Polish Baroque
The Polish Baroque lasted from the early 17th to the mid-18th century. As with Baroque style elsewhere in Europe, Poland's Baroque emphasized the richness and triumphant power of contemporary art forms. In contrast to the previous, Renaissance sty ...
poet.
Daniel Naborowski was born in
Kraków
Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...
. Like many Polish noblemen of the time, he was a Calvinist by faith. His education took place not only in Cracow, but also in
Wittenberg
Wittenberg ( , ; Low Saxon: ''Wittenbarg''; meaning ''White Mountain''; officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg (''Luther City Wittenberg'')), is the fourth largest town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Wittenberg is situated on the River Elbe, north o ...
Padua
Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...
he learned military engineering. Once he returned to the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi- confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Poland and Lithuania ru ...
, he joined the court of magnateJanusz Radziwiłł, where he became his secretary and physician. He was also magnate's diplomatic envoy, and often traveled abroad. After Janusz death, he moved to the court of his relative
Krzysztof Radziwiłł
Prince Krzysztof Radziwiłł (Christopher Radvila, lt, Kristupas Radvila) (22 March 1585, Biržai – 19 November 1640) was a Polish–Lithuanian noble ( szlachcic), and a notable magnate, politician and military commander of his epoch. So ...
.
He died in
Vilna
Vilnius ( , ; see also #Etymology and other names, other names) is the capital and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the munic ...
, where near the end of his life, he was appointed the city's judge.
Although some of his works were published in the 17th century (like ''On the eyes of the English princess who was married to Frederick, the pfaltzgrave of Rhein, elected the king of Bohemia'', published in 1621), the majority of his poems were published only in 1961. Besides poems, Naborowski was a translator, and wrote letters, epitaphs, trifles and laments, mostly praising the country's peaceful life in the spirit of
sarmatism
Sarmatism (or Sarmatianism; pl, Sarmatyzm; lt, Sarmatizmas) was an ethno-cultural ideology within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was the dominant Baroque culture and ideology of the nobility () that existed in times of the Renai ...
. He translated three sonnets by
Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists.
Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited ...
.See: Daniel Naborowski, Poezje wybrane. Wyboru dokonał i opracował Krzysztof Karasek, Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza, Warszawa 1980, p. 127-129. He used in these poems
Polish alexandrine Polish alexandrine ( Polish: ''trzynastozgłoskowiec'') is a common metrical line in Polish poetry. It is similar to the French alexandrine. Each line is composed of thirteen syllables with a caesura after the seventh syllable. The main stresses ar ...
instead of hendecasyllable, starting thus long tradition of writing sonnets in 13(7+5) metre.