Mikołaj Hussowczyk


Mikołaj Hussowczyk ; was an early Renaissance poet and humanist of Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and cultural and social activist. His most notable work is a poem Carmen de statura...bisontis.

Biography

Little is known of his life, except during the 1520s. His place of birth is alternatively stated as Husów/Hussowo near Łańcut or in an unspecified Belarusian village with similar-sounding name
.
He was a catholic priest and apostolic notary for Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Hussowczyk was a citizen of the multinational Grand Duchy of Lithuania. As a side-effect of this, along with his uncertain birthplace, modern Polish, Lithuanian and Belarusian researchers tend to ascribe works of Husowski to their respective cultural heritages.
Hussowczyk became a courtier of Erazm Ciołek, the Bishop of Płock. In 1521 he accompanied the bishop on his year-long journey to Rome and he returned to Poland after Ciołek's death, settling in Kraków, where he probably had his ordination.

Works

Per the scope of his literary works, Hussowczyk is considered to be the founder of the Belarusian Renaissance literary tradition, and author of the oldest examples of Polish-Latin poetry of the early Renaissance. Hussowczyk wrote in publicistical, epic, heroic, lyrical, historical and satirical genres.
His Latin poem Carmen de statura, feritate ac venatione bisontis is considered to be the first large scale fictional work about Medieval Lithuania, describing the bison's life and habits, Lithuania's landscape and the relationship of its inhabitants with the environment. Written in Latin for Pope Leo X, an avid hunter, the poem stems from Hussowczyk's experience in hunting and observing bison, and contains no literary comparisons with ancient legendary creatures. Due to the deaths of both the Pope and Hussowczyk's patron, bishop Ciołek, the poem was eventually presented to Polish Queen Bona in Kraków. According to Polish researcher Edmund Kotarski, Hussowczyk belonged to the circle of Polish-Latin poets of the early Renaissance.
His best known works are: