Jan Kochanowski

Jan Kochanowski was born in Sycyna, Poland. His mother, Anna Bialaczowska, took care about his education in his childhood. He was fourteen years old and fluent in Latin when his parents sent him to Cracow to study at Jagiellonian University. After graduation in 1547 he continued studies at universities in Wroclaw, Wittenberga and Lipsk. Then he stayed in Krolewiec in Ducal Prussia and Padwa, Italy. In Padwa Jan Kochanowski studied philosophy under the guidance of Robertello. A fifteen year period of wide studies and traveling was closed by his last trip to France. In 1559 he returned to Poland for good as a humanist and Renaissance poet. The next fifteen years he spent living close to the royal court of King Sigismund II of Poland writing poems and a first small novel. In 1575 Jan Kochanowski married Dorota Podlowska. The poet wrote in Polish about humanity and his relationship to other people and God. He died in Lublin in August 1584 probably because of a heart attack.

See also: The Dawid's Psalter