Ignacy Tański

Ignacy Tański (1761 – 15 August 1805) was a Polish official, playwright, poet, translator and freemason.

He was educated at the Jesuit Collegium Nobilium in Warsaw. Initially, he worked as a lower office clerk at the Police Department by the Permanent Council (1778–1789), and later as the secretary of the Sejm Deputation for investigating Koliyivshchyna (1789–1790) and as a member of the Foreign Affairs Department of King Stanisław August Poniatowski (1793–1794). He was an active participant of the cultural and literary life of Warsaw, being a guest to various aristocratic salons.

During the Kościuszko Uprising (1794) he cooperated with the Foreign Affairs Department and the Security Department of the Supreme National Council. In the Uprising, he lost his possessions and office, as well as both parents who fell victim to the slaughter of Praga. Around 1801 he settled down in Puławy to work as the secretary of Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski. He wrote sentimental and occasional poems, pastoral plays and comedies. He also wrote a libretto for one opera. The collective edition of his works titled Wiersze i pisma różne (Various Poems and Writings) was published posthumously in 1808.

He was the father of Klementyna Hoffmanowa and the uncle of Marceli Tarczewski.

Biography Early years Tański was born in 1761 in Wyszogród, Mazovia to a moderately rich noble family. He was the son of Konstancja née Kurowska, the daughter of miecznik of Czersk; and Tomasz Tański, leaseholder of the villages Orszymowo and Rębów, belonging to the starost of Wyszogród Michał Szymanowski.

Ten of his siblings died in childhood, and beside him only his sister Józefa survived. As an adult, Józefa married Maciej Tarczewski, the burgrave of Wyszogród. Their son was Marceli Tarczewski. After the death of her husband in 1790, Józefa married Wincenty Ferreriusz Kraszewski (c. 1752–1830), the ensign of the National Cavalry.

From 4 March 1783 he was the secretary of the Grand Orient of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Wielki Wschód Królestwa Polskiego i Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego) lodge. Working with Jan Łuszczewski and Józef Orsetti, under the supervision of Maurycy Glaire, he co-developed a constitution, i.e. the statute of the reformed lodge of Grand Orient. The constitution provided for a seven-level organizational system. The Supreme Chapter of the Grand Orient adopted the statute on 19 February 1784. On 26 February that year, thirteen lodges signed the statute, and on 4 March the reformed Grand Orient of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was constituted. From January 1788 Tański served as the First Supervisor of the Grand Orient, and according to Wojciech Pękalski he became a member of the Supreme Chapter of the lodge. Michał Wyszkowski wrote that Tański “was short of growth, a figure not so much of a size, but more pleasant and endearing; his sharp and steadfast gaze was characterized by the independence of the soul and the openness of character which only fair deeds can give.”

Family Ignacy Tański was married to Marianna Rozalia Regina née Czempińska (1773–1825), the daughter of Jan Baptysta Czempiński (1721–1786) and Prowidencja née Fontana, the daughter of Józef Fontana and Teresa née Poncet.

The Tańskis had four daughters: Aleksandra (1792–1850), the wife of Marek Marceli Tarczewski; Zofia (1793–1803); Klementyna (1798–1845), writer and translator; and Marianna (1803–1830), the wife of Jan Nepomucen Herman, captain of the army of the Kingdom of Poland, judge of peace and industrialist; raised by her grandmother Prowidencja in Kozłów.