Editing Ignacy Krasicki

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2018}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| type = Archbishop
| name = Ignacy Krasicki
| honorific-prefix = His Excellency
| image = Ignacy Krasicki 111.PNG
| title = [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Gniezno|Archbishop of Gniezno]]<br>[[Primate (bishop)|Primate of Poland]]
| archdiocese = [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Gniezno|Gniezno]]
| predecessor = [[Michał Jerzy Poniatowski]]
| successor = [[:pl:Ignacy Raczyński|Ignacy Raczyński]]
| term = 1796–1801
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1735|2|3}}
| birth_place = [[Dubiecko]], [[Sanok Land]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1801|3|14|1735|2|3}},
| death_place = [[Berlin]]
| occupation = Writer, [[Primate of Poland]]
| nationality = [[Polish people|Polish]]
| coat_of_arms = POL COA Rogala.svg
| spouse = 
| parents = 
| children = 
| religion = [[Roman Catholicism]]
}}{{Short description|Poland's leading Enlightenment poet (1735–1801)}}
[[File:Listy Ignacego Krasickiego. 1757-1799 (135650177) (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|Letter by Ignacy Krasicki]]
'''Ignacy Błażej Franciszek Krasicki''' (3 February 1735{{spaced ndash}}14 March 1801), from 1766 [[Prince-Bishop]] of [[Warmia]] (in German, ''Ermland'') and from 1795 [[Archbishop of Gniezno]] (thus, [[Primate of Poland]]), was Poland's leading [[Polish Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] poet<ref name="Krasicki">"Ignacy Krasicki", ''[[Encyklopedia Polski]]'' (Encyclopedia of Poland), p. 325.</ref> ("the Prince of Poets"), a critic of the clergy,<ref name="Krasicki" /> [[Fables and Parables|Poland's La Fontaine]], author of the [[Adventures of Mr. Nicholas Wisdom|first Polish novel]], playwright, journalist, [[encyclopedist]], and [[Translation#History of theory|translator]] from French and [[Greek language|Greek]].

His most notable literary works were his ''[[Fables and Parables]]'' (1779), ''Satires'' (1779), and poetic letters and religious lyrics, in which the artistry of his poetic language reached its summit.<ref name="Krasicki"/>

==Life==
Ignacy Krasicki was born in [[Dubiecko]], on southern Poland's [[San River]], into the noble [[Krasicki]] family, which bore the title of [[Count of the Holy Roman Empire|Imperial Count]]. His parents were Count Jan Boży Krasicki (1704–1751) and the Count's wife,  Anna Starzechowska (1706–1766) of the [[Nieczuja coat of arms]]. Ignacy was related by blood to the most illustrious families in the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]], including the [[Sapieha]], [[Potocki]], and [[Rzewuski family|Rzewuski]] families, and spent his childhood surrounded with the love and solicitude of his own family.

He attended a Jesuit school in [[Lviv|Lwów]], then studied at a [[Warsaw]] [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholic]] [[seminary]] (1751–54). In 1759 he took [[holy orders]] and continued his education in Rome (1759–61). Two of his brothers also entered the priesthood.

Returning to Poland, Krasicki became secretary to the [[Primate of Poland]] and developed a friendship with future King [[Stanisław August Poniatowski]]. When Poniatowski was elected king (1764), Krasicki became his chaplain. He participated in the King's famous "[[Thursday dinners]]" and co-founded the ''[[Monitor (Polish newspaper)|Monitor]]'', the preeminent Polish Enlightenment periodical, sponsored by the King.

[[Image:Zamek w Lidzbarku Warmińskim.jpg|thumb|left|[[Castle]] of the [[bishop of Warmia|bishops of Warmia]] at [[Lidzbark Warmiński]]]]
In 1766 Krasicki, after having served that year as [[Coadjutor bishop|coadjutor]] to [[Bishop of Warmia|Prince-Bishop of Warmia]] [[Adam Stanisław Grabowski]], was himself elevated to Prince-Bishop of Warmia and ''ex officio'' membership in the Senate of the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|Commonwealth]]. This office gave him a high standing in the social hierarchy and a sense of independence. It did not, however, prove a quiet haven. The Warmia [[cathedral chapter]] welcomed its superior coolly, fearing changes. At the same time, there were growing provocations and pressures from [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]], preparatory to seizure of [[Warmia]] in the [[Partitions of Poland|First Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]]. Krasicki protested publicly against external intervention.

In 1772, as a result of the [[partitions of Poland|First Partition]], instigated by Prussia's King [[Frederick II of Prussia|Frederick II]] ("the Great"), Krasicki became a Prussian subject. He did not, however, pay homage to Warmia's new master.

He now made frequent visits to Berlin, [[Potsdam]] and [[Sanssouci]] at the bidding of Frederick, with whom he cultivated an acquaintance. This created a difficult situation for the poet-bishop who, while a friend of the Polish king, maintained close relations with the Prussian king. These realities could not but influence the nature and direction of Krasicki's subsequent literary productions, perhaps nowhere more so than in the ''[[Fables and Parables]]'' (1779).
[[Image:Smolajny-palac-2007.jpg|thumb|upright|Summer palace of the [[bishop of Warmia|bishops of Warmia]] at [[Smolajny]]]]
Soon after the First Partition, Krasicki officiated at the 1773 opening of Berlin's [[St. Hedwig's Cathedral]], which [[Frederick II of Prussia|Frederick]] had built for Catholic immigrants to [[Margraviate of Brandenburg|Brandenburg]] and Berlin. In 1786 Krasicki was called to the [[Prussian Academy of Sciences]]. His residences in the castle of the [[Bishop of Warmia|bishops of Warmia]] at [[Lidzbark Warmiński]] (in German, ''Heilsberg'') and in the summer palace of the bishops of Warmia at [[Smolajny]] became centers of artistic patronage for all sectors of [[Partitions of Poland|partitioned Poland]].<ref name="Krasicki"/>

After [[Frederick the Great]]'s death, Krasicki continued relations with Frederick's successor.

In 1795, six years before his death, Krasicki was elevated to [[Archbishop]] of [[Gniezno]] (thus, to [[Primate of Poland]]).

Krasicki was honored by Poland's King [[Stanisław August Poniatowski]] with the [[Order of the White Eagle (Poland)|Order of the White Eagle]] and the [[Order of Saint Stanislaus|Order of Saint Stanisław]], as well as with a special 1780 medal featuring the [[Latin]] device, "''Dignum laude virum Musa vetat mori''" ("The Muse will not let perish a man deserving of glory");<ref>The device is taken from [[Horace]], ''Carmina'', 4, 8, 29. Zbigniew Landowski, Krystyna Woś, ''Słownik cytatów łacińskich: wyrażenia, sentencje, przysłowia'' (A Dictionary of Latin Citations: Expressions, Maxims, Proverbs), p. 141.</ref> and by Prussia's King [[Frederick the Great]], with the [[Order of the Red Eagle]].

Upon his death in [[Berlin]] in 1801, Krasicki was laid to rest at St. Hedwig's Cathedral, which he had consecrated. In 1829 his remains were transferred to Poland's [[Gniezno Cathedral]].

[[Czesław Miłosz]] describes Krasicki:

{{blockquote|He was a man of the golden mean, a smiling, skeptical sage [who] prais[ed] moderation and despis[ed] extremes.  His was a mentality which returned to [[Horace|Horatian]] ideals of the [[Renaissance]], to a life of contemplative retirement.  This did not interfere with his talents as a courtier:  he was a favorite of [Poland's King] Stanisław August [Poniatowski], and after the [[First Partition of Poland|[F]irst [P]artition [of Poland, in 1772]]], when his bishopric of Warmia became the property of Prussia, he was a favorite of King [[Frederick the Great]].  [H]e was a cosmopolit[e] and owed his imposing literary knowledge to his readings in foreign languages, yet... he was indebted to the mentality of the Polish "Golden Age," and in this respect his admiration for [[Erasmus of Rotterdam]] is significant.  As a poet, he was [chiefly responsible] for that distillation of the [Polish] language which for a while toned down the chaotic richness of the [[Baroque]].  In a way, he returned to the clear and simple language of [[Jan Kochanowski|[Jan] Kochanowski]], and his role in Polish poetry may be compared to that of [[Alexander Pope]] in English poetry.  [H]e conceived of literature as a specific vocation, namely, to intervene as a moralist in human affairs.  Since he was not pugnacious by temperament (contrary to one of his masters, [[Voltaire]]), his moralizing, rarely distinguishable from sheer play, [does not show] vitriolic accents.<ref>[[Czesław Miłosz]], ''The History of Polish Literature'', pp. 176–77.</ref>}}

==Works==
Ignacy Krasicki was the leading literary representative of the [[Polish Enlightenment]]—a prose writer and poet highly esteemed by his contemporaries, who admired his works for their wit, imagination, and fluid style.<ref>Jan Zygmunt Jakubowski, ed., ''Literatura polska od średniowiecza do pozytywizmu'' (Polish Literature from the Middle Ages to Positivism), p. 245.</ref>

Krasicki's literary writings lent splendor to the reign of Poland's King [[Stanisław August Poniatowski]], while not directly advocating the King's political program.

Krasicki, the leading representative of [[Polish classicism]], debuted as a poet with the [[strophe]]-[[hymn]], "''Święta miłości kochanej ojczyzny''" ("[[O Sacred Love of the Beloved Country]]"), published in 1774. He was then nearing forty. It was thus a late debut that brought the extraordinary success of this strophe, which Krasicki would incorporate as part of song IX in his [[mock-heroic]] poem, ''[[Myszeida]]'' (Mouseiad, 1775). In "O Sacred Love of the Beloved Country," Krasicki formulated a universal idea of patriotism, expressed in high style and elevated tone. The strophe would later, for many years, serve as a [[national anthem]] and see many translations, including three into French.

The Prince Bishop of Warmia gave excellent Polish form to all the genres of European [[classicism]]. He also blazed paths for new genres. Prominent among these was the first modern Polish novel, ''Mikołaja Doświadczyńskiego przypadki'' ([[The Adventures of Nicholas Experience]], 1776), a synthesis of all the varieties of the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] novel: the social-satirical, the adventure (''à la'' ''[[Robinson Crusoe]]''), the [[Utopian]], and the [[didactic]].

Tradition has it that Krasicki's mock-heroic poem, ''[[Monachomachia]]'' (War of the Monks, 1778), was inspired by a conversation with Frederick II at the palace of [[Sanssouci]], where Krasicki was staying in an apartment that had once been used by [[Voltaire]]. At the time, the poem's publication caused a public scandal.

The most enduring literary monument of the Polish Enlightenment is Krasicki's [[fables]]: ''Bajki i Przypowieści'' ([[Fables and Parables]], 1779) and ''Bajki nowe'' (New Fables, published posthumously in 1802). The poet also set down his trenchant observations of the world and [[human nature]] in ''Satyry'' (Satires, 1779).
[[File:01 Zbiór Potrzebniejszych Wiadomości.png|thumb|upright|''A Collection of Essential Information'', vol. I, 1781]]
Other works by Krasicki include the novels, ''[[Pan Podstoli]]'' (Lord High Steward, published in three parts, 1778, 1784 and posthumously 1803), which would help inspire works by [[Mickiewicz]], and ''[[Historia (novel)|Historia]]'' (History, 1779); the epic, ''[[Wojna chocimska]]'' (The Chocim War, 1780, about the [[Khotyn]] War); and numerous others, in [[homiletics]], theology and [[heraldry]].

In 1781–83 Krasicki published a two-volume encyclopedia, ''[[Zbiór potrzebniejszych wiadomości]]'' (A Collection of Essential Information), the second Polish-language general encyclopedia after [[Benedykt Chmielowski]]'s ''Nowe Ateny'' (The New Athens, 1745–46).

Krasicki wrote ''Listy o ogrodach'' (Letters about Gardens) and articles in the ''[[Monitor (Polish newspaper)|Monitor]]'', which he had co-founded, and in his own newspaper, ''Co Tydzień'' (Each Week).

Krasicki [[translation#History of theory|translated]], into Polish, [[Plutarch]], ''[[Ossian]]'', fragments of [[Dante]]'s ''[[Divine Comedy]]'', and works by [[Anacreon]], [[Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux|Boileau]], [[Hesiod]] and [[Theocritus]].<ref>[[Edward Balcerzan]], ed., ''Pisarze polscy o sztuce przekładu, 1440–1974: Antologia'' (Polish Writers on the Art of Translation, 1440–1974: an Anthology), pp. 445–46, note 6.</ref> He wrote a 1772 essay "On the Translation of Books" ("''O przekładaniu ksiąg''")<ref>Ignacy Krasicki, {{lang|pl|"O przekładaniu ksiąg"}} ("On the Translation of Books"),  ''[[Monitor (Polish newspaper)|Monitor]]'', 1772, no. 1, reprinted in [[Edward Balcerzan]], ed., {{lang|pl|Pisarze polscy o sztuce przekładu, 1440–1974: Antologia}} (Polish Writers on the Art of Translation, 1440–1974: an Anthology), pp. 74–75.</ref> and another, published posthumously in 1803, "On Translating Books" ("''O tłumaczeniu ksiąg''").<ref>Ignacy Krasicki, {{lang|pl|"O tłumaczeniu ksiąg"}} ("On Translating Books"), in {{lang|pl|Dzieła wierszem i prozą}} (Works in Verse and Prose), 1803, reprinted in [[Edward Balcerzan]], ed., {{lang|pl|Pisarze polscy o sztuce przekładu, 1440–1974: Antologia}} (Polish Writers on the Art of Translation, 1440–1974: an Anthology), pp. 75–80.</ref>

==Fame==
[[File:Ignacy Krasicki by Per Krafft the Elder ca. 1767.png|thumb|upright|Krasicki]]
Krasicki's major works won European fame and were translated into Latin, French, German, Italian, Russian, Czech, Croatian, Slovene, and Hungarian. The broad reception of his works was sustained throughout the 19th century.

Krasicki has been the subject of works by poets of the Polish Enlightenment{{spaced ndash}}[[Stanisław Trembecki]], [[Franciszek Zabłocki]], [[Wojciech Mier]]{{spaced ndash}}and in the 20th century, by [[Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński]]. He has been the hero of prose works by [[Wincenty Pol]], [[Adolf Nowaczyński]] and [[Henryk Sienkiewicz]].

==Literary reflection==
Scholars have viewed Krasicki's ''Fables'' and ''Satires'' as adaptive to the culture for which they were written, and as politically charged.<ref name=":0">Shaffer, E. S. (2002). ''Comparative Criticism, Vol24, Fantastic Currencies in Comparative Literature: Gothic to Postmodern''. Cambridge University Press. p. 73. {{ISBN|0521818699}}.</ref> The characterizations were not based on reconstructions of individuals from direct observation, but were fictional constructs that reflected society's actual values. Krasicki held that Poles, and humanity generally, were governed by greed, folly, and vice.<ref name=":0" />

== Target audience ==
Evidence for this is found in the preface, "[[Fables and Parables|To the Children]],", targeted not to children but to villagers, congregations, and the commonalty. The fables were meant to bring attention to major questions of the day, and to advocate for social reforms.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kapolka|first=Gerard T.|date=1 January 1987|title=Krasicki's Fables|jstor=25778281|journal=The Polish Review|volume=32|issue=3|pages=271–279}}</ref> Although the ''New Fables'', the sequel to the ''Fables and Parables'', were published posthumously in 1803, the better known ''Fables and Parables'' found their audience between 1735 and Krasicki's death in 1801, most of them being published after the [[Partitions of Poland|First Partition of Poland]], of 1772.  The fables usually find their meaning in the final line, through the symbology of the tale rather than through a complex presentation of ideology, thereby readily conveying even to the illiterate the moral and the Enlightenment ideal behind it.

== Enlightenment contributions ==
Katarzyna Zechenter argues in ''[[The Polish Review]]'' that Western historians have generally overlooked Krasicki's works, and that the publisher of ''Polish Fables'' (1997) overlooked the importance of the "political and social context contributing to [the fable's] origin."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Zechenter|first=Katarzyna|date=1 January 1999|title=Review of Polish Fables. Bilingual Edition|jstor=25779127|journal=The Polish Review|volume=44|issue=2|pages=239–241}}</ref> However, it is easy to see Krasicki's influence on his contemporaries and on the early 19th century, as in the case of [[:pl:Gabriela Puzynina|Gabriela Puzynina]], a Polish princess, poet, and diarist. In 1846 she started a newspaper for the intelligentsia of Vilnius and Warsaw, and furthered the establishment of Krasicki's ''Fables'' in Poland's suppressed political life.  In her ''Diary of the Years 1815–1843'', Puzynina focuses on the fable, "[[Fables and Parables#Birds in a Cage|Birds in a Cage]]", as a commentary on the [[Partitions of Poland]].

==See also==
* ''[[The Adventures of Mr. Nicholas Wisdom]]''
* [[Fable]]
* ''[[Fables and Parables]]''
* [[List of Poles#Poetry|List of Poles]]
* [[Monitor (Polish newspaper)|''Monitor'' (Polish newspaper)]]
* "[[O Sacred Love of the Beloved Country]]"
* [[Polish people|Poles]]
* [[Polish literature#Enlightenment to the present|Polish literature]]
* [[Political fiction]]
* [[Translation#Western theory|Translation]]

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==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* [[Edward Balcerzan]], ed., ''Pisarze polscy o sztuce przekładu, 1440–1974: Antologia'' (Polish Writers on the Art of Translation, 1440–1974: an Anthology), Poznań, Wydawnictwo Poznańskie, 1977.
* Jan Zygmunt Jakubowski, ed., ''Literatura polska od śreniowiecza do pozytywizmu'' (Polish Literature from the Middle Ages to Positivism), Warsaw, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1979, {{ISBN|83-01-00201-8}}, pp.&nbsp;245–54.
* ''[[Encyklopedia Polski]]'' (Encyclopedia of Poland), Kraków, Wydawnictwo Ryszard Kluszczyński, 1996, {{ISBN|83-86328-60-6}}.
* Julian Krzyżanowski, ''Historia literatury polskiej: Alegoryzm{{spaced ndash}}preromantyzm'' (A History of Polish Literature: Allegorism{{spaced ndash}}Preromanticism), Warsaw, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1974, pp.&nbsp;435–54.
* Zbigniew Landowski, Krystyna Woś, ''Słownik cytatów łacińskich: wyrażenia, sentencje, przysłowia'' (A Dictionary of Latin Citations: Expressions, Maxims, Proverbs), Kraków, Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2002, {{ISBN|83-08-02866-7}}.
* [[Czesław Miłosz]], ''The History of Polish Literature'', 2nd ed., Berkeley, University of California Press, 1983, {{ISBN|0-520-04477-0}}, pp.&nbsp;176–81.

== External links ==
{{Commons and category}}
{{Wikisource author}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Ignacy Krasicki}}
* {{Librivox author |id=3051}}
* [http://polandsite.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=polishliteratureinenglish&action=display&thread=742 Polish Forum]
* [http://www.liturgical.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=6712 Catholic Online]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051227013112/http://monika.univ.gda.pl/~literat/autors/krasic.htm Biography at monika.univ.gda.pl]
* [http://www.poetrymagic.co.uk/poets/krasicki.html Biography at poetrymagic.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060501011626/http://www.poetrymagic.co.uk/poets/krasicki.html |date=1 May 2006 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090105213431/http://www.polishconstitution.org/Biokras.html Biography at polishconstitution.org]
* [https://poezja.org/wz/Krasicki_Ignacy/ Collected works] {{in lang|pl}}
* [http://www.intratext.com/Catalogo/Autori/Aut1271.HTM Other works] {{in lang|pl}}
* [http://www.archidiecezja.pl/panorama/katedra360/index.html Virtual tour Gniezno Cathedral ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200717104400/http://www.archidiecezja.pl/panorama/katedra360/index.html |date=17 July 2020 }}
*[http://prymaspolski.pl/prymasi/ List of Primates of Poland ]

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{{s-reg}}
{{s-bef | before=[[Adam Stanisław Grabowski]]}}
{{s-ttl | title=[[Bishop of Warmia|Prince-Bishop of Warmia (Ermland)]]|years=1767–1795}}
{{s-aft | after=[[:pl:Karol von Hohenzollern|Karl von Hohenzollern-Hechingen]]}}
{{s-rel|ca}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Michał Jerzy Poniatowski|Michał Poniatowski]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Archbishops of Gniezno and Primates of Poland|Primate of Poland]]<br>[[Archbishops of Gniezno and Primates of Poland|Archbishop of Gniezno]]|years=1795–1801}}
{{s-aft|after=[[:pl:Ignacy Raczyński|Ignacy Raczyński]]}}
{{s-end}}

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[[Category:1735 births]]
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[[Category:People from Przemyśl County]]
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[[Category:18th-century Polish–Lithuanian novelists]]
[[Category:18th-century Polish–Lithuanian poets]]
[[Category:Polish male novelists]]
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[[Category:18th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]]
[[Category:Archbishops of Gniezno]]
[[Category:Bishops of Warmia]]
[[Category:Polish Roman Catholic writers]]
[[Category:Fabulists]]
[[Category:Burials at Gniezno Cathedral]]
[[Category:Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Krasicki family|Ignacy]]
[[Category:Polish male poets]]
[[Category:Age of Enlightenment]]
[[Category:18th-century Polish–Lithuanian writers]]
[[Category:18th-century Polish translators]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland)]]
[[Category:Catholic clergy of the Prussian partition]]
[[Category:Polish Enlightenment]]
[[Category:Polish satirists]]
[[Category:Polish satirical poets]]