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Jan Kochanowski
was the greatest pre-Romantic writer in all Slavdom.
He was considered the father of Polish poetry.
Born
to an aristocratic family, Kochanowski studied at
the Jagiellonian
University in Krakow
and later at Padua in Italy. On his return to Poland
in 1557, he served as royal secretary in Krakow. He
married in 1575 and retired to his family estate,
Czarnolas. A humanist educated in Italy and
Poland. From 1564 till 1570, the king's secretary.
He was a vital, many-sided and prolific writer: his
surviving lyrical poems and satires include 16,700
verses in Polish and 7000 in Latin. Among his works
are his Laments, translations of the Psalms into Polish
and The Dismissal of the Greek Envoys, the first Polish
drama.
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