Books by Anna Horeczy
The purpose of this study is to present the process of reception of Italian intellectual culture ... more The purpose of this study is to present the process of reception of Italian intellectual culture by the Cracow university circles in the second half of the fourteenth and first half of the fifteenth century based on research methodology for the study of the reception of culture proposed by Peter Burke, Juliusz Domański, and Halina Manikowska, and on the concept of transfer of culture. Chapter one is devoted to the Polish students at Italian universities as agents in the process of cultural reception; it shows different models of study and the preferences in the choice of university, and thus the possibilities of contacts with specific intellectual influences leading to a particular mental formation. Chapter two discusses the reception of Italian rhetoric in the Cracow university community on the example of the collection of Italian rhetorical texts copied in Cracow in the 1440s (MS BJ 126) from a hypothetical manuscript brought from Padua by John of Ludzisko (Jan z Ludziska). Chapter three deals with the reception in Cracow milieu of the works by the Florentine humanist Leonardo Bruni called Aretino (1370–1444), selected as a particular marker to examine the scope of the reach of new humanist rhetoric. First, the reception’s chronology of Leonardo Bruni’s writings is discussed (in the early period measured based on manuscripts, and later on also through the presence of prints and lists of lectures at the Faculty of Arts of Cracow University, recorded in the Liber Diligentiarum kept from 1487 onwards), together with its dynamics, measured by the extent of time between a given work was written by Bruni and it appeared in Cracow. The analysis of Cracow manuscripts included three elements: the context in which Bruni’s works appeared in individual manuscripts (divided into different categories, depending on their nature), filiations between Cracow manuscripts, and a comparison of the popularity of his works in Cracow and Europe. A peculiar indicator of Bruni’s authority and an illustration to the reception phenomenon is the presence in Cracow of works attributed to him, with some of them sharing the same attribution also in other European circles (such as the treatise De nobilitate, written in fact by Buonaccorso da Montemagno), and others, known so far only from the fifteenth-century Cracow manuscript BJ 1954 (two poems in verse composed in style suggesting that Bruni, contrary to the title, could not have been their author). The discontinuity of the reception in Cracow is illustrated by the case of the comedy Poliscena, in the BJ 1954 manuscript attributed to Leonardo della Serrata, while in the Cracow edition by John Haller (Jan Haller) – to Leonardo Bruni. On the example of the reception in Cracow of the Italian rhetoric collection from John of Ludzisko’s hypothetical manuscript and Bruni’s writings, it has been possible to demonstrate the inadequacy of simple models of adopting humanism. The popularity of some works in European manuscripts did not correspond simply with their popularity in the Cracow community. The first condition for the further reception of texts was their accessibility in foreign centres visited by Poles. In the analysed period, such role of the first ‘filter’ determining the reception of particular Italian works was played by the most frequented by Poles universities in Padua and partly also in Bologna, as well as by the Councils of Constance and Basel. Various factors were determining the import of specific rhetoric texts, the most important being the fact that those works were part of more extensive collections (for example, letters’ forms or a collection of humanist educational treatises). An important role was also played by the intellectual formation of agents in the process of reception (with a particular literary sensibility and background), as well as the motivations driving those agents when they decided to include certain texts in their libraries or use specific models in their own works.
Papers by Anna Horeczy
Acta Poloniae Historica, 2019
The following summary, showing the academic activity and interests of Professor Halina Manikowska... more The following summary, showing the academic activity and interests of Professor Halina Manikowska, has been compiled as part of preparation of the Acta Poloniae Historica volume dedicated to her. An earlier list of publications from the period 1973–2012, prepared by Marek Słoń,1 has been used. Popular-science publications have been neglected, along with literary criticism papers and recorded contributions to plenary discussions. Articles have been included based on the form in which they were published (which is particularly true for memories or obituaries), the decisive criterion being whether the text was fi rst published in a scientifi c periodical or a collection of scholarly texts. The bibliography is chronological. For each of the years specifi ed, monographs are listed in the fi rst place, followed by scientifi c articles, reviews and polemical essays, source text editions, publications edited by Halina Manikowska, memories, and translations of scholarly articles or monograph...
Rocznik Filozoficzny Ignatianum 31.2, 2025
This article examines the academic career and social networks of Pietro Wysz of Radolina (ca. 135... more This article examines the academic career and social networks of Pietro Wysz of Radolina (ca. 1354–1414), Bishop of Kraków, during his law studies at the University of Padua. Using social network analysis applied to medieval sources, it reconstructs his relationships with professors, local elites, and fellow students from across Central Europe, showing how these ties shaped both his university achievements and later political and ecclesiastical career.
Polish Libraries, 11, pp. 153-188, 2023
The analysis of the library of Piotr Wolfram, a bachelor of laws educated in Prague, Padua, and B... more The analysis of the library of Piotr Wolfram, a bachelor of laws educated in Prague, Padua, and Bologna, professor of the Kraków Academy, participant of the Council of Constance, and the collector of Peter’s Pence in Poland, reveals the tools which he used in building his career, surprisingly brilliant for a son of a burgher. The degree to which his library was typical for the period – library understood not only as a collection of codices but also a collection of texts – has been evaluated through the analysis of the popularity of individual works among the Kraków bar. The very presence of works by Italian lawyers in the collection does not unambiguously point to Italian intellectual education, as some Italian commentaries were included in the canon of literature taught at European universities. It has been determined that a clear indication of Wolfram’s Italian formation is provided by such texts as Apostillae to Francesco Zabarella’s commentary on the Liber Sextus or rhetorical texts by Italian authors – Bolognese university speeches or a letter by Petrarch yet unidentified in the catalogue of manuscripts of the Jagiellonian Library. In comparison to the library of Mikołaj Kicki, a lawyer with similar educational background (law studies in Bologna and Padua), Piotr Wolfram’s collection is rather limited, as it lacks some significant collections of canon law or most of the 13th-century commentaries on the Decretales. It mostly comprises legal dictionaries, concordances, repertories, and indices. The library is tailored to a practitioner rather than a creative commentator of law, but the presence of rhetorical Italian texts makes it stand out from other contemporary libraries of Polish lawyers.
Gaudeamus igitur in Bononia dum sumus
Routledge eBooks, Dec 12, 2022
Gaudeamus igitur in Bononia dum sumus. A network of Polish students in Italy in the late Middle Ages
Networking in Late Medieval Central Europe. Friends, Families, Foes, ed. by Beata Możejko, Anna Orłowska, Leslie Carr-Riegel, Routledge, London, 2023
In spite of the essentially similar curriculum in European universities, during the Late Medieval... more In spite of the essentially similar curriculum in European universities, during the Late Medieval period, numerous Polish students chose to travel to Italy to study. They took up law in Bologna or Padua instead of Prague or Kraków (since 1400), which was not only a question of prestige, but also provided the possibility of establishing contacts in order to enhance their career. This student network was shaped by other extracurricular factors such as noble origin, assets and ecclesiastical dignities. Inequalities, official and informal contacts, and mechanisms of getting involved in the network and continuing networking all played a role. Former companions from university and professors could help obtain positions and in dealings with the Papal Curia. Italian university contacts were used when legal expertise in the conflict between Poland and the Teutonic Order was needed. The research is based on primary sources such as university records from Italy, Prague, Kraków and the Papal Curia (the Bullarium Poloniae). “Polish students” originating from the Polish Kingdom and Masovia appear in the sources as “de Polonia”, and they belonged to the Polish nation at the Italian universities – Padua, Bologna, Rome and less frequently Ferrara, Siena and Perugia. This chapter covers the period between the late 70s of the fourteenth century and the 70s of the fifteenth century.
![Research paper thumbnail of Początki humanizmu w Polsce - problemy z cezurą [The Beginnings of Humanism in Poland − the Issue of Defining the Watershed Moment]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/67783380/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Prace Filologiczne. Literaturoznawstwo , 2021
It is estimated that humanism first emerged in Poland in the first decades of the 15th century or... more It is estimated that humanism first emerged in Poland in the first decades of the 15th century or at the beginning of the 16th century at the latest. The estimation depends on the definition of the phenomenon, the source material, and the methodology applied. The present article
focuses on the issues that arise when attempting to define the exact moment humanism started to develop as an intellectual and cultural movement and also the issue of deciding on its early ‘markers’. What is more, it draws attention to non-literary sources that might facilitate the
establishing of the watershed moment, yet at the same time pose some difficulties that might arise with their application. According to the thesis presented in the article, the first traces of humanist inclinations among Poles do not fully correspond with the emergence of humanism as a broader phenomenon. On the other hand, it is postulated that the point of inception of Polish humanism does not necessarily need to be synonymous with the movement’s dominance in all spheres of intellectual culture. It is concluded that it is difficult to establish the exact date of the emergence of humanism in Poland. The definition of such a watershed moment should rather be defined in terms of generational change and as such can be placed in a wide time bracket
between the 1430s and the 1460s.
Quaderni per la storia dell’Università di Padova, 2017
The paper examines an anthology including mainly speeches coming from the Paduan milieu of the ea... more The paper examines an anthology including mainly speeches coming from the Paduan milieu of the early decades of 15th century. It is contained in the manuscript 126 of the Cracow Jagellonian Library, which is considered to be the copy of a presumed manuscript brought to Cracow by Johannes from Ludzisko, a Polish student living in Padua during 1430-1433. As for some of such speeches – especially those known only from manuscripts coming from Cracow – no description in the catalogues has been made yet, the paper tries to identify the authors and the people mentioned in them, as well as the date and the circumstances in which they were held. Lastly, it outlines the fortune of such texts in other manuscripts connected to the 15th-century Cracowian milieu.
"Studia Źródłoznawcze", 2020
The article is devoted to the role of quotations as a tool to measure the impact of humanism on t... more The article is devoted to the role of quotations as a tool to measure the impact of humanism on the example of letters of Piotr Wolfram – a Polish lawyer educated in Italy, participant of the Council of Constance, and ambitious official of the curia. Wolfram’s borrowings from Petrarch, Cicero, Quintilian, and Ovid have been analysed and it has been indicated for the last three that they did not have to be borrowed directly from their
authors’ writings but could have been taken from medieval anthologies
Biuletyn Biblioteki Jagiellońskiej, v. 52, Special Issue, pp. 13-64, 2020
The present article contains an analysis of the rhetorical texts which are to be found in a fifte... more The present article contains an analysis of the rhetorical texts which are to be found in a fifteenth-century manuscript held by the Jagiellonian Library (shelfmark 126). This collection was probably copied from a codex brought to Cracow from Italy by John (Jan) of Ludzisko, who studied medicine in Padua from 1430 to 1433. It consists of humanistic and medieval texts (mainly speeches and letters) and clearly served as a model for speeches which were written both by John himself and by his student Piotr Gaszowiec. An analysis of the full texts (and not only of the incipits) allows us to identify the hitherto unknown authors and/or the time and place of origin of some of these works. This in turn shows that the texts in the collection are divided into certain sections, some consisting of works by the same author (e.g. the speeches of Cristoforo Barzizza or the panegyrics of Bernardo Messalta) and some of speeches meant to be delivered on particular occasions (e.g. praising the sciences or mourning someone’s death). Apart from very popular fifteenth-century texts such as Andrea Giuliano’s speech for the funeral of Manuel Chrysoloras, the collection also includes Italian rhetorical texts which had hitherto been known only from Cracow manuscripts. An analysis of the manner in which the works are arranged within the volume in question allows us to distinguish certain ‘packages’ of texts that are also present in other European manuscripts.
L'Umanesimo di Sicco Polenton. Padova, la "Catinia", i santi, gli antichi a cura di G. Baldissin Molli, F. Benucci, R. Modonutti, Padova, CSA, 2020, pp. 255-268, 2020
The reception of Sicco Polenton’s work in Poland began with Jan of Ludzisko, who studied medicine... more The reception of Sicco Polenton’s work in Poland began with Jan of Ludzisko, who studied medicine in Padua in 1430–1433. He brought to Krakow a collection of rhetorical texts, among which was a letter by Sicco Polenton to Giacomino Badoer, and two epigrams by Antonio Baratella praising Sicco Polenton (excerpts from the Laureia). These hitherto unpublished texts connected to Sicco Polenton are found in three surviving fifteenth-century Krakow manuscripts (in addition to these three, one should also consider three putative, i.e. no longer extant, codices). Sicco Polenton’s letter to Giacomino Badoer was written soon after the election of Pope Eugene IV and yields more detail about Giacomino’s life, specifically about his attempts to pursue a career in the Church. The letter also provides insights into Sicco’s work on his opus magnum entitled Scriptorum illustrium Latinae linguae libri. The epigrams, encomiastic in character and typical of Baratella’s poetry, may have strengthened Sicco’s image as an exquisite rhetorician in the intellectual circles of Krakow.
The present article contains an analysis of the rhetorical texts which are to be found in a fifte... more The present article contains an analysis of the rhetorical texts which are to be found in a fifteenth-century manuscript held by the Jagiellonian Library (shelfmark 126). This collection was probably copied from a codex brought to Cracow from Italy by Jan of Ludzisko, who studied medicine in Padua from 1430 to 1433. It consists of humanist and mediaeval texts (mainly speeches and letters) and clearly served as a model for the speeches which were written both by Jan himself and by his pupil Piotr Gaszowiec. An analysis of the full texts (and not only of the incipits) allows us to identify the hitherto unknown authors and/or the time and place of origin of some of these works. This in turn shows that the texts in the collection are divided into certain sections, some consisting of works by the same author (e.g. the speeches of Cristoforo Barzizza or the panegyrics of Bernardo Messalto) and some of speeches meant to be delivered on particular occasions (e.g. praising the sciences or mourning someone’s death). Apart from very popular fifteenth-century texts such as Andrea Giuliano’s speech for the funeral of Emanuel Chrysoloras, the collection also includes Italian rhetorical texts which had hitherto been known only from the Cracow manuscripts. An analysis of the manner in which the works are arranged within the volume in question allows us to distinguish certain “packages” of texts that are also present in other European manuscripts. Most of the texts which are included in this collection came into existence in circles having connections with Padua and Venice, but some of them were written during the Council of Constance by the outstanding Florentine humanists Poggio Bracciolini and Leonardo Bruni. For this reason, Ms 126 makes it possible to carry out research on the reception of Italian intellectual culture as well as on the very process of the transmission of Italian patterns of writing to Cracow circles. It also proves that the circles of Padua and Venice served as important intermediaries or ‘filters’ in the process of the transmission of Italian patterns to Cracow.
The article describes a group of 29 Poles who received a licentiate or doctorate in law in the fi... more The article describes a group of 29 Poles who received a licentiate or doctorate in law in the fifteenth century (their origins, age at the time of graduation in Bologna, studies at other universities, careers). The purpose is to show different ways of receiving a degree at Bologna (as a result of full studies or just coming over to get the degree) and to name those graduates in whose cases one can speak of the Bolognan legal formation.
The Venetian Marian holiday (Festa delle Marie), which owes its intriguing name to the... more The Venetian Marian holiday (Festa delle Marie), which owes its intriguing name to the presence of figurines known as Marys, welcomed in 12 homes of the local nobili-ty and featured in boats during ceremonious processions across Venice, is an interesting and relatively little-examined example of so called urban religion. Neither the origin of the holiday's festivity nor that of the Marian figurines is known, although the latter are connected with a modern legend about brides captured by pirates from Triest. Up to the war with Genoa (1379) the event was granted a rich ceremonial setting, composed of Masses, liturgical dramas, processions, regattas, re-ceptions and visits in the private residences hosting the figurines. The celebrations, coinciding with the Purification of the Holy Virgin Mary (2 February), lasted from three to eight days, depending on the epoch. Their urban-political message was linked with the fact that the festivities included the Translation of the relics of St. Mark. The author discussed the topography of the event, which symbolically encompassed the whole town. The processions connected assorted aspects of municipal life: political — in San Marco, religious — in Castello, and local — symbolised by the church of Santa Maria Formosa. The entire municipal community took part in the celebrations, but a special part was performed by the contrade — the smallest units of the organisation of town life. The structure of the Marian holiday involved all the distinguishable elements of a patron holiday. The resignation from such lavish celebrations could be the result of, i.a. high costs, the change of the character of the event from religious-urban to ludic, and the fact that the ceremonies stressed a municipal organisation based on the contrade, which no longer corresponded to the new socio-political reality of fourteenth-century Venice.
Book Reviews by Anna Horeczy
Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken, Bd. 104, pp. 732-3, 2024
Roczniki Historyczne, 2024
Kwartalnik Historyczny, CXXX/3, pp. 644-651, 2023
W badaniach nad dziejami uniwersytetów można obserwować ostatnio odchodzenie od tradycyjnych kwes... more W badaniach nad dziejami uniwersytetów można obserwować ostatnio odchodzenie od tradycyjnych kwestionariuszy, obejmujących historię instytucji czy badania prozopografi czne, na rzecz ujęć mieszczących się na styku historii edukacji, nauki, kultury i komunikacji społecznej 1. W ten nurt wpisuje się prezentowana monografi a zbiorowa, stanowiąca owoc projektu badawczego fi nansowanego z grantu British Academy / Leverhulme Small Grant, rozpoczętego w 2015 r. Redaktorzy postawili sobie za cel poszerzenie defi nicji nowożytnej republiki uczonych (Republic of Letters) 2 poprzez uwzględnienie uniwersytetów, a także zbadanie, w jaki sposób instytucje wyższego nauczania pozwalały na rozwój różnego rodzaju sieci społecznych. Tom składa się z 20 studiów przypadku, podzielonych na cztery części. Pierwsza z nich ("The Political Entanglement of Institutions", rozdziały 1-5) skupia się na relacjach między instytucjami wyższego nauczania a polityką i religią. Druga ("Locality and Mobility. Institutions, the Migration of Scholars, and Scholarships", rozdziały 6-11) porusza zagadnienie mobilności uczonych
Studia Źródłoznawcze. Commentationes, pp. 203-206, 2023
Acta Poloniae Historica, 2021
Kwartalnik Historyczny, 2014
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Books by Anna Horeczy
Papers by Anna Horeczy
focuses on the issues that arise when attempting to define the exact moment humanism started to develop as an intellectual and cultural movement and also the issue of deciding on its early ‘markers’. What is more, it draws attention to non-literary sources that might facilitate the
establishing of the watershed moment, yet at the same time pose some difficulties that might arise with their application. According to the thesis presented in the article, the first traces of humanist inclinations among Poles do not fully correspond with the emergence of humanism as a broader phenomenon. On the other hand, it is postulated that the point of inception of Polish humanism does not necessarily need to be synonymous with the movement’s dominance in all spheres of intellectual culture. It is concluded that it is difficult to establish the exact date of the emergence of humanism in Poland. The definition of such a watershed moment should rather be defined in terms of generational change and as such can be placed in a wide time bracket
between the 1430s and the 1460s.
authors’ writings but could have been taken from medieval anthologies
Book Reviews by Anna Horeczy