On the Diploma of Nobility of Jan Januszowski and a Portrait of a Renaissance Printer
On the Diploma of Nobility of Jan Januszowski and a Portrait of a Renaissance Printer

Summary/Abstract: Jan Januszowski, best known as Jan Kochanowski’ friend, was the most distinguished printer of the Polish Renaissance. Januszowski, a lawyer educated in Cracow and Padua, was an extremely versatile man: an outstanding printer, but also a prolific writer and translator. For all his achievements he was ennobled by Sigismund III Vasa, and - happily - the ennoblement act of Jan Januszowski, penned on parchment and splendidly illuminated, survived to the present day. The illumination of the document is rich and sumptuous. It shows the coats-of-arms representing the provinces of the Polish Kingdom and Grand Duchy of Lithuania and small portraits: three of them depict Polish kings, the fourth is of Januszowski himself - it is one of very few known portraits of Polish Renaissance intellectuals and the oldest portrait of a Polish printer. The document’s decoration is not only beautiful, but also meaningful, as its content and composition reflects the nature of the state - the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - and suggests Januszowski’s important place in its structure and strong links between the printer and most important dignitaries of the country.

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