Bartosz Paprocki

Bartosz Paprocki, in Czech known as Bartoloměj Paprocký z Hlohol a Paprocké Vůle ( – 27 December 1614), was a Polish and Czech historiographer, translator, poet, heraldist, and a pioneering figure in Polish and Bohemian/Czech genealogy. Often referred to as the "father of Polish and Czech genealogy", Praprocki's works, despite their methodological flaws, remain invaluable. He was active in Poland until 1588, when political circumstances led him to emigrate to Moravia and Bohemia. While his approach to sources was often uncritical, and he sometimes even invented them, his writings are a crucial repository of knowledge from his era. Additionally, Praprocki preserved numerous genealogical-historical sources and legends from the nobility milieu, many of which are now lost.

Life

Paprocki was born in the parish of Paprocka Wola near the town Sierpc in Greater Poland, Kingdom of Poland. He was the son of Jędrzej Paprocki and Elżbieta Jeżewska. Born into a noble family, Paprocki's family were members of the Polish nobility, who bore the Jastrzębiec Polish coat of arms. He studied at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, then stayed with wealthy relatives, among others. He began writing poems and soon after dedicated himself to historiography and heraldry. His works devoted to the nobility of the Polish Crown Gniazdo Cnoty (1578) and Herby rycerstwa polskiego (1584) deepened and contributed to consolidating the knowledge of the genealogy of Poland's noble families.

Paprocki married Jadwiga Kossobudzka, his wife was the daughter of a castellan (burgrave) from Sierpc and the widow of her former husband Wisniowski. Paprocki's wife was a wealthy woman and older than Paprocki. Paprocki supported the Danzig rebellion, and in 1577 participated in the Siege of Danzig. Following the unsuccessful efforts of Maximilian III, Archduke of Austria for the Polish crown and after the victory of Sigismund III Vasa in 1588 at the Battle of Byczyna (War of the Polish Succession), Paprocki was forced to leave Poland and went into political exile in Moravia.

Paprocki spent the following 22 years in Czech lands. He learned the Czech language and wrote alongside new poems about the history and the coat of arms of Bohemia and Moravia. He also translated the poems of Jan Kochanowski. ("The heraldic arms of the Polish knighthood in five volumes") Upominek albo przestroga zacnemu narodowi polskiemu i wszystkim stanom Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego, 1587 ("A Gift or Warning to the Noble Polish Nation and All the Estates of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania") Pamięć nierządu w Polsce przez dwie fakcye uczynionego w roku 1587, 1588 ("The Memory of the Disorder Committed in Poland by Two Factions in 1587") Nauka rozmanitych philosophów obieranie żony, Kraków, 1590 ("The lesson of different philosophers about wife choosing...") Gwałt na pogany, 1595 ("Haste Against Heathens") Próba cnót dobrych, Kraków, kolem 1595 Ogród królewski w którym krótko opisuje historye Cesarzów, Królow Polskich i Czeskich, arcyksiążąt Austryi, książąt Ruskich, Prague, 1599 ("Royal Garden, in Which I Write Briefly About the History of Emperors, Polish and Bohemian Kings, Austrian Archdukes and Russian Dukes") Cathalogus arcybiskupów, Kraków, 1613 Nauka i przestrogi na różne przypadki ludzkie, Kraków, 1613 ("'Lesson and a warning for different human cases...") Naprawa Rzeczypospoletej, Kraków, 1895 Upominek, Kraków, 1900 Odpowiedź, Kraków, 1910

In Czech

Zrcadlo slavného Markrabí moravského, 1593 ("Mirror of the Illustrious Moravian Margraviate") – illustrated with woodcuts by Jan Willenberg; the work was originally written in Polish, translated into Czech by the Lutheran pastor Jan Vodička Kvalt na pohany, 1595 ("Haste Against Heathens") Nová kratochvíle, Prague, 1579–1600 ("New Pastime") Ecclesia, Prague, 1601 ("The Church") Kšaft, Prague, 1601 ("Testament") Půst tělesný, Prague, 1601 ("Fasting") Třinácte tabulí věku lidského, Prague, 1601 ("Thirteen Tables of Human Life") Diadochos id est successio, jinak posloupnost knížat a králů českých, biskupů a arcibiskupů pražských a všech třech stavů slavného království českého, to jest panského, rytířského a městského, Prague, 1602 ("Diadochi, i.e. the Sequence of Bohemian Dukes and Kings, Bishops and Archbishops of Prague and All Three Estates of the Famous Bohemian Kingdom, the Lords, Knights and Burghers") O válce turecké a jiné příběhy: výbor z Diadochu ("The Turkish War and Other Narratives: an Anthology of the Diadochi") Obora aneb Zahrada v které rozličná stvoření rozmlouvání svá mají, Prague, 1602 ("Game Park or Garden in Which Various Creatures Hold Their Talks") Historie o příbězích v království Uherském, Prague, 1602 ("History About Stories in the Hungarian Kingdom") Štambuch slezský, Brno, 1609 ("Silesian Album amicorum", or book of friends)