STAROWOLSKI, Szymon.

by Szymon Starowolski

£4,250 · Offered by Sokol Books

A very good copy of the first edition of Starowolski s most acclaimed Sarmatian Warriors , containing 130 biographies of Polish knights, rulers and magnates. Szymon Starowolski (1588 1656; Simon Starovolscius) was a scholar, historian and priest in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. After completing his studies at the Krak‚àö‚â•w Academy, he became secretary to the famous military commander Hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, and later worked as a preceptor to many young nobles. He travelled to Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy and France. Exceptionally prolific, he wrote about 70 works in Latin and Polish on many different subjects, including law, politics, theology, the military arts, philosophy, customs, literature and history. Sarmatiae Bellatores is one of Starowolski s most famous works, comprising biographical accounts of Polish warriors from the Mieszko I (c. 922/45-992) to Stefan Chmielecki (1580-1630). Intended for a foreign public, its purpose was to counter international views that questioned the military prowess of the Poles. The mythical common descent of all nations of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the ancient Sarmatian warrior-heroes, who successfully resisted Roman attempts to conquer them, was fashioned into a statement of the Commonwealth s constitutional and political superiority over West European societies oppressed by absolute royal power. Szymon Starowolski founded his reputation as a patriotic historian early on by collecting a pantheon of S

• Binding: Hardcover

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