Joannis Vislicensis


Joannis Vislicensis was a medieval author of epic poetry in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Kingdom of Poland, a representative of the Polish-Latin branch of poetry.

Biography

There is virtually no biographical information about Joannis beyond his poetic works and related correspondence with his teacher, Pavel the Ruthenian, and most of biographical details are uncertain or deduced indirectly.
From his letter to Pavel the Ruthenian one may deduce he was a Pole
From his agnomen it is deduced he was born in a Wislica. Polish historians consider Wislica in Poland to be his birthplace. Belarusian historians claim Joannis Vislicensis was born in the Belarusian territory, between Kletsk and Pinsk by the river.
Joannis Vislicensis studied at the University of Krakow, His teacher of literature was alias Rusin. Some historians claim he received a bachelor's degree in 1505 or 1506 and a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1510. In 1510–1512, Joannis Vislicensis taught Aristotle's philosophy, Euclid's mathematics and Cicero's rhetoric classes to students.
Some historians doubt his scholarly credentials and claim that the scholarly degrees and extraneus non de facultate teachership belong to another Jan from Wislica, the name indeed appearing in Liber Promotionum. Kruczkiewich argues that otherwise Joannis would have added his academic title to his name with the poem, the way his teacher Pavel habitualy did, since this would have been important for the promotion of the first book by a new poet. Kruczkiewich, comparing the dates, also raises doubts that a successful master would drop his occupation and start anew studies in literature with Pavel the Ruthenian.
He began writing epigrams to his friends, he also wrote an ode to Konstanty Ostrogski who was a commander in the well-known Battle of Orsha in 1514. Joannis Vislicensis' best-known work is his poem . He also wrote Ode to the King Sigismund, Elegy to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Epigram on the Envious.

''The Prussian War''

The poem consists of 1,300 verses in hexameter divided into three parts, or three books, according to the terminology of that time:
The only original copy of The Prussian War is kept in the Jagiellon Library in Krakow. In 1887 the original copy in Latin language was re-printed with Bronisław Kruczkiewicz's comments, also in Latin. In 1874 Władysław Syrokomla translated a part of the poem into Polish. In 1880 Karol Mecherzyński wrote a work on Joannis Vislicensis in which he quoted some verses from The Prussian War. A full translation of the poem appeared in Polish language in 1932 in Lwow. In 2006, the poem was translated into Belarusian by Zhanna Nekrashevich-Karotka. The texts in the book are printed both in Latin and Belarusian.