistole. Legationes. Responsa. Actiones. Res geste Sigismundi, 1507- 1548, ed. S. Górski and W. Pociecha, 16 vols. (Poznan, 1852-1951), v, 198.

37 There are entries on Cinni in Thieme-Becker, vi, 608 and in Bénézit, II, 515.

38 These itemizations are included in the collection of source material on the Wawel renovations in Adam Chmiel, Wawel: materyaty archiwalne and in Stanislaw Tomkiewicz, Materyaty do historyi stosunkow kulturalnych w XIW na dworze krolewskim polskim [Materials for cultural history in the xvi c. in the Polish royal court] (Cracow, 1915). Most of Seweryn Boner's registers are included, year by year, in Chmiel's compilation but additional expenditures for 1545 were published in Tomkiewicz’ sources pp. 5-8. Still further accounts from manuscripts not available to either of the above scholars have been published by Olga Laszczynska, ‘O rachunkach budowy zamku krakowskiego z roku 1535', Studia do dziejów Wawelu I (1935), 195-202; Rachunkigeneralne Seweryna Bonera, 1545 (Cracow, 1955). The registries are particularly helpful for art history because they specify the exact dates, names, and service performed for each payment.

39 Acta Tomiciana,v, 198.

40 W. Tomkiewicz, Studia Hungarica, p. 497.

41 ‘Treśći artystyczne i idiowe kaplicy Zygmuntowskiej', [The artistic conception and idea of the Sigismund Chapel] Studia do dziejow Wawelu II (1961), 116-117.

42 Benedict's work is discussed by S. Komornicki in the Cambridge History of Poland, I, 290, and in the entry in Polski Stownik Biograficzny, I, 425. Two studies treat the contributions of other Polish artists to the Wawel renovations: Boleslaw Przybyszewski, ‘Muratorzy i kamieniarzi zajęi przy budowie zamku krolewskiego na Wawelu', Biuletyn Historii Sztukixvn (1955), 149-161 and Tadeusz Dobrowolski,'Zamek na Wawelu— dzielo architektury polskiej', ibid., xv (1953), 3-24.

43 Stanislaw Windakiewicz, Dzieje Wawelu [History of Wawel] (Cracow, 1925), p. 95. A document in Chmiel, Wawel: materyaty archiwalne, II, 773, shows that another fire occurred in 1549 but caused no serious damage.

44 A careful examination of interior work has been done by Tadeusz Mankowski, Dzieje wnetrz wawelskich (Cracow, 1952). Adam Bochnak's ‘Mecenat Zygmunta Starego w zakresie rzemiosla artystycznego', [Sigismund the Elder as a patron of arts and crafts] Studia do dziejow Wawelu, II (1961), 131-301 is indispensable for the study of Wawel and for Sigismund as a patron.

45 This incident is discussed by Bochnak in Mecenat Zygmunta Starego, p. 162. That Sigismund retained such a vivid recollection of the Esztergom grille twenty-two years after his first visit to Hungary illustrates the indelible impression that Italo-Hungarian art made upon him.

46 Anna Misia.g-Bocheńska, ‘O glowach wawelskich i przypuszczalnych ich twórcach', [On the Wawel Heads and their alleged derivation] Studia do dziejdw Wawelu I (1955), 174.

47 Ibid., p. 185. Bocheńska points out, however, that the similarity between the Wawel ceiling and the Neapolitan arch is limited to the artistic conception and does not extend to the execution. The major difference in style, material, and techniques, she argues, precludes any direct influence; there is no evidence that any of the artists who worked on the project saw the Alfonso arch.

48 My main sources for this section are Adam Bochnak, Mecenat Zygmunta Starego; S. Komomicki, Renaissance in Poland: the Fine Arts; and L. Reau, L'art du moyen âge et de la renaissance en Pologne.

49 Biographical information on Padovano can be obtained from Daugnan, II, 282-283; Thieme-Becker, xxv, 174-176; Bénézit, vi, 237.

50 Stefan Świszczowski, ‘Oltarz renasansowy z kaplicy §w. Trójcy na Wawelu', [The Renaissance altar in the Trinity Chapel in Wawel] Studia do dziejow Wawelu, I (1955). 113-137.

51 Pawiński, Mtode lata Zygmunta Starego, pp. 251-257.

52 Information on these and other musicians during Sigismund's reign can be obtained from the following musical dictionaries: Wojciech Sowinski, Shwnik muzyków polskich dawnych i nowoczesnych (Paris, 1874) and Adolf Chybinski, Shwnik muzykow dawnej Polski do roku 1800 (Cracow, 1949). The standard work on Polish music is that of Henryk Opieński and G. Koechert, La tnusique polonaise: essai historique sur la développment de Vart musical en Pologne (Paris, 1918). Special studies on Renaissance music include Aleksandra Szukówna, Muzykowanie w Polsce renesansowej (Poznan, 1959) and Zofia Lissa and Józef Chominski, Muzyka polskiego Odrodzenia (Warsaw, 1954). Italian influence on Polish music has been carefully examined by Zdzislaw Jachimecki, Wptywy wtoskie w muzyce polskiej, 1540-1640 (Cracow, 1961); Daugnan, II, 293-310 treats Italian musicians in Poland.

53 Lissa-Chomiński, Muzyka polskiego Odrodzenia, p. 30. A. Chybiński's Materyaiy do dziejow krol kapeli rorantystów na Wawelu [Materials on the history of the Royal Choir of Rorantists at Wawel] (Cracow, 1910) contains Sigismund's decree establishing the choir, a short dictionary of persons connected with the group and a listing of manuscripts which indicates its repertoire.

54 Opieński-Koechert, La tnusique polonaise, p. 40, and W. Pociecha, Krolówa Bona, II, 38-39,64-67, 84.

55 K. Morawski, Czasy Zygmunta, p. 46.

56 Biblioteka Zygmunta Augusta: studia z dziejów kultury krSlewskiego dworu [The Library of Sigismund August: a study of the culture of the royal court] (Lwow, 1928). Hartleb's inventory of Sigismund I's books adds up to seventy-one titles, some of which were gifts rather than purchases; the list of his son's books extends to thirty-eight pages. H. Barycz, Dzieje nauki w Polsce, pp. 68-76 and K. Żantuan, ‘Erasmus and the Cracow Humanists', pp. 6-9, discuss bibliophilism among Polish clergy and noblemen.

57 Dzieje nauki w Polsce, p. 60.

58 The proposed visit of Erasmus initiated by Bishop Peter Tomicki and the reason for Erasmus’ reluctance to come to Poland is treated by Żantuan, op. cit., pp. 16-25. On Erasmus’ concern about Sigismund's hostility to Luther and other reformers see Opus Epistolarum Des. Erasmi, 1, 32, and v, 469.

59 Sigismund's letter to Erasmus inviting him to Poland is dated 19 February 1528, ibid., VII, 330-332.

60 H. W. Lawton, ‘Vernacular literature in Western Europe', New Cambridge Modern History, I (Cambridge, 1957), 192.

61 W. Pociecha, Krolówa Bona, II, chs. 2 and 3 deal with Bona's patronage in great detail.

62 On Polish Renaissance art outside Cracow see Tadeusz Dobrowolski, Historia Sztuki Polskiej [History of Polish Art] (Cracow, 1965), vol. 2; J. Lepiarczyk, ‘Znaczenie Krakowa dla sztuki renesansu w Polsce', Krakowskie Odrodzenie, pp. 125-129; Witold Maisel, ‘Budowle Jana Baptysty Quadro w swietle Poznahskich materialow archiwalnych', [The constructions of Giovanni Battista Quadro in the light of archival material in Poznan] Biuletyn Historii Sztuki xv (1953), 105-112.

63 Krakowskie Odrodzenie, p. 118.

64 The Italian Renaissance (New York, 1965), p. 157.