„Gotowa materyja [...] lepszym i polorowańszym dowścipom”. Najważniejsze źródło „Jezdy do Moskwy” Jana Kochanowskiego
“Gotowa materyja [...] lepszym i polorowańszym dowścipom [A Ready Material [...] for Better and More Polished Wits]”. The Most Important Source for Jan Kochanowski’s “Jezda do Moskwy” (“Incursion into Muscovy”)

Summary/Abstract: As early as in the 19th c. attention was paid to the fact that the detailed portrayal of a sabotage expedition into the Grand Principality of Moscow led by Krzysztof Radziwiłł “Piorun” (“Lightning”) given by Jan Kochanowski in his “Jezda do Moskwy” (“Incursion into Muscovy,” 1583), both in the operation’s fact and data and the exhaustive description of troops’ itinerary, must have been based on a diary of the expedition’s member. Radosław Grześkowiak proves that the source text was Andrzej Rymsza’s manuscript “Deketeros akroama, to jest Dziesięćroczna powieść wojennych spraw […] Krysztofa Radziwiłła […]” (“Deketeros acroama, that Is a Ten-Year Story about […] Krzysztof Radziwiłł’s War Issues […]”). Though the printed piece appeared only in 1585, its recording completed on April 10th, 1583. Krzysztof Radziwiłł, who ordered “Incursion” from Kochanowski, must have had this book at his disposal and it was him who provided the volume to the Polish poet. The dependency allows to specify the time of producing the poem: referring to the title page, it was composed in 1583; the latest information is more specific: between end-of-April and November 1583 to give the typographer, Jan Januszowski, time to publish the print in Cracow before the end of that year.

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