Szesnastowieczna wersja średniowiecznej „Rozmowy Mistrza Polikarpa ze Śmiercią”
A Sixteen Century Version of the Medieval “Rozmowa Mistrza Polikarpa ze Śmiercią” (“Master Polikarp’s Dialogue with Death”)

Summary/Abstract: In the year 2018 the Internet revealed sensational news that Wiesław Wydra discovered an unknown earlier 1542 print containing the full text of the 15th c. “Rozmowa Mistrza Polikarpa ze Śmiercią” (“Master Polikarp’s Dialogue with Death”). In the same year the researcher published this print under the title “Śmierci z Mistrzem dwojakie gadania [...]” (“Death's Two Dialogues with Master [...]”) and it proved to be only an adaptation of the original Master’s Conversation or some other lost version of the piece. The present article is an attempt to settle the direction the changes followed, what was added and omitted, how the versification shaped and, first and foremost, whether the piece gained anything as an effect of the adaptation, and who could have been its author. General conclusions point out that although “Death's Two Dialogues with Master [...]” is characterised by fair richness of details, the 15th c. original proves more concise, voluble, and lucid

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