Jan Rzeszowski (d. 1488) was a Polish

nobleman Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. T ...

, soldier, and

clergyman Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

. He was

Bishop of Kraków A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of dioceses. The role ...

(1471–1488).

Life

Jan Rzeszowski was born into a family that claimed the Półkozic coat of arms. In his youth, he took part in the Battle at Varna and managed to survive despite catastrophic losses experienced by the Poles and Hungarians. The king himself, Władysław III, and several of the king's personal soldiers were killed. During his career as Bishop of Kraków, Rzeszowski pioneered the use of the

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a printing, print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in whi ...

for the production and distribution of sacral literature. He commissioned Peter Schöffer's presses for this purpose. Other religious leaders in Poland eventually followed Rzeszowski's example. Rzeszowski provided funding for the ''Collegium Iuridicum'' of the

Kraków Academy The Jagiellonian University (, UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by Casimir III the Great, King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and one of the List of oldest universities in con ...

. According to Ludwik Łętowski, a later writerMichalski, M. (2023). Biskup Ludwik Łętowski (1786–1868) i jego bibliofilskie pasje. ''Saeculum Christianum'', 1(30). referencing Długosz, Rzeszowski was disliked by the clergy.Łętowski, L. (1852). ''Katalog biskupów, prałatów i kanoników krakowskich: Biskupi krakowscy''. Vol. 2. Poland: Uniw. Jagielloński. p. 35. – via

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rzeszowski, Jan Year of birth missing 1488 deaths 15th-century Polish clergy 15th-century Polish nobility Bishops of Kraków 15th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Poland Place of birth missing