59

ACTA COMENIANA 22–23 (2009)

Antonín Kostlán (Prague)

‘Kto Bogu wiernie służy, temu wiek szczęśnie płuży’:Czech-Polish Relations in Light of the Album Amicorum of the Moravian Calvinist Jan Opsimathes

For Marta Bečková on the occasion of an important anniversary

1. Jan Opsimathes’ Album amicorum: the nature of the source1

Early modern autograph books (books of friends, alba amicorum in Latin, Stamm-bücher in German, památníky in Czech) are a specifi c cultural phenomenon the origins of which are closely bound up with modes of communication between German univer-sities at the beginning of the Reformation. It was in this period that the basic formal features and functions of books of friends developed; these would be retained once the practice was adopted by a wider circle of aristocrats and burghers. Early modern autograph books soon lost their initial connection with the universities associated with Luther and Melanchthon and spread to Calvinist and Catholic circles as well. Although they were sometimes kept by merchants and craftsmen, for the most part they remained peculiar to universities and other educational institutions; the practice did, however, spread marginally to courtly circles, where it was adapted to suit the principles of court-ly decorum, primarily in the writing of individual entries. The range of possibilities for using them in historical research is boundless: the inscriptions, illustrations and sym-bols they contain can be examined from palaeographic, codicological and art historical points of view; they can be mined for biographical and prosopographic information on their owners or the people who wrote in them; and the social role they played can be analysed – both as a distinctive means of communication as well as a way of represent-ing groups, families, and individuals.2

Geographically, early modern autograph books were mainly a phenomenon of Cen-tral and Western Europe. They were widespread in the Bohemian Lands, although they

1 This article is part of the project ‘Intellectual communication in the 17th century: Jan Opsi-mathes’, which is funded by the Grant Agency of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic under the No. IAA800630802. The author would like to take this opportunity to thank the Brit-ish Academy in London for its support during his research trips between 1992 and 2008.2 Of the extensive and now plentiful literature see in particular Jörg-Ulrich FECHNER (ed.), Stamm-bücher als kulturhistorische Quellen, Munich 1981 (= Wolfenbütteler Forschungen 11); Wolfgang Klose, Corpus alborum amicorum – CAAC – Beschreibendes Verzeichnis der Stammbücher des 16. Jahrhunderts, Stuttgart 1988 (particularly his theoretical introduction); Wolfgang KLOSE (ed.), Stammbücher des 16. Jahrhunderts, Wiesbaden 1989 (= Wolfenbütteler Forschungen 42);

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were often associated with journeys abroad made for educational purposes; in contrast, they never really caught on in, for example, England.3 This may partially explain why the extensive collection of over 300 books of friends preserved in the British Library in London has been somewhat neglected by scholars, particularly when compared with the large collections of alba amicorum in German libraries. The books of friends in the British Library mostly come from the collection of Erhard Christoph Bezzel (1727–1801), a priest from Poppenreuth and a diligent researcher of and writer on the his-tory of Nuremberg and its environs; they are therefore mostly relevant to the German world.4 Nonetheless, research has shown that there are more than thirty alba which are of relevance to Bohemian studies; several of them were even created or used by people of Bohemian or Moravian origin, or by individuals otherwise intimately associated with early modern Bohemian history.5

Kees THOMASSEN (ed.), Alba amicorum. Vijf eeuwen vriendschap op papier gezet: het album amico-rum en het poëziealbum in de Nederlanden, Maarssen – The Haag 1990; Werner Wilhelm SCHNA-BEL, Das Stammbuch. Konstitution und Geschichte einer textsortenbezogenen Sammelform bis ins erste Drittel des 18. Jahrhunderts, Tübingen 2003. For a Czech viewpoint, see Blažena HERTLOVÁ, Úvod do problematiky památníků raného novověku [Introduction to the issue of books of friends in the early modern period], Acta Universitatis Carolinae, Philosophica et Historica 5, 1975, pp. 117–146; Marie RYANTOVÁ, Památníky raného novověku jako prostředek individuální reprezentace [Books of friends of the early modern period as a means of personal representation], ČČH 104, 2006, pp. 47–80; EAD., Památníky aneb štambuchy, tj. alba amicorum. Kulturně histo ric ký fenomén raného novověku [Books of friends or stammbücher, i.e. alba amicorum: A cultural and historical phenomenon of the early modern period], České Budějovice 2007.3 Alhough the practice of keeping alba amicorum was not commonplace in the British world, even here there were people who kept one – see, for example, Jan PAPY, The Scottish Doctor Wil-liam Barclay, his Album amicorum, and his Correspondence with Justus Lipsius, in: Dirk SACRÉ – Gilbert TOURNOY (eds.), Myricae: Essays on Neo-Latin Literature in Memory of Jozef Ijsewijn, Leu-wen 2000, pp. 334–396. See also Margaret A. E. NICKSON, Some early English, French and Spanish Contributions to Album, in: W. KLOSE (ed.), Stammbücher des 16. Jahrhunderts, pp. 63–73.4 In the British Library these early modern autograph books are mostly kept in the collection of Egerton manuscripts (reference numbers begin with Eg.) or on the normal additional shelves (Additional manuscripts – reference numbers begin with Add.). Basic information on them is given in the following: Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the years MDCCCXLVI–MDCCCXLVII, London 1864; Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the years MDCCCXLVIII–MDCCCLIII, London 1868; Max ROSENHEIM, The Album Amicorum, in: Archaeologia or Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, Vol. LXII, Part 1, London 1910, pp. 251–310; Karlheinz GOLDMANN, Der Poppenreuther Pfarrer Erhard Christoph Bezzel (1727 bis 1801) und seine Stammbüchersammlung, Mitteilungen des Vereins für Geschichte der Stadt Nürnberg 47, 1956, pp. 347–383; Wilhelm LENZ, Archivalische Quellen zur deutschen Geschichte seit 1500 in Großbritannien, Boppard am Rhein 1975. See also Margaret A. E. NICK-SON, Early Autograph Albums in the British Museum, London 1970; EAD., Some Sixteenth Century Albums in the British Library, in: J.-U. FECHNER (ed.), Stammbücher als kunsthistorische Quellen, pp. 23–36.5 Their analysis is covered in Antonín KOSTLÁN, Bohemikální alba amicorum ve fondech British Library [Bohemical Alba amicorum in the British Library], Folia historica Bohemica 23, 2008, pp. 91–214.

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The collection contains an album that was probably kept by Charles Louis (Karl Lud-wig) – son of Frederick V, Elector Palatine, the Bohemian ‘Winter King’ – in the 1620s and early 1630s;6 the book of friends of Joachim Camerarius (son of Frederick’s privy councillor Ludwig Camerarius) from his university days in 1625–1627;7 the book of friends of Jan Oršinovský of Fürstenfeld (one of the directors of the burgher estate and secretary to the Bohemian Kingdom during the Bohemian Revolt in 1618–1620) dating back to his days as preceptor at several German universities in 1603–1610;8 and, particu-larly interesting from the point of view of art history, the high-spirited, convivial book of friends kept by Hans Prunhoff er, a Prague New Town merchant originally from Jihlava, from 1592 to 1597.9 Alhough the owners of other early modern autograph books in the British Library may not have been so closely connected to Bohemia, they nevertheless provide us with interesting testimonies on events relevant to Bohemian history. Here one should at least mention the book of friends kept by Georg Paul Schreiber, from Auerbach in the Palatinate, from 1612 to 1622; among other things, it captures the situation in Prague before the outbreak of the Bohemian Estates Revolt in 1617–1618 and confi rms the sojourn and work of the Bohemian painter Balthasar Teloni in Istanbul in 1619.10

Among the abovementioned Bohemia-related books of friends is the album of the Moravian-born Jan Opsimathes, which is kept today in the British Library in London under the shelf-mark Eg. 1220. Although this source is not unknown in the scholarly lit-erature (a great number of authors writing in English, French and Czech have made sure this is not the case) there is still much research to be done on it in its entirety.11 A basic description of it was published in the catalogue of additions to the British Museum

6 British Library, Kings 436. Also see a brief description of it in: British Museum. Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, Vol. III: Description of the King’s Manuscripts and Indexes to Both Collections, London 1921, p. 69. See also A. KOSTLÁN, Bohe-mikální alba, pp. 113ff and 196.7 British Library, Eg. 1339. See also Antonín KOSTLÁN, Album amicorum Joachima Cameraria z let 1625–1627 [The album amicorum of Joachim Camerarius from 1625–1627], in: Jiří MIKULEC – Miloslav POLÍVKA (eds.), Per saecula ad tempora nostra. Sborník prací k šedesátým narozeninám prof. Jaroslava Pánka [Per saecula ad tempora nostra: Festschrift for the 60th birthday of Prof. Jaroslav Pánek], Praha 2007, pp. 522–534.8 British Library, Eg.1228. See also Josef HEJNIC, O památníku Jana Oršinovského z Fürstenfeldu [The book of friends of Jan Oršinovský of Fürstenfeld], Zprávy Jednoty klasických fi lologů 11, 1969, pp. 113–118; Antonín KOSTLÁN, Jan Oršinovský z Fürstenfeldu ve světle svého ‘alba amico-rum’ [Jan Oršinovský of Fürstenfeld in the light of his ‘album amicorum’], in: Vlast a rodný kraj v díle historika. Sborník prací žáků a přátel věnovaný profesoru Josefu Petráňovi [Mother country and native land in the work of a historian: A collection of essays by students and friends dedi-cated to Professor Josef Petráň], Praha 2004, pp. 333–343.9 British Library, Eg. 1216. See also A. KOSTLÁN, Bohemikální alba, pp. 128ff and 181ff for more details.10 British Library, Eg. 1247. See also Antonín KOSTLÁN, Památník Georga Paula Schreibera jako pramen k českým politickým a kulturním dějinám [The book of friends of Georg Paul Schreiber as a source for Bohemian political and cultural history], Studia Rudolphina 2, 2002, pp. 44–49.11 This album is one of a number from the so-called Bezzel collection acquired in 1850 from the antiquarian bookseller Asher for the British Museum collections. The book’s leather cover is partially original and has a super ex-libris; it contains 312 paper folios measuring 120 mm by

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in 186812 and its place among similar Central European sources was fi rst appraised by Max Rosenheim in 1910.13 Charles Gautier devoted attention to the album in 1960, par-ticularly with regard to developments in the depiction of women’s apparel.14 Jean-Daniel Candaux commented on and analysed entries concerned with Geneva in 1961.15 Among the fi rst Czech authors to study it in depth was Jaroslav G. Hrubant in 1916, who pub-lished information on those individuals of Bohemian and Moravian origin who had made entries in the album.16 It was subsequently studied very closely by Otakar Odložilík, who fi rst made use of it in his 1935 study on Bohemian and Moravian travellers who visited Great Britain in the period before the Battle of White Mountain.17 He then used it for his 1964 book on relations between Bohemian Protestant circles and French-speaking European Calvinists.18 Most recently, an analysis of the entries made in Herborn was published and a comprehensive appraisal of this interesting source is underway.19

Opsimathes kept his album more or less diligently for at least twenty-two years, from March 1598 to July 1620; it contains around 590 entries, most of which have not been identifi ed or appraised in the literature to date. The entries were made in more than sev-enty-nine places – not only in Bohemia and Moravia, but also in what is today Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, England, France and Italy.20 The primary language used in the entries is Latin, although Greek and Hebrew are often in evidence, along with a wide spectrum of contemporaneous languages (German, Czech, French, Italian, Span-

115 mm (almost square with the height being slightly longer). Its pictorial decoration is notable for a number of coats of arms in colour and the costumes of an English noblewoman, an English townswoman and a lady of Geneva (British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 88, 89 and 162v).12 Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the years MDCCCXLVIII–MDCCCLIII, pp. 305–306. This source also provided the material for the description in K. GOLDMANN, Der Poppenreuther Pfarrer Erhard Christoph Bezzel, No. 43, p. 352.13 ROSENHEIM, The Album Amicorum, pp.282–283.14 Charles GAUTIER, Costumes femins a Genève au temps de l’Escalade, Bulletin de la Société d’his-toire et d’archéologie de Genève 12, 1960, pp. 3–7.15 J. D. C. [= Jean-Daniel CANDAUX], Un étudiant Morave à l’Academie de Calvin, Journal de Genève, No 249, 25 October 1961, p. 7.16 Jaroslav G. HRUBANT, Památník Jana Opsimata z let 1598–1620 [The book of friends of Jan Opsimathes covering the years 1598–1620], Časopis Matice moravské (henceforth ČMM) 40, 1916, pp. 123–130.17 Otakar ODLOŽILÍK, Cesty z Čech a Moravy do Velké Britanie v letech 1563–1620 [Journeys from Bohemia and Moravia to Great Britain 1563–1620], ČMM 59, 1935, pp. 39–40 and 73–74.18 Otakar ODLOŽILÍK, Jednota bratrská a reformovaní francouzského jazyka [The Unity of Brethren and the Calvinists of the French language], Philadelphia 1964, pp. 14, 59–63, 85–90, 103–112, 114a, 115, 119, 124 and 130–132.19 Antonín KOSTLÁN – Alena HADRAVOVÁ, Carmina propemptica in honorem Johannis Opsimathis: Herbornská pocta pro moravského učence z roku 1607 [Herborn’s homage to a Moravian scholar of 1607], in: Acta Universitatis Carolinae – Historia Universitatis Carolinae Pragensis 47, fasc. 1–2: Sbor ník k životnímu jubileu PhDr. Michala Svatoše, CSc. [Festschrift for the birthday of Dr Michal Svatoš], Praha 2007, pp. 117–159. See also KOSTLÁN, Bohemikální alba, pp. 124ff and 183ff (which also includes a complete list of the existing literature on Opsimathes’ book of friends).20 For a detailed list of locations where entries were made in Opsimathes’ album see KOSTLÁN, Bohemikální alba, p. 183.

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ish, English and Dutch); there are also sporadic instances of other Slavic (Polish) and Oriental (probably Turkish) languages. In all of its basic features (number of entries, the number of places where they were made, the number of languages used and the length of time it was kept), Opsimathes’ book of friends quite signifi cantly surpasses most of the alba amicorum we are aware of and thus ranks among the most singular of sources.

As a source, Opsimathes’ album amicorum is marked much more than usual by his personality, his painstaking eff orts to document his personal relationships and his pas-sion for travel. The Moravian scholar’s systematic eff orts were not made for the sake of future reminiscence; they were rather deliberately employed as an instrument – for proving his credentials as well as for opening doors and making contacts in spheres he considered important. It is therefore all the more regrettable that a complete reconstruc-tion of Opsimathes’ biography has, to a great extent, been neglected in the literature;21 a considerable number of the facts usually given about him are not historically accurate. This even applies to some basic information, such as his date of birth (it is thought that he was born on 23 December 1568 in Morkovice in Moravia) and his religious persua-sion (he is usually described as a member of the Unity of Brethren, Unitas Fratrum).22

21 Of the studies that have contributed to the understanding of his life and works, the follow-ing, in addition to those indicated above, should be mentioned: František Michálek BARTOŠ, Jan Opsimates, Český bratr 10, 1933, no. 10 (October), pp. 215–217 (reprinted in: ID., Bojo-vníci a mučedníci [Warriors and martyrs], Praha 1946, pp. 142–145); Mirjam BOHATCOVÁ, Ko-rektury k tvorbě Jana Opsimata [Emendations on the work of Jan Optimathes], LF 80, 1957, pp. 74–82; EAD., Zbývající ‘spisek’ Opsimatův [Opsimathes’ remaining ‘booklet’], LF 81, 1958, pp. 125–126; Heinrich KUNSTMANN, Die Nürnberger Universität Altdorf und Böhmen. Beiträge zur Erfor schung der Ostbeziehungen deutscher Universitäten, Köln – Graz 1963, pp. 96–99 and 125; Emma URBÁNKOVÁ, Několik poznámek k českému vydání Kalvínovy Instituce [Some remarks on the Czech edition of Calvin’s Institutes], Literární archiv 1, 1966, pp. 237–245; Antonín KOSTLÁN, Jiří Strejc a Jan Opsimathes – apoštolové českého kalvinismu [J.S. and J.O.: Apostles of Czech Calvinism], Historie – Otázky – Problémy 1, 2009 (forthcoming). The following complete sum-maries of his life should be noted: RHB 4, pp. 67–68; Alfred ECKERT, Die deutschen evangelischen Pfärer der Reformationszeit in Nord- und Ostböhmen, Rappenau – Obergimpern 1977, p. 95; Fer-dinand SEIBT – Hans LEMBERG – Helmut SLAPNICKA (eds.), Biographisches Lexikon zur Geschichte der böhmischen Ländern, Bd. III, N–SCH, Lieferung 2, Ob–Pe, München 1986, p. 106; Jaroslav KOLÁR, Jan Opsimates, in: Jiří OPELÍK et al., Lexikon české literatury. Osobnosti, díla, instituce [Lexi-con of Czech literature: People, works, institutions], Vol. III/1, M–O, Praha 2000, p. 685. For a detailed list of the literature on Jan Opsimathes, see KOSTLÁN, Bohemikální alba, p. 184.22 It is rather amusing how people came to assume that Opsimathes was born on 23 December 1568. Although it is correctly based on the single piece of evidence that we have (the age of newly arrived students was regularly recorded by the registrar at Leiden university), it has been interpret-ed incorrectly with pedantic precision (if Opsimathes was registered with the date 23 December 1598 and gave his age as thirty, he must therefore have been born on precisely that day thirty years earlier). On Opsimathes’ enrolment at Leiden, see Guilielmus DU RIEU (ed.), Album studiosorum Academiae Lugduno-Batavae MDLXXV–MDCCCLXXV accedunt nomina curatorum et professorum per eadem secula, The Hague 1875, p. 54. Just to make things more complicated, another interpre-tation of the same source dates his enrolment one year later, i.e. to 23 December 1599 and there-fore gives his birthday as some time in 1569 – see Amedeo MOLNÁR – Sven STELLING-MICHAUD, Opsimates Jan, de Moravie, in: Suzanne STELLING-MICHAUD (ed.), Le Livre du Recteur de l’Academie de Genève (1559–1878), Vol. V, Notices biographiques des étudiants N–S, Geneva 1976, p. 57.

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Given the fact that all writers dealing with Jan Opsimathes have always emphasised his close links to the Unity of Brethren, it is most surprising to discover that researchers have completely ignored an important Brethren source; this is despite the fact that its relevance to Opsimathes’ life was pointed out in 1896 by Zikmund Winter and that it was described and examined in other contexts by certain other writers (specifi cally Fer-dinand Hrejsa).23 This source is the ‘Paměť Bratří padlých’ (In remembrance of lapsed brothers, i.e. a list of reprehensible and lapsed members of the Unity of Brethren), which records the situation in the Brethren congregation in Ivančice from 1580 to 1601. In this document the following entry is found: ‘1592: Jan Morkovský, otherwise known as Mrkvička or Opsimathes, renounced his membership in a letter sent to the congre-gation. He is apparently angry that we wish him nothing good. He boasted to Mikuláš Picek that he could have remained a member if he had wished.’24

An analysis of this entry leads to the following conclusions:– The album’s owner not only went by the surname Morkovský originally, as is evident

in his book of friends,25 but also by Mrkvička; only later was he called ‘Opsimathes’, a name that indicates that he commenced his studies late (from the Greek ‘opse’ – late and ‘math’ – to learn);26

– Since Opsimathes was a member of the Unity of Brethren congregation in Ivančice until 1592, we can reasonably assume that he was educated at the famous local Unity of Brethren school;27

23 Zikmund WINTER, Život církevní v Čechách. Kulturně-historický obraz z XV. a XVI. století I–II [Church life in Bohemia: A cultural and historical picture from the 15th and 16th centuries I–II], Praha 1895–1896, p. 492; Ferdinand HREJSA, Sborové Jednoty bratrské [Congregations of the Unity of Brethren], Praha 1939, p. 99.24 In the original the entry reads: ‘Anno 92. Jan Morkovský, jinak Mrkvička nebo Opsimates: Sám sebe vyloučil, psaní do zboru učinil. Že se horší, že mu nic dobrého nepřejeme. Pochloubal se u Miku-láše Picka, že by byl bratrem, kdyby chtěl toho hledati.’ See the Library of the National Museum in Prague, man. IV E 20 (Paměť Bratří padlých [In remembrance of lapsed brothers]), fol. 13.25 British Library, Eg. 1220, second fol. 100 – the entry is dated Amberg 14 March 1598 and was written by Urban Pierius (i.e. Birnbaum von Birnsfeld). It is the fi rst entry in the book and it is possible that it was Pierius who gave it to his protégé. Pierius’ dedication reads: ‘Scriptum manu Urbani Pierii D[octori] in gratiam Johannis Morcovii Opsimatis, convictoris cariss[imi].’ In this context, the entry of Oldřich Holický of Šternberk, dated Siegen 5 December 1606, should be recalled. Its dedication reads as follows: ‘Ornatissimo doctissimoque viro juveni Domini Iohanni Opsimathi a Morcowicz’ – ibid., fol. 12v. See also the entry of Opsimathes’ relative Jiřík Morkov-ský (Mayor of town of Slavkov) dated 15 December 1605 – ibid., fol. 71v.26 On the etymology of the name see, for example, Adam Rudolph HELM, Disputatio de opsima-thia, [Altdorf] 1694; the citation is given with reference to the internet database Das Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachraum erschienenen Drucke des 17. Jahrhunderts (henceforth VD17, see http://www.vd17.de/), 12:145647F; for the defi nition of the term opsimathia here see Appendix 2. For confi rmation that Opsimathes’ contemporaries interpreted his adopted surname in this way, see the celebrative poem, which the Margburg professor of medicine, Johann Pincier, composed for Opsimathes in 1607 for the collection Carmina propemptica in honorem viri Johannis Opsima-this Moravi: ‘Dicitur Opsimathes, qui sero discere coepit, noster an Opsimathes hinc quoque nomen habet? Sive is mature seu sero discere coepit, sat didicit bene, cui discere cura fuit.’ See KOSTLÁN – HADRAVOVÁ, Carmina propemptica, p. 147.27 For the most recent comprehensive account, see Libor VYKOUPIL, Ivančice za panství pánů

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– Opsimathes found the environment in the Unity of Brethren too confi ned and he therefore left in 1592. However, his departure probably did not lead to a cooling of relations on either side since he had close links and friendly contacts in the future with a number of members of the Unity Brethren.We can perhaps link Opsimathes’ departure from the Unity of Brethren with his

radical Calvinist opinions, which deviated from the cautious stance of the Brethren leadership at that time. For example, in the same year of 1592 another independent-minded member of the Unity of Brethren, Jan Lanecius, was rebuked for his actions: ‘At the castle he argues with all kinds of people and defends the Calvinists, with the result that we are vilifi ed for professing Calvinist views.’28 Opsimathes expressed his Calvin-ist opinions in works that he published after leaving the Brethren. His works in Czech suggest that he managed and organised rather than wrote them.29 His works in German, however, have not yet been researched;30 study of them may yield some signifi cant sur-prises. His publishing activity culminated in the publication of the Czech translation of three of the four books of John Calvin’s Institutiones religionis Christianae (the fi rst and the second book between 1612 and 1614/1615, the third one in 1617); he also published some parts of this translation in a number of other separate books.31

The extant copies of these Czech versions of Calvin’s fundamental work are often marked with very inconsistent typographical marks. This suggests that they were pub-lished gradually and surreptitiously, with individual volumes furnished with expedient introductions and dedicated to various potential patrons or political supporters. Pub-lication clearly occurred in a rather conspiratorial fashion and at the time Opsimathes did not even dare to indicate the name of the work’s famous Swiss author (with the single exception indicated below) or, at fi rst, the full name of the Czech translator. The latter was the psalmist Jiří Strejc-Vetter, another member of the Unity of Brethren who was often criticised by his fellow brethren for his unorthodox opinions.32 Neither the Czech translation of Calvin’s work nor its subsequent publication was well received in

z Lipé [Ivančice during the rule of the Lords of Lipá], in: Jiří ČEJKA et al., Ivančice. Dějiny města [Ivančice: The history of a town], Ivančice 2002, pp. 219ff (it also lists the older literature).28 The Czech original reads: ‘Na zámku bývá, dišputuje se před leckýms a kalvinistů zastává, z čehož nemalé pomluvy na nás jdou, že se k kalvinistům hlásíme.’ See Antonín GINDELY (ed.), Dek rety Jed-noty bratrské [Edicts of the Unity of Brethren], Praha 1865, p. 255. For something similar in the year 1598, see p. 268.29 For an overview, see Knihopis českých a slovenských tisků [Bibliography of Czech and Slovak printed works] II/2, Praha 1941, No. 6633–6636; BOHATCOVÁ, Korektury, pp. 74–82. 30 This mainly concerns the following books: Genealogia, das ist Stammbaum dess […] Jesu Chris-ti from 1613 (VD17 12:121139P) and D. Martini Lutheri dess hocherleuchten Mannes eigentlich Meinung, von der Ceremonie des Brotbrechens from 1617 (VD17 547:648827C, reprinted in 1618 and 1690). See also Dorothy ALEXANDER – Walter L. STRAUSS, The German Single-leaf Woodcut 1600–1700. A Pictorial Catalogue, Vol. 2: O–Z, New York 1977, s. 425–429.31 See BOHATCOVÁ, Korektury, p. 74ff ; EAD., Zbývající ‘spisek’, pp. 125–126; URBÁNKOVÁ, Několik poznámek, pp. 237–245; Kolár, Jan Opsimates, p. 685. See also Mirjam BOHATCOVÁ, Erasmus, Lu-ther, Melanchthon und Calvin in gedruckten tschechischen Übersetzungen aus dem 16. und 17. Jahr-hundert, Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 49, 1974, pp. 163–65.32 Strejc’s translation of Calvin’s Institutes is itself preserved in a manuscript dated to 1595 – see the Moravian Provincial Archive in Brno, collection G 10, man. 209. On the fi gure of Jiří Strejc, see

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the Czech milieu, not even by the Unity of Brethren. The work encountered numerous obstacles, which Opsimathes summarised in 1614: ‘If this work were not for the honour of our Lord, I would have abandoned it already a thousand times over. One could hardly have experienced more diffi culties. I have lost my good name in Bohemia and Moravia and to some extent in Germany as well, I have exposed myself to danger from Bohemian Lutherans and Catholics, I have lost everything, and, God knows that I have also had to go into debt.’33 It also appears that in publishing the work Opsimathes came into confl ict with the translator’s son, Jan Vetter. The latter, unlike his father, adhered to the Unity of Brethren’s offi cial line in his career as a preacher. Jan Vetter probably defended himself against his superiors’ reprimands for handing over his father’s documents to Opsimathes by claiming that he had sneakily wheedled them out of him.34

Relatively little is known about Jan Opsimathes’ character and the personal moti-vations that lay behind his actions. Some accounts paint him as one of the period’s troublemakers. Among these is an anecdote that in 1619, together with one student, he forced the minister of the Unity of Brethren congregation in Luže to give Holy Com-munion in the Calvinist fashion. The Unity of Brethren bishop Jan Amos Comenius was still indignantly repudiating this action seventeen years later.35 A certain internal restlessness was evidently one of his typical characteristics, sensitively described by František M. Bartoš in these words: ‘It is not known whether he ever obtained a stable position, although he lived to a respectable age. It is as if he could not remain at rest and was pursued by a desire for ever new lands and new learning, unable to bear the yoke of a stable occupation with its necessary self-denial and the conditions, which it im-poses.’36 He made the same impression on his contemporaries – the Amberg preacher Johann Salmuth described him in one of his letters as a person exhausted by constant

Ferdinand HREJSA, B. Jiří Strejc, in: Český žalmista bratr Jiří Strejc [Jiří Strejc – Bohemian brother and psalmist], Prague 1936, pp. 7–25; František M. DOBIÁŠ, Calvinova Instituce v češtině [Calvin’s Institutes in Czech], Český bratr 13, 1936, pp. 114–115; BOHATCOVÁ, Několik poznámek, p. 75ff .33 The Czech original reads: ‘Jakže kdyby pro Boží poctu nebylo, 1000krát by se již toho zanechati chtělo. Zdaliž již víc mohl by jeden snésti, o dobrou pověst netoliko po vší české i moravské zemi, ale i z částky v Němcích přišel, v nebezpečenství od našich nejvíc luteránů a papeženců upadl, o všecko jednak přišel, Bůh ví, že i vdlužiti sem se musil.’ See Jan Opsimathes’ letter of 1614 to Jan Vetter in the Mladá Boleslav Museum, Personal Archive of Bishop Matouš Konečný. For an edition of this document see KOSTLÁN, Jiří Strejc, App. No. 1. I am grateful to Ms Markéta Ručková for drawing my attention to this document.34 See the source mentioned above. In 1616 Jan Vetter was a preacher and the rector of a school in Mladá Boleslav. His functions are also indicated in the dedication of the book given to him in the same year by his former professor at Herborn (later a professor at Bremen), Matthias Martini (see Matthias MARTINI, Analysis popularis, cum indicio doctrinarum, Bremen 1616 – VD17 3:006342R). On the fate of the sons of Jiří Strejc, see also Otakar ODLOŽILÍK, Daniel Vetter a jeho cesta na Island [Daniel Vetter and his journey to Iceland], ČMM 55, 1931, pp. 75–94.35 See F. HREJSA, Sborové, p. 41. For Comenius’ reaction in his work Na spis proti Jednotě bratrské od M. Samuele Martinia etc. … ohlášení [In response to the treatise against the Unity of Brethren by M. Samuel Martini etc. … declaration] in the year 1635, see Josef Th. MÜLLER (ed.), VSJAK 17, Praha 1912, p. 390.36 BARTOŠ, Jan Opsimates, p. 216.

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travel and hardship.37 His incessant journeying was only partially connected with his duties as preceptor, accompanying young nobles on travels from their homeland for edu-cation and learning,38 or members of ennobled Prague burgher families.39 A signifi cant number of these journeys were related to the role Opsimathes played throughout his life as a staunch Calvinist activist; this is demonstrated in perhaps his most ambitious and best-known act of propaganda, which aimed at winning the support of the English King James I for the Bohemian Calvinist cause.

Opsimathes was occupied with this project, the fi nal outcome of which was in fact quite controversial, very intensively for at least half a year from April to September 1616. At fi rst he had an introduction, dedicated to King James, printed for his Czech edition of Calvin’s Institutes (the conspiratorial nature of this activity is evidenced by the fact that it is dated Amberg April 1616, although it was probably printed in Bremen).40 Along with it he printed the title page of the entire work where the name of John Calvin appeared for the fi rst time as the author. Both were clearly only printed for incorpora-tion in a single copy including the Czech translation of the fi rst two books of Calvin’s work. With this gift, Opsimathes then set off on his second journey to England (he had undertaken the fi rst journey in 1600) via Emden, Franeker, Leiden, Amsterdam, the Hague, Brussels and Calais. Once there, he personally gave the gift either to the English Prince Charles, when he met him probably on 18 July 1616 at the royal palace of Theo-balds near London,41 or to the King James personally.42 From England he returned to Heidelberg via Paris, Lyon, Geneva and Basel.

Although acting as courier was perhaps not the original reason for his journeys, it is clear that he increasingly did so, thus becoming a reliable means of communication, particularly between Moravian magnates and their learned friends in Germany, Swit-

37 KUNSTMANN, Die Nürnberger Universität Altdorf, p. 99.38 Prior to 1598 he was the preceptor for Fridrich and Hynek of Náchod. In 1606 he brought the sons of Oldřich of Kounice, Fridrich and Jan, to Herborn as their preceptor. In 1607 Opsimathes was also preceptor for Vilém Felix Kaplíř of Sulevice. In 1610 Opsimathes was again in Herborn – this time as the tutor of Jan Bernard of Kunovice. See British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 12, 18 and 91v; KOSTLÁN – HADRAVOVÁ, Carmina propemptica, p. 128 ff ; Howard HOTSON, Johann Heinrich Alsted’s Relations with Silesia, Bohemia and Moravia: Patronage Piety and Pansophia, AC 12, 1997, p. 16.39 From 1598 on for a number of years Opsimathes was the preceptor for the young Prague burgher Jan Kechl of Holenštejn. From 1603 to 1605 he was involved with a group of eight young men from Prague (Jan Linhart of Najenperk, Jan Lipnický of Příběnice, Matyáš Jizbický of Jizbice, Pavel Kutnaur of Sonenštejn and Jan Jiří, Eliáš, Samuel and Jiří Rozin of Javorník). See British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 41 and 126.40 Based on the similarities between the typography in the introduction and that used in Bremen, doubt was cast as to whether Amberg was really the place of publication. See URBÁNKOVÁ, Několik poznámek, pp. 241–242, footnote 8. This appears to be supported by an analysis of Opsimathes’ itinerary based on the information in his book of friends of April 1616. In the course of this month he appeared in Hamburg, Stade, Lübeck and Bremen.41 See Charles’ entry in the album: British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 1.42 This copy is now in the library of Sidney Sussex College (Cambridge), S.4.28. It is described in Edward Piers TYRELL – John Simon Gabriel SIMMONS, Slavonic Books before 1700 in Cambridge

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zerland and Western Europe. Concrete proof of this can be found, for example, in the letter of 18 December 1607 from Karel the Elder of Žerotín to the Dutch diplomat Peter Cornelis Brederode, thanking him for the book and two letters, which he had received from him via Jan Opsimathes.43 Thanks to Brederode’s entry in Opsimathes’ album in August 1600, we know that there were close relations between them at a much earlier date; they subsequently exchanged letters.44 It is clear that many of the communications that Opsimathes facilitated as a courier were of an intimate nature, and that some of them may have been diplomatic missives. Although it is impossible to prove the politi-cal background of these exchanges today, in some cases it can be posited with some certainty. If, for example, Opsimathes appeared in Altdorf in May and June 1619, it is scarcely credible that he was not privy to the diplomatic missions in Nuremburg dur-ing the revolt of the Bohemian Estates; these were led not only by friends of his from Prague, but also by people for whom he had acted as preceptor in their student days – Jan Kechl of Holenštejn, Matyáš Jizbický of Jizbice and Jan Jiří and Eliáš Rozin of Javorník.45

From a typological point of view, Opsimathes’ album amicorum seems to be, at fi rst glance, the early autograph book of a typical scholar, mostly concerned with fi gures from the world of learning and academia, while the entries are clearly accorded far more weight than any artistic ornamentation.46 Even so, its internal structure is really quite varied; this is closely related, among others things, to the unsettled personality of the album’s owner, as indicated above. As a rule we can divide the entries into three categories, although these variously overlap and interlink:1) The fi rst category comprises entries related to Opsimathes’ activities at various

European centres of higher learning, including universities, which stretched over a long period. In particular this includes the entries from Amberg (c. 20 entries,

Libraries, in: Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, Vol. III, 1959–1963, London 1963, pp. 382–400; URBÁNKOVÁ, Několik poznámek, p. 240ff ; William Brown PATTERSON, King James VI and I and the Reunion of Christendom, Cambridge 1997, p. 125. Opsimathes also met Bishop James Montague during this trip – see British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 6. As a former master, Montague had very close links with Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge – see BROWN PATTERSON, King James, p. 125.43 František DVORSKÝ (ed.), Dopisy Karla st. z Žerotína 1591–1610 [The letters of Karel the Elder of Žerotín 1591–1610], Praha 1904 (= Archiv český [Bohemian archive], Vol. XVII), p. 337, no. 1456.44 See British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 106. On the subject of correspondence between Opsimathes and Brederode, see Gerhard MENK, Die Hohe Schule Herborn in ihrer Frühzeit (1548–1660). Ein Beitrag zum Hoschschulwesen des deutschen Kalvinismus im Zeitalter der Gegenreformation, Wies-baden 1981, p. 289, footnote 28.45 On the subject of Bohemian envoys in Nuremberg during the years 1618–1620, see KUNST-MANN, Die Nürnberger Universität Altdorf, pp. 135–139.46 On the typology of autograph books in the early modern period, see Jörg-Ulrich FECHNER, Stamm bücher als kulturhistorische Quellen. Einführung und Umriss der Aufgaben, in: J.-U. FECHNER (ed.), Stammbücher als kulturhistorische Quellen, pp. 7–21; Hans HENNING, Zur Enststehung und In-halt der Stammbücher des 16. Jahrhunderts, in: W. KLOSE (ed.), Stammbücher des 16. Jahrhunderts, pp. 33–50; RYANTOVÁ, Památníky aneb štambuchy, p. 110ff ; KOSTLÁN, Bohemikální alba, p. 101ff .

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mostly from 1598), Zerbst (c. 14 entries from 1598), Steinfurt (c. 10 entries from 1598), Leiden (c. 35 entries, mostly from 1599–1600), Geneva (there are more than 70 entries, mostly from 1600–1602, which is more than a tenth of the entire book), Heidelberg (c. 25 entries, mostly from 1603 and 1607), Herborn and Siegen, where the Herborn school was partly transferred for a certain period (c. 65 entries, mostly from 1603–1607) and Marburg (c. 20 entries, mostly from 1607); at some of these schools Opsimathes may not even have matriculated. On the other hand, for some schools where he was enrolled there are no entries; understandably, this applies pri-marily to his studies in the Italian Catholic cities of Padua and Siena (1602). These entries, from academies, universities and other schools, were mostly made by schol-ars (e.g. professors or lecturers) active at these seats of learning. Others were made by Opsimathes’ fellow students and members of their families whom the Moravian scholar met.

2) The second category consists of entries from Opsimathes’ native Moravia (it is typical that in more than 30 Moravian entries, there is not one location that could be said to be his local residence) and from places where he tried to settle for a longer period. It is known that he did not manage to do so in Amberg (although he grew so close to the family of a local lawyer, Heinrich Salmuth, that he may have even considered marrying his daughter).47 Nor did he settle in Herborn (although the professors of the school were reluctant to let him go when he told them in 1607 that he felt exhausted and was leaving to settle in his native Moravia).48 Finally, therefore, only Prague, whither he regularly returned from his travels in the fi fteen years before the Battle of White Mountain, remained as a possibility. Apart from sporadic entries from family and neighbours, the Moravian entries primarily show Opsimathes’ close links with his protectors and patrons from a number of local noble and magnate families (the most prominent being Karel the Elder of Žerotín). By contrast, the entries from Prague, of which there are more than 30 from 1605–1620, indicate his local scholarly, religious and political connections, as well as his attempt to settle permanently in the city.

3) The last category comprises entries resulting from Opsimathes’ endeavours as a Cal-vinist activist. A signifi cant portion of the entries were made by Calvinist or radical Protestant preachers in the most diverse places through which Opsimathes passed; the book even includes entries by the highest Calvinist authority of the time, the Ge-nevan preacher Theodore de Bèze, and his collaborator Simon Goulart of Senlis.49 Further entries in this group were made by representatives of the diplomatic and political sphere; the inscribers include a number of notable imperial princes, who actively supported the Calvinist interpretation of the Reformation. The fi rst of these was Count Ludwig the Elder zu Sayn-Wittgenstein (1532–1605), who wrote an entry in Opsimathes’ book in 1604. He must have been a very signifi cant fi gure for Bohe-mian Protestants indeed because later, in November 1605, Karel the Elder of Žerotín

47 KUNSTMANN, Die Nürnberger Universität Altdorf, p. 99.48 See, for example, the poem by the Siegen preacher and professor of this school Johann Bister-feld in the anthology Carmina propemptica – see KOSTLÁN – HADRAVOVÁ, Carmina propemptica, p. 150.49 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol 30 and 110.

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did not hesitate to make his entry on the same page, below the count’s, although most of the surrounding pages were then still empty.50 In 1605 an entry was made by Moritz the Learned (der Gelehrte), Landgrave von Hessen-Kassel (1572–1632), whose Prague agent, Philibert the Elder Du Bois, Opsimathes met later in the Hague in June 1616.51

In 1605 the founder of the academy at Herborn, Count Johann VI von Nassau-Dil-lenburg (1535–1606), his sons Johann VII (1561–1623) and George (1562–1623), and his grandson Ludwig Heinrich (1594–1662) all made entries in Opsimathes’ book. Two years later Johann VI’s eldest son, Count Wilhelm Ludwig (1560–1620), and grandson Wilhelm (1592–1642) did the same.52 In 1607 entries were made by the Elector Palatine, Frederick IV (1574–1610),53 as well as by the sons of Heinrich VII von Ortenburg, Johann Philip (1592–1631) and Heinrich VIII (1594–1622).54 Duke Philipp Ludwig II von Hanau-Münzenberg (1576–1612) also signed in 1607 whilst on a visit to Prague.55 In the same year we fi nd entries from Count Philipp von Solms – Braunfels (1575–1628) and his nephew Count Konrad Ludwig (1595–1635).56 Philipp’s older brother and father of Konrad Ludwig, Johann Albrecht I von Solms –Braunfels (1563 – 1623), only signed in Prague in July 1618, having come to the city with the Elector Palatine, Frede rick V, under whom he served as the steward of the royal court.57

In this context it should be recalled that Opsimathes’ album also includes entries from members of two European ruling families; by coincidence, these were made within a short space of each other in 1616. In June in the Hague, his place of exile, the Portuguese King Manuel (1568–1638), his consort Emilia von Nassau (1569–1629), the daughter of William I of Orange, their sons Cristovao, Manuel II and Louis Guillaume Christoph, and their daughter Maria Belga all signed Opsimathes’s album.58 The entry of Prince Charles (later the English King Charles I) has already been mentioned above; it should be added that on Opsimathes’ second English journey, in the summer of 1616, entries were made in his album by the following fi gures: the prince’s tutor Thomas Murray and the king´s personal bodyguard John Ramsay, Viscount of Haddington,59 the leading representatives of the Anglican Church, James Montague (then still Bishop of Bath and Wells), Richard Neile (Bishop of Lincoln), and Andrews Lancelot (Bishop of Ely),60 and even the then Mayor of London, John Jolles.61 The English milieu is also referred to in

50 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 8.51 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 3 and 223.52 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 4, 4v, 5, 8v and 9.53 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 2.54 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 16 and 16v.55 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 7.56 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 5v and 8v.57 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 59v.58 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 53v, 54 and 55. Manuel was the son of the Portuguese king António, dethroned by the Habsburgs in 1580.59 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 101 and 61.60 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 6 and 223.61 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 6v.

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the entry by the personal confessor to the Bohemian Queen Elizabeth, Alexander Chap-man, who inscribed in Prague on 4 July 1620: ‘Gaudete quod nomina vestra scripta sunt in coelo. Aetas serax religionum sterilis religionis.’ This aphorism, together with Chapman’s dedication and signature, are the last words written in Opsimathes’ book of friends.62 They are also the last information we have on the life of this ardent Calvinist from Mora-via, since there are no other reliable sources on the subsequent course of his life.

2. Entries related to Poland in Opsimathes’ album amicorum

The next task is to identify and analyse those entries in Opsimathes’ book of friends with a Polish connection. Since Opsimathes was never in Poland, this primarily con-cerns entries made by people from Greater Poland, Lesser Poland, Lithuania, Livonia, or other territories under the infl uence of the Polish king; 63 in addition, also included are entries in Polish. This endeavour cannot be supported by a detailed study of Opsi-mathes’ opinions on the Polish situation, since it is not certain that he ever commented on it in any depth. There is, however, one source the analysis of which can give us at least a general idea of the concrete developments in Poland that might have attracted Opsimathes. This source is the introduction and the title page of the copy of the Czech edition of Calvin’s Institutes given to the King of England James I in July 1616, about which detailed information is given above. These documents are one of the few places where Opsimathes comments on other Slavic peoples, Poles included.

On the title page Opsimathes announces that the book was published ‘in communem usum omnium latissimae Slavonicae linguae populorum’; that is, ‘for the common use of all peoples speaking the widespread Slavic language’.64 This idea is then developed in the text of the introduction: ‘I believe that I have done a great thing in making it possible for this book, which has brought great benefi t to many nations, to be read in the Slavic language as well and to be published in one of the foremost languages spoken in the world. For there is no other language in the world, with the exception of Arabic, spoken and used to express human ideas over a greater territory. When Emperor Charles IV perceived that this language was so necessary in the Holy [Roman] Empire [of the Ger-man people], he ordered that the children of the Imperial Electors should learn it.’65

62 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 38v.63 Silesia is not included in this analysis, because it was at this time a part of Bohemian Crown territory.64 See Institutio Christianae religionis, in quator libros digesta, Johanne Calvino actore. In Bohemi-cam vero lingvam a Georgio Streyzio versa, et in communem usum omnium latissimae Slavonicae linguae populorum a Johanne Opsimathe edita. Zpráva a vysvětlení náboženství křesťanského, ve čtyřech knihách, od Jana Kalvína učiněna. Do Českého pak jazyku, od Jiříka Streyce přeložena a na světlo k společnému užívání všechněm národům slovanského široce rozprostřeného jazyka, vydaná od Jana Opsymathesa, Amberg 1615. See Sidney Sussex College (Cambridge), S.4.28, p. 1. For an edition of this document see KOSTLÁN, Jiří Strejc, App. No. 2. See also footnote 42 above.65 The Czech original reads: ‘Maje za to, že tím velikou věc spravím, když to spůsobím, aby kniha, kteráž mnohým národům veliký oužitek přinesla, také v řeči slovanské mohla se čísti a na světlo v jednom z předních jazyků, kterýchž okršlek světa užívá, vyjíti. Poněvádž po arabské řeči žádné není,

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Somewhat further on he writes: ‘I surely hope that I thus prove of great service not only to our Bohemian and Moravian nation, but also to all those who follow a way of speak-ing similar to ours. For these nations have no access to any other explanations of the articles of faith (something that is, in my opinion, most lamentable). I believe that what I do will particularly redound to Your Royal Grace’s glorious name. I have no doubt also that this work will be useful not only for Your Royal Grace’s devout subjects resident among the Russians, particularly those in Kola, at the port of St Nicholas and in the vicinity of the New Land,66 but also for all Russians, or rather Muscovites.’67

These thoughts of Opsimathes, with their somewhat unexpected pan-Slavic senti-ments, rather bring to mind similar passages that the Prague printer Daniel Adam of Ve-leslavín inserted in the introductions to some of his books (for example, the Muscovite Chronicle of 1590 and Eusebius’ Church History of 1594).68 When one enquires into the motivations behind these positions, one cannot help thinking that, in both cases, the pragmatic calculations of businesslike publishers, who are counting on Slavic regions as suitable markets for a certain portion of the books they print in Czech, lie behind the declared supranational patriotism. Emma Urbánková has already considered the intended audience of the Czech edition of Calvin’s Institutes, since it was published at a time when its legal circulation was still not yet possible in Bohemia. She observes that, ‘on account of the linguistic similarity, we should primarily consider the Poles, who did not yet have their own translation at that time.’69 Her view that Opsimathes was count-ing, at least in part, on markets in Poland when he printed the Czech translation of Calvin’s Institutes seems well-founded.

kteráž by větší díl světa opanovala, též i vlastnějšími slovy lidská myšlení najevo vynášela. Kteréhožto jazyku, spatřiv císař Karel Čtvrtý, že jest jeho také v S[vaté] říši veliká potřeba, nařídil to, aby se jemu dítky kurfi řtů učili.’ Ibid., p. 5. The citation is only from the Czech version of the introduction (it includes a parallel Latin text).66 Opsimathes is here referring to the Russian territory controlled by the English Muscovy Com-pany (or Russian Company). For a description of its activities, see most recently Kit MAYERS, North-East Passage to Muscovy: Stephen Borough and the First Tudor Explorations, Stroud 2005. The ‘port of St Nicholas’ refers to the Nikolo-Korelsky Monastery at the mouth of the Northern Dvina river (today’s Severodvinsk).67 The Czech original reads: ‘Já zajisté mám naději, že tím způsobem netoliko národu našemu českému a moravskému, ale také všechněm těm, kteří příbuzného nám spůsobu mluvení následují, poněvádž jiných výkladů artykulů víry obecné nemají (což za hodné velikého politování býti soudím), výborně posloužím. A obzvláštně pro Vaší královské M[ilosti] slavné jméno to, což činím, že tím příjemnější bude, té celé důvěrnosti sem. Nepochybuji též, že tato práce, také pobožným Vaší královské milosti poddaným, kteříž mezi Rusy, a zvláště v Kole, na portu svatého Mikuláše, okolo Nové země bydlí, anobrž všechněm Rusům neb Moskvanům, užitečná bude.’ Ibid., p. 6. See also URBÁNKOVÁ, Několik poznámek, pp. 242–243.68 See Milan KOPECKÝ, Daniel Adam z Veleslavína [D. A. of Veleslavín], Praha 1962, pp. 141–142 and 168. About Slavic topics in the thought of later Czech protestant exile writers see Vladimír URBÁNEK, Eschatologie, vědění a politika. Příspěvek k dějinám myšlení pobělohorského exilu [Escha-tology, Knowledge and Politics. On the Intellectual History of the Post-White-Mountain Exiles], České Budějovice 2008, pp. 93–94.69 URBÁNKOVÁ, Několik poznámek, p. 242.

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An initial hypothesis can then be proposed: that Opsimathes’ dealings with the in-habitants of the Rzeczpospolita were primarily connected with his (or their common) religious orientation and that they were in principle determined by his endeavour to spread the Calvinist version of Protestantism. If this was the case, Poland must naturally have held a considerable attraction for him; unlike Bohemia and Moravia, the territory controlled by the Polish king in the 16th century saw a massive expansion of this reli-gious trend. It managed to establish for itself a very strong position vis-à-vis Catholicism and two other very powerful strands of Protestantism – Lutheranism and the Unity of Brethren. With the latter two a common agreement was concluded, articulated in the Sandomierz Consensus of 1570.70 Calvinists also managed to create a distinctive church network based on Swiss models, which, at the close of the 16th century, control-led 250–260 congregations in Lesser Poland and 190–200 congregations in Lithuania; signifi cant positions were also established in other regions (particularly Kujawy).71 No-ble magnates, who regularly held leading positions in the Polish Sejm as well as in the royal council, provided the main support for the spread of Calvinism (mention should at least be made of the Leszczyńskis in Poland and the Radziwiłłs in Lithuania). The expansion of Calvinism in the second half of the 16th century, together with the defence of the ground won and its retreat in the fi rst half of the 17th century, are therefore closely intertwined with other basic issues of political development in Poland.

The Unity of Brethren also aimed at expanding in Poland; they had already taken root there by the second half of the 16th century and managed to set up a relatively independ-ent organisation.72 Of all the strands of Protestantism active in Poland, the positions of

70 From the extensive literature on the Polish Reformation and the role that Calvinism played in it, see Janusz TAZBIR, Szlachta i teologowie. Studia z dziejów polskiej kontrreformacji [Nobility and Theologians: Studies on the History of the Polish Counter-Reformation], Warszawa 1987; Henryk GMITEREK, Bracia czescy a kalwini w Rzeczypospolitej. Połowa XVI – połowa XVII wieku. Studium porównawcze [The Bohemian Brethren and the Calvinists in Poland from the mid-16th to the mid-17th Century: A Comparative Study], Lublin 1987; Jolanta DWORZACZKOWA, Reformacja i kontrreformacja w Wielkopolsce [The Reformation and Counter-Reformation in Great Poland], Poznań 1995; James R. PALMITESSA, The Reformation in Bohemia and Poland, in: R. PO-CHIA HSIA (ed.), A Companion to the Reformation World, Oxford 2004, pp. 185–204; Darius PETKŪNAS, Holy Communion Rites in the Polish and Lithuanian Reformed Agendas of the 16th and Early 17th Cen-turies, Helsinki 2004, pp. 13–51 (see also the overview of sources and the existing literature on the development of Polish Calvinism on pp. 316–329); ID., Consensus of Sandomierz – a Unique Ecumenical Document in 16th Century Polish-Lithuanian Christianity, Tiltai 30, 2005, 1, pp. 85–104.71 GMITEREK, Bracia czescy, pp. 143–165; on the number of churches, see TAZBIR, Szlachta, p. 15; PETKŪNAS, Holy Communion Rites, p. 35.72 See especially Jaroslav BIDLO, Jednota bratrská v prvním vyhnanství [The Unity of Brethren in the fi rst exile], Vol. I – IV, Praha 1900–1932; ID., Vzájemný poměr české a polské větve Jednoty Bratrské v době 1587–1609 [Relations between the Bohemian and Polish branches of the Unity of Brethren 1587–1609], ČMM 41–42, (1917–1918), pp. 108–188; Marta BEČKOVÁ, Jan Amos Ko-menský a Polsko [Jan Amos Comenius and Poland], Praha 1983; Jolanta DWORZACKOWA, Bracia czescy w Wielkopolsce w XVI i XVII wieku [The Bohemian Brethren in Great Poland in the 16th and 17th Centuries], Warszawa 1997; GMITEREK, Bracia czescy, passim.

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the Unity of Brethren and the local Calvinists were closest; with the start of re-Catholi-cisation process in Poland and the corrosive infl uence of the anti-Trinitarian radicals on the local Reformation, their views grew even closer. In the opinion of the Polish scholar Henryk Gmiterek, the primary reason for the harmonisation of their opinions, which occurred in the fi rst third of the 17th century, as well as the integration of their organi-sations, was the irenicist doctrine of the Brethren’s Polish branch.73 The convergence and resultant unifi cation of the Unity of Brethren, the church from which he came, and Calvinism, the strand of Protestantism which he professed and for which he had left the Brethren, must have been warmly welcomed by Opsimathes, and was undoubtedly one of the reasons why he was so interested in developments in Poland.

The fi rst people from Poland signed Opsimathes’ album in Leiden, where the Mora-vian scholar had enrolled at the university along with his ward from Prague, Jan Kechl of Holenštejn, in December 1598, and where they both studied and lived until May 1600 at least.74 Shortly before his departure from Leiden, his album was signed by Mauritius Widemann and Jan Jasmanicki on 23 May 1600. The former indicates that he was from Königsberg, and we know from the register of Leiden University that he had enrolled as a ‘litterarum studiosus’ by May 1596, that he considered himself Polish, and that he must have been at least thirty-one years old at the time of his inscription in Opsimathes’ album.75 It is thus most likely that he was employed as a preceptor by the Jasmanicki family. From his entry, modestly made almost at the very end of the book, which was not then full, we learn that he had managed to strike up quite friendly relations with the Moravian scholar during the time they were at Leiden, and that they had formed an ‘amicitia perpetuum duratura’.76 Jan Jasmanicki was undoubtedly a member of the Polish noble family and wrote an aphorism about friendship in the album.77 We have no proof that Jan was enrolled at the university, although we do fi nd the name of his relative, Jakub Jasmanicki, in the register against the year 1597.78 It is therefore possible that he was a relative of the student Jasmanicki, who had come to check up on his studies or to take him back to his country.

73 Henryk GMITEREK, Irénismus českobratrské církve v Polsku v XVI.–XVII. století [Irenicism of the Unity of Brethren in Poland in the 16th and 17th centuries], Acta Universitatis Palackianae Olomucensis, Facultas philosophica, Historica 27, 1996, pp. 13–21.74 On his enrolment at Leiden, see footnote 22 above. Information on Opsimathes’ journeys is mostly drawn from an as yet unpublished analysis of the entries in his album amicorum.75 DU RIEU (ed.), Album studiosorum, p. 45.76 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 268. The entry is in Latin and consists of a quotation from St John’s Gospel and a dated dedication (Leiden 23 May 1600). The date is given according to the Julian calendar, which was normal at the time in the Protestant milieu (the same applies to all other entries mentioned unless explicitly indicated otherwise). The inscriber identifi ed himself here as ‘Mauritius Wideman Regiomontanus’.77 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 170. The entry is in Latin and consists of a brief aphorism and a dated dedication (Leiden 23 May 1600). The inscriber signed himself as ‘Johannes Jasmanicki Polonus’.78 DU RIEU (ed.), Album studiosorum, p. 49: ‘Jacobus Jazmaniky /sic!/ Polonus.’ The entry is dated 23 July 1597, on which day he was twenty-two years old (another Pole, seventeen-year-old

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Another Pole whom Opsimathes met on his travels was Piotr Borkowski (also Dunin-Borkowski) of Borkowice, owner of Bochotnica and Czchów. We know that he was the son of Andrzej Borkowski, a provincial scribe from Lublin, and his second wife, Anna Ossowska. He studied in Strasbourg, where he published several essays on ethical themes in 1596–1597 (on the actions of leaders, on the common good). After returning to Poland he pursued a military career and became famous for a number of engage-ments in the wars against Sweden and Russia (he was even immortalised by the painter Juljusz Kossak in 1884 in his painting Borkowski beneath Moscow). He also led some relatively complex diplomatic negotiations, particularly during the fi ght for Moscow, and in 1616 he was awarded the title Standard-bearer (‘chorąży’) of Sandomierz. He died relatively young in May 1619.79 We have no direct evidence of his religious convictions, but members of his family were numbered among the Calvinist nobility much later in the 17th and 18th centuries.80 He met Opsimathes in Paris, through which the Moravian scholar passed in the summer of 1600 after his fi rst trip to England. Borkowski made an entry in his album on 15 August 1600, accompanied by two aphorisms on morals.81

A few days later, when Opsimathes was in Orléans (he arrived some time after 29 Au-gust and left before 10 September 1600),82 another entry of interest to us was made in his book. Its author was Henricus Essken, who hailed, according to the entry, from Prussia. The entry is interesting both for his dedication (where the author says that he is signing the album for its owner, i.e. ‘viro creditione claro Dr. Johanni Opsimathi, ex virtute dextre electo’, as proof that he wishes their friendship to last a long time), and for the fact that he also gives the Polish paraphrase of the Latin aphorism, which he inscribed: ‘Niesżcżeśćie ogliąda swego pana’ (i.e. Misfortune commands her master).83 The entry’s author was probably a close relative of (if not identical to) the Henricus Essken who, according to the dedication in a 1654 legal dissertation by his nephew on his mother’s side, was the general administrator of Dubinki; this lay in the domain of the prominent magnate family of the Radziwiłłs, who turned this Lithuanian town into one of the

Jan Kobylecki, was registered with him). The possibility that he was the same Jakub Jasmanicki who defended his medical thesis in Heidelberg in 1594 cannot be ruled out – see Stanisław KOŚMIŃSKI, Słownik lekarzów polskich, Warszawa 1886 – Polskie Archiwum Biografi czne, Munich 1992–1995, addenda 1997 (hereinafter PAB I), 181, 168 (the reference relates to the microfi che database issued by the publishing house Saur).79 Kazimierz TYSZKOWSKI, Borkowski Piotr, in: Polski słownik biografi czny II/4, Kraków 1936, p. 336.80 Szymon KONARSKI, Szlachta kalwińska w Polsce, Warszawa 1936, pp. 23–24.81 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 129. The entry is in Latin and consists of two aphorisms (the second is a quotation from Pindar) together with the inscriber’s signature and the date (Paris 15 August 1600 – here we must assume the Gregorian calendar). The inscriber identifi ed himself as ‘Petrus Borkowski a Borkowice in Bochotnice et Czchow’.82 See the entries in Opsimathes’ album, which are dated Paris 28 August 1600 and 10 Septem-ber 1600 in Bourges – British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 122 and 189.83 See British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 241v. The entry, which is in Latin and Polish, is only dated with the year 1600 while the place is given as the French city of Orléans. The writer identifi ed himself as ‘Henricus Esskenn Prutenus’.

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most signifi cant centres of Calvinism in Eastern Europe.84 It is understandable that a person with such a background would want to express his connection with a fellow believer from Bohemia in Polish as well. It should be, however, noted that this Henricus Essken was not the only member of the family to play a part in Polish history. Since his brother, Johann Essken, then proconsul of the royal city of Toruń, is mentioned in the same dedication, we can identify the family with the Erskines (or Erskeins) who were originally of Scottish descent and later settled in North-Eastern Europe. Without doubt the family’s most distinguished member is Alexander Erskein (1598–1656), who sat on the Swedish Council of War and was its president; he played a signifi cant role on behalf of the Swedes in the diplomatic negotiations, which led to the end of the Thirty Years’ War and in the subsequent unrest in Poland.85

Perhaps the most important group of Polish entries in Opsimathes’ book of friends was made at the beginning of March 1601 in Geneva, the capital city of European Calvinism, where the Moravian scholar and his then ward from Prague, Jan Kechl of Holenštejn, had already been studying for some months at the local academy.86 For it was here that he met the prominent Polish magnate Andrzej Leszczyński of Leszno (1559–1606), who was considered one of the leading fi gures of Polish Protestantism.87 Andrzej Leszczyński was one of the Polish statesmen who managed to combine their radical Protestant views with loyalty to the Polish king. Politically he favoured coopera-tion with the Habsburgs (surely connected with the fact that his estates in Silesia were under Habsburg rule) and was one of the so-called Maximilianites, who supported the Habsburg Maximilian in his attempt to gain the Polish throne.88 He was very close to

84 See Heinrich WILLER, Disertatio iuridica de iure tutelarum, Gryphiswaldiae 1654 (VD17 7:646617B). See Appendix 2 for the dedication, which reads: ‘Magnifi co, generoso Dn. Henrico Esskenn, Generali Ducatus Dubicen Administratori, in Kowernian Haeredi etc. etc. Dn. Avunculo plurimum colendo.’ From this we can conclude that this Henricus Essken also had property in-terests in Kaunas.85 On Alexander Erskein, see Jürgen BOMBACH, Stader Stadtlexikon: von Abbenfl eth bis Zwangs-arbeit, Stade 1994 – Deutsches biographisches Archiv: eine Kumulation aus 254 der wichtigsten biographischen Nachschlagewerke für den deutschen Bereich bis zum Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts, Munich 1985 (hereinafter DBA), III, 222, 57–58 (the reference relates to the microfi che database issued by the publishing house Saur); Heiko DROSTE, Im Dienst der Krone. Schwedische Diploma-ten im 17. Jahrhundert, Berlin 2006, Nr. B37, p. 390ff . On the common interchange of the names Essken, Esken, Erskein etc. see, for example, the publication Rikskansleren Axel Oxenstiernas skrivter och brev vächsling, Vol. XIII: Brev 1635 Januari-augusti, Stockholm 1919, p. 433 (see the entry ‘Erskine’).86 They were enrolled on 4 November 1600. See MOLNÁR – STELLING-MICHAUD, Opsimates Jan, de Moravie, p. 57.87 See in particular Włodzimierz DWORZACZEK, Leszczyński Andrzej, in: Polski słownik biografi cz ny XVII, Wrocław – Warszawa – Kraków – Gdańsk – Łodź 1977, pp. 101–103 (which also contains a summary of the other literature).88 See, for example, Josef MACŮREK, Čechové a Poláci v 2. polovině XVI. století (1573–1589). Tři kapitoly z dějin česko-polské politické vzájemnosti [Czechs and Poles in the 2nd half of the 16th century (1573–1589): Three chapters from the history of Czech-Polish relations], Praha 1948, pp. 140 and 146.

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the Unity of Brethren, and when, in 1601, he acquired Leszno, he confi rmed the Breth-ren’s local privileges and contributed substantially to the reform of the local Brethren school according to new pedagogical principles.89 He was always known as a ‘litterarum et litteratorum patronus et fautor’ and he distributed numerous scholarships to support the studies of talented Protestant youths at German and Swiss universities, with whose professors he had personal ties.

This was not the Polish magnate’s fi rst time in Geneva. As a young man he had stud-ied there in the fi rst half of the 1570s, when he met and became friendly with Theodore Beza, a leading fi gure in Geneva, and John Calvin’s successor as the head of the local religious community. At the time Beza had given him a copy of the New Testament with a dedication in his own hand, and they subsequently maintained regular contact.90 This time, however, Andrzej Leszczyński was not alone, for he had brought his two sons to study; he paid special attention not only to the education of his own son, Rafał, but also to that of Jan Radzimiński, his stepson by marriage. Rafał Leszczyński (1579–1636) was then twenty-two years old and was right in the middle of his ambitious grand tour in pursuit of learning. From 1594 to 1603 he studied at a series of German and Swiss universities (Heidelberg, Strasbourg, Basel and Geneva) and travelled through many countries in Western Europe. In Paris he was presented to the French King Henry IV, and in London he had an audience with Queen Elizabeth; at the Dutch court of Mau-rice of Orange he learnt the basics of siege warfare and also visited Italy, where, among other things, he became the private student of Galileo Galilei in Padua.91 After return-ing to Poland he became the Voivode of Belz and played an important part in politics; however, due to the Thirty Years’ War, he turned away from political cooperation with the Habsburgs and often even ended up in opposition to the Polish king. With regard to religion, he was almost the last of the family to follow in his father’s footsteps and he remained a confi rmed Protestant. He cultivated friendly links with, among others, the Brandenburg Elector Georg Wilhelm and the rebellious Hungarian magnate Gábor Bethlen; he was thus at the time dubbed ‘the Calvinist king.’ He worked closely with the Unity of Brethren and was one of the main supporters of those exiled from the Lands of the Bohemian Crown during the re-Catholicisation after the Battle of White Mountain. In 1623 he became the Lord of Leszno, where he supported the Protestant school and was in frequent contact with the Unity of Brethren Bishop Jam Amos Comenius, who was active there from 1628 on.92

89 On Andrzej Leszczyński’s relationship with the Unity of Brethren and Czechs see, for exam-ple, Jaroslav BIDLO, Jednota bratrská v prvním vyhnanství, Vol. IV: (1587–1595), Praha 1932, pas-sim; ID., Vzájemný poměr, passim; DWORZACKOWA, Bracia czescy, passim.90 DWORZACZEK, Leszczyński Andrzej, p. 101.91 See in particular Maria SIPAYŁŁO, Leszczyński Rafał, in: Polski słownik biografi czny XVII, pp. 135–139 (which also includes a summary of the other literature); Jan SZTURC, Ewangelicy w Pol-sce. Słownik biografi czny XVI–XX wieku [The Protestants in Poland: A Biographical Dictionary, the 16th to 20th Centuries], Bielsko-Biała 1998, p. 171ff .92 The starting point for understanding Rafał Leszczyński’s relationship to Bohemian exiles and Comenius are Comenius’ own refl ections on this relationship, which he included in his published works – see his sermon at Rafał’s funeral, Spiegel der guten Obrigkeit, Leszno 1636 (reprinted

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Rafał’s companion on his educational travels was Jan Radzimiński, the son of the Voivode of Podlachia Stanisław Radzimiński, who had died on a diplomatic mission to Moscow in 1591.93 After Stanisław’s death Jan and his sister Anna were taken care of by their mother, Teodora, the daughter of Roman Sanguszko, who soon married Aleksander Proński. He, however, also died soon after, and so Teodora married for a third time in 1596, this time Andrzej Leszcyński of Leszno. She was his second wife, and when she died in 1598, he married for a third time, this time Zofi a Opalińska, who was a Catholic. Despite this, both Radzimiński children, Anna and Jan, remained in the Leszczyński family as full members, and Anna was later engaged to and married An-drzej’s son Rafał Leszczyński. Jan was Rafał’s companion and his presence is attested at the universities of Basel (1596–1601), Strasbourg (1599) and Geneva (1601–1603), while he was also resident in Padua at a later date (1605); he died, however, during these travels at a young age.

The Polish magnate and his two sons did not, of course, travel alone, but were un-doubtedly accompanied by a small retinue. Two of its members are also recorded for posterity in Opsimathes’ album. The fi rst was the family’s young preacher, Samuel Turnovský (Turnowski in Polish), who then probably had no idea that he only had three and a half years to live (he died in October 1604).94 He gives us a direct link to the core of Czech-Polish relations concerning the Unity of Brethren, since a central fi gure of the time was Samuel’s father Šimon Theofi l Turnovský (Szymon Teofi l Turnowski in Polish), a bishop of the Unity of Brethren, who survived his son by four years.95 The second person was Daniel Mikołajewski (1569–1633), superintendent of the Calvinist congregations in Kujawa, who was an infl uential fi gure in the religious milieu of Poland at the end of the 16th century and in the fi rst third of the 17th century.96 The gradual weakening of the position of the congregations that he represented led to closer coop-

Leszno after 1911); Lesnae excidium, s. l. 1656 (reprinted Leszno 1894). From the rich literature on this subject, see Lukáš KURDYBACHA, Působení Jana Amosa Komenského v Polsku [The activi-ties of Jan Amos Comenius in Poland], Praha 1960, esp. pp. 71–82; BEČKOVÁ, Jan Amos Komen-ský a Polsko; DWORZACKOWA, Bracia czescy, esp. p. 130ff ; Marta BEČKOVÁ, Jan Amos Comenius on Poland, Poles and Polish Culture, in: Leszno i Leszczyńscy, Leszno 1997, pp. 46–51.93 Jolanta CIWIŃSKA, Radzimiński Stanisław, in: Polski słownik biogragiczny XXX, Wrocław – Warszawa – Kraków – Gdańsk – Łodź 1987, pp. 102–104 (it also provides information on the life of Stanisław’s son Jan). See also STELLING-MICHAUD (ed.), Le Livre, Vol. V, p. 264.94 Joseph FIEDLER, Todtenbuch der Geistlichkeit der böhmischen Brüder, Alt-Tschau bei Neusalz a. O. 1872, p. 100; HREJSA, Sborové, p. 199.95 On Šimon Theofi l Turnovský, see Miloslav KAŇÁK et al., Významné postavy Jednoty bratrské a jejich dílo [Notable fi gures of the Unity of Brethren and their works], Praha 1957; on his ac-tivities in Poland, see most recently Henryk GMITEREK, Szymon Teofi l Turnowski w obronie zgo-dy sandomierskiej, Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie-Skłodowska, sec. F, XXXI, Lublin 1976, pp. 13–39; GMITEREK, Irénismus, pp. 13–21; DWORZACZKOWA, Bracia czescy, passim; SZTURC, Ewangelicy w Polsce, p. 304ff .96 On his life and work, see Maria SIPAYŁŁO, Mikołajewski Daniel, in: Polski słownik bibliografi czny XX1, Wrocław – Warszawa – Kraków – Gdańsk – Łodź 1976, pp. 154–156; SZTURC, Ewangelicy w Polsce, p. 201ff .

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eration with the Unity of Brethren after 1612, culminating in the integration of both church structures in 1627; from this date on, Mikołajewski acted as superintendent for the Unity of Brethren as well.97

It should, however, be recalled that Mikołajewski was not in Geneva in his function as superintendent, but primarily as the person to whom Voivode Leszczyński had en-trusted the overall supervision of his sons’ education – of Rafał, his own son, and Jan, his stepson (his elder son, Andrzej, had died at a young age). It was not only his studies at German universities, undertaken as a young man (in the 1580s he was a student at Frankfurt an der Oder and Heidelberg), which made him eminently suitable for this role, but also his cultural horizons and general refi nement. It should be remembered that he played a very signifi cant part in the history of Polish letters with his contribution to the new translation of the Bible (the so-called Danzig Bible of 1632), on the fi nal revi-sion of which he worked closely with Jan Turnowski in particular. From other sources we know that at the beginning of 1601 Andrzej Leszczyński instructed him to set out for Basel in Switzerland, where Rafał Leszczyński and Jan Radzimiński were studying under the kindly guardianship of the local professor Johann Jacob Grynaeus, and take them away to Geneva, where he was to present them to Theodore Beza.98 What has remained hitherto unknown, however, and is only revealed by Opsimathes’ album ami-corum, is the fact that this powerful voivode eventually decided to oversee Mikołajewski’s mission personally and took part in it himself.

The Voivode of Brześć Kujawski, Andrzej Leszczyński, was conscious of his standing when he signed Opsimathes’ book of friends, and therefore made his entry on one of the fi rst of the twenty folios of the album. The entry itself, however, is a combination of the courtly manner of leaving a mark for posterity, usually used by members of rul-ing and princely houses and comprising only a signature and date, and the developed and formalised style commonly employed by scholars and university students.99 The aphorism he wrote in the album was a favourite one of the time: ‘Cunctis velle placere, cavem namque omnibus unquam. Nemo satisfecit, nemo satisfaciet.’ It suited his position as a statesman who often found himself defending opinions, which did not fi nd favour amongst the majority. He omitted a dedication and appended his signature together with his rank as Voivode and the date.100 His sons’ entries, which were made very close to their father’s, follow a similar structure. Rafał Leszczyński decided on an aphorism, which can be identifi ed as a quotation from Seneca’s tragedy Thyestes: ‘Illi mors gravis incubat,/ qui notus nimis omnibus,/ ignotus moritur sibi’; he also added another brief

97 See most recently DWORZACZKOWA, Bracia czescy, p. 107. The text on p. 48 shows that the claim that Mikołajewski was a superintendent of the Unity of Brethren from 1607 is incorrect.98 Sipayłło, Mikołajewski Daniel, p. 155.99 On the format, see, for example, KLOSE, Corpus, p. IXff ; RYANTOVÁ, Památníky raného novověku, p. 67ff .100 British Library, Eg.1220, fol. 19v. The entry is in Latin and, like those of Andrzej’s two sons, it is only dated Geneva March 1601. It is probable that they were made on the same day as the entry of Samuel Turnovský (i.e. 1 March). Andrzej signed himself as ‘Andreas de Lessno palatinus Brestensis Cuiaviensis.’

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aphorism in French at the end.101 Jan Radzimiński opted for an even shorter aphorism in his entry: ‘Jehova spes mea.’102

The entries of the two men who accompanied Voivode Leszczyński, Samuel Turnowski and Daniel Mikołajewski, are a little more informative with regard to their attitude to-wards the album’s owner. Both of them replace ‘amicitia’, a basic term in autograph books of the early modern period,103 with the term ‘fraternitas’, signifying that their connection to Opsimathes is much stronger; that the fraternal link is understood in a spiritual light is confi rmed by both entries’ reference to a common faith.104 Samuel Turnowski’s dedication, dated the Calends of March 1601 in Geneva, begins with ‘Pos-sesori huius libri, ornatissimo doctissimoque domino Johanni Opsimathi in signum sanctae fraternitatis.’ His entry also includes a short religious aphorism: ‘Solius in CHR[IST]I iuravi verba magistri.’105 Daniel Mikołajewski’s entry contains two short aphorisms in Greek and Latin, and a dedication, which describes the relation of the inscriber to the album’s owner thus: ‘Insigni pietate et doctrina ornatissimo d[omini] Joanni Opsimathi, fratri in domino cominetissimo….’ It is dated Geneva 10 March 1601 and was therefore made somewhat later than the entries indicated above.106

The entry of Ernest von Nolde, a learned noble from Livonia, boasts three languages: a quotation in Greek from St John’s Book of Revelation, an excerpt from Psalm 33 in Hebrew, and, at the end, a Latin dedication dated Herborn 15 March 1605.107 It was no accident that the entry was made in Herborn because both men were closely linked to the town and its school. Opsimathes was a regular presence there from 1603 to 1606

101 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 19. The entry is in Latin and French, for the date see the previ-ous footnote. Rafał also gave his descent along with his name: ‘Raphael de Lesno fi lius palatini Brestensis Cuiauien[sis].’102 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 23v. The entry is in Latin, for the date see above. Jan also gave his descent along with his name: ‘Joannes a Radzimin palatinus Podlassiae.’103 See KLOSE, Corpus, p. XV; RYANTOVÁ, Památníky, p. 54ff ; KOSTLÁN, Bohemikální alba, p. 96.104 To the terms ‘frater’ and ‘fraternitas’ in the Opsimathes’ album, see more e. g. British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 234v (Samuel Sitinský, preacher in Uherský Brod, 1610) or fol. 260v (Herr mann Ficke, preacher in Emden, 1616).105 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 209v. The entry is written in Latin and consists of an aphorism and dated dedication (Geneva 1 March 1601). The inscriber describes himself thus: ‘Samuel Turnowski in aula illustrissi[mi] d[omi]ni palatini Bresten[sis] Cuiavien[sis] Andreae de Lessno a sacris concionib[us].’106 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 209. The entry consists of a Greek and Latin aphorism and a dated dedication in Latin (Geneva 10 March 1601).107 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 149v. The entry is written in Greek, Hebrew and Latin and is dated Herborn 15 March 1605. The inscriber’s Livonian origins are indicated in his signature in Opsimathes’ album: ‘Ernestus Nolde Livonus’. It can be assumed that he was a relative of Magnus von Nolde, who was engaged in Polish service (died 1615), and his family – see Johann Frie-drich VON RECKE – Carl Eduard NAPIERSKI, Allgemeines Schriftsteller- und Gelehrten- Lexikon der Provinzen Livland, Esthland und Kurland, Bd. III, Mitau 1831 – entry ‘von Nolde Magnus’ (DBA I, 903, 350–351). One of Ernest’s relations may also have been Johann von Nolde, who was born in the Latvian town of Hasenpoth/Aizpute; he was a soldier in Polish employ and died in 1633 – see the incompletely preserved funeral sermon of Paul Eichhorn (VD17 23:692486C).

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as a preceptor for young nobles and wrote of his connection to the school in a letter to Brederode on July 1606: ‘Herborna Bohemis est impleta et adhuc multi venire cogitant, meum adventum Pragam expectant, ut illos huc deducam.’108 Nolde enrolled at Herborn in October 1600 and in the same year was engaged in a disputation. Probably employed for some time as a professor of Hebrew and French, he became very close to one of the most eminent professors there, Johannes Piscator,109 becoming one of the four favoured students to whom Piscator dedicated his treatise Expositio capitum in 1603; he even married into his family.110 When, at Herborn in 1607, Piscator published a collection of theological dissertations under discussion at the school, it also included one by Nolde; this, it should be noted, was dedicated to Bohuchval Berka of Dubá.111

During this period, however, Nolde spent more time in Heidelberg. Although he had fi rst enrolled at the university in March 1599, he only started to study theology on a regular basis there in April 1603.112 November 1603 saw him in Heidelberg defending his thesis, De persona Christi, subsequently printed in 1611 by David Pareus in a collec-tion of local theological dissertations. Among others, this included one by the Bohe-mian student Martin Polykarp, also from 1603, which was dedicated to some leading fi gures in the Unity of Brethren.113 Ernest von Nolde’s thesis, however, was dedicated to the well known Heidelberg preacher, Abraham Scultetus, as his friend (‘amico suo honorando’; Scultetus was later to play a signifi cant role in Bohemian history during the reign of Frederick V, the Bohemian ‘Winter King’).114 Not much information about the later life of this Livonian noble has come down to us; it appears, however, that in the end he decided to pursue his scholarly activities in the German cultural sphere. In 1619 we fi nd Ernest von Nolde in Bytom Odrzański in Lower Silesia (Beuthen an der Oder in German), as one of the pedagogues engaged in a noteworthy attempt to establish higher education along Calvinist lines in the local ‘gymnasium academicum’, founded by Georg von Schönaich in 1601.115

108 MENK, Die Hohe Schule Herborn, p. 289, footnote 28.109 See Gottfried ZEDLER – Hans SOMMER, Matrikel der hohen Schule und des Pädagogiums zu Herborn, Wiesbaden 1908, p. 31, no. 784 and p. 712, no. 58.110 This is supported by the designation ‘gener domini Piscatoris’. See ibid., p. 31, no. 784; Jo-hannes PISCATOR, Expositio capitum catecheseos religionis Christianae, Herborn 1603 (VD17 32:631587S). When Piscator died in 1625, Georg Pasor included Nolde among the living dedi-catees in his printed funeral oration – see Georg PASOR, Oratio funebris in obitum […] Johannis Piscatoris, Herborn 1625 (VD17 7:635331V).111 Johannes PISCATOR, Volumen […] Thesium Theologicarum, Herborn 1607 (VD17 14:684908Y).112 For his fi rst and second matriculations, see Gustav TOEPKE, Die Matrikel der Universität Hei-delberg von 1386 bis 1662, Bd. II.: 1554–1662, Heidelberg 1886 [reprint Nendeln 1976], p. 197, No. 44 and p. 216, No. 36.113 David PAREUS, Disputationum Theologicarum Publice in Academia Archi-Palatina habitarum volumen unum, Heidelberg 1611 (VD17 12:110705P).114 VD17 12:110705P, pictorial appendix No. 29.115 In 1619 Ernest von Nolde contributed to Schönaich’s funeral anthology, which was prepared by the teachers and professors of the local grammar school: Piae lacrymae ad funus […] Georgi a Schönaich, Beuthen 1619 (VD17 125:004071C). On the establishment of the grammar school in Bytom, see Johann Heinrich ZEDLER, Grosses vollständiges Universal Lexikon aller Wissenschaften

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Another fi gure whose name appears in Opsimathes’ album is the Lithuanian noble Mikołaj Abramowicz, who was to become an outstanding soldier and, as commanding offi cer of the Lithuanian artillery, attained the rank of general in 1640. It was prima-rily his military achievements in the war against Sweden and the Smolensk war, which secured Abramowicz a successful career. In this he diff ered somewhat from his father Jan, who had a much greater infl uence on political developments in his country and was later made Voivode of Minsk and Smolensk.116 Mikołaj was made the Cupbearer of the Lithuanian Grand Duchy in 1638, the Castellan of Mścisław in 1639, the Voivode of Mścisław in 1643, and fi nally, four years later, the Voivode of Troki; he died in 1651. We know that, like his father, he was a Protestant with Calvinist inclinations and that he even made over his mansion at Slutsk to the Lithuanian synod in 1631 so that it could establish a boarding house for students at the local Protestant grammar school. In 1644 he personally presided over the provincial synod of Lithuanian congregations and was one of the last Protestant senators in Lithuania. In 1648 he signed the Diet’s resolution but voiced his confessional reservation against it. Both of his wives were also of the Calvinist persuasion, the second of whom was Elżbieta of Hornostaj, the widow of a member of the Drohojowski family, which we shall treat below.117

Abramowicz met Opsimathes and signed his album on 5 October 1605 in Leipzig, where Opsimathes had stopped for a couple of days on his way home to Moravia from Herborn; he inscribed a short aphorism ending with the words ‘Candore et spe’.118 Three other people connected with the Leipzig university wrote in the album on the same day: Johannes Steinmetz, a professor of philosophy and medicine, Matthaeus Dresser, a professor of history and linguistics, and the Bohemian student Jan Litoměřický.119 One has a picture of a sociable get-together, where the entries were all made at the same time. As someone who was often involved in university aff airs during his studies at Leipzig, Abramowicz is to be found among those who contributed to the anthology published on the occasion of the funeral of the widow of Moritz Steinmetz, a local professor.120

Another important fi gure who signed Opsimathes’ album in 1606 was Ernest Mag-nus Denhoff , a scion of the distinguished Denhoff family (Dönhoff in German), which included counts and some dukes. The family was originally based in Franconia but

und Künste, Bd. XXXV, Leipzig – Halle 1743, p. 636. Other relevant literature is summarised in HOTSON, Johann Heinrich Alsted’s Relations, p. 20.116 Jan’s political contributions are, for example, appraised in BIDLO, Jednota bratrská v prvním vyhnanství, Vol. IV, pp. 143–145 and others; SZTURC, Ewangelicy w Polsce, p. 9.117 See Wacław LIPIŃSKI, Abramowicz nebo Abrahamowicz Mikołaj, in: Polski słownik biografi czny, tom I, Kraków 1935, pp. 14–15; KONARSKI, Szlachta kalwińska, pp. 1–2.118 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 27v. The entry is in Latin and consists of an aphorism and a dated signature (Leipzig 5 October 1605). The inscriber described himself thus: ‘Nicolaus Abramowicz Nobilis Lituanus’.119 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 97, 105 and 221. In all likelihood this Jan Litoměřický is not the same Jan Litoměřický (of Jizbice), who was the brother of Pavel of Jizbice – see RHB 2, p. 455.120 Vincentius SCHMUCK, Leichtpredigt beim Begräbnüss der […] Catharinae […] des […] Mauritij Steinmetzen […] Wittwe, Leipzig 1606 (VD17 1:033165N). Jan Litoměřický also contributed to the anthology.

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spread from there to Livonia, Poland and Prussia, where it played a signifi cant part in political, military and religious developments. Ernest Magnus’ father was Gerard Denhoff , Voivode of Dorpat and a governor in Livonia; he was also the founder of the Polish branch of the family.121 Ernest Magnus’ younger brother, Gerard the Younger (1590–1648), played a particularly signifi cant role in Polish history. He grew up as a page at the court of the Elector of Brandenburg and became a close collaborator of the Polish Prince Władysław Sigismund (later the Polish King Władysław IV Vasa), whom he accompanied on campaigns against the Turks as well as on educational journeys in Germany and Italy. He later held a number of important military and diplomatic posts in Prussia and Poland, and was, among other things, made count by Emperor Ferdinand II in 1635 together with his brothers Kaspar and Ernest Magnus.122 Ernest Magnus himself (1581–1642) studied humanities and warfare in Holland from 1599. In 1607 and 1608 he was to be found in Herborn and Geneva (see below); he also travelled in France and other countries. After returning home, he and his brother joined in a cam-paign against the Turks in Hungary. Like his brother he undertook both military assign-ments and various diplomatic missions. He was involved in negotiations with Sweden on a number of occasions and tried to get the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg to support Poland. He was governor of Königsberg and represented the Polish king several times in the Prussian Diet there. In 1630 he married Katharina von Dohna (from the Brandenburg branch of the family, who were burgraves) and was awarded a number of titles, including Castellan of Parnawa in 1634 and Voivode of Parnawa in 1640. It is known that he was an ardent Calvinist with close links to the German cultural sphere; he always remained, however, a loyal subject of the Polish king.123

Denhoff ’s entry in Opsimathes’ album includes, in addition to a dedication, a short, moral aphorism attributed to Seneca.124 The place where it was written is rather surpris-ing: it was not at one of the famous universities, as was the case with most of the previ-ous entries, but rather in ‘Tischnoviae Moraviae’, Tišnov in Moravia, on 30 March 1606. It is, of course, intriguing why and under what circumstances the individuals concerned met in this place. In the case of Opsimathes, the answer is simple – Moravia was his

121 On the Denhoff family see J. H. ZEDLER, Grosses vollständiges Universal Lexikon, Bd. VII, Halle – Leipzig 1734, pp. 1145–1151; Walter BUSSMANN, Dönhoff , Grafen v., in: Neue deutsche Biographie IV, Berlin 1959, p. 26ff .122 On Gerard the Younger see ZEDLER, Grosses vollständiges Universal Lexikon, p. 1151; Władyslaw CZAPLIŃSKI, Denhoff Gerard, in: Polski słownik biografi czny V/1, Kraków 1939, p. 109ff ; Christian KROLLMANN, Altpreussische Biographie, Bd. I, Königsberg 1941, p. 138; SZTURC, Ewangelicy w Pol-sce, pp. 61–62.123 See Władyslaw CZAPLIŃSKI, Denhoff Ernest Magnus, in: Polski słownik biografi czny V/1, p. 109; Suzanne STELLING-MICHAUD (ed.), Le Livre du Recteur de l’Academie de Genève (1559–1878), Vol. III: Notices biographiques des étudiants D–G, Geneva 1972, p. 122; SZTURC, Ewangelicy w Pol-sce, p. 61 (although names are not given accurately). For the sermon at his funeral, see Johann BERGIUS, Seligkeit der Todten in Christo, Elbing 1642 (VD17 23:255314C).124 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 148v. The entry is written in Latin and consists of an aphorism and dated dedication (Tišnov in Moravia 30 March 1606, here we must assume the Gregorian calendar). The insriber signed himself as ‘Magnus Ernestus Denhof Livo[nus]’.

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homeland. He always returned there periodically following his travels abroad, usually in the winter. He was staying in Moravia over the winter, from November 1605 until March of the following year. On the day the entry was made, he was actually preparing to leave Moravia. It has been confi rmed that he was in Prague a few days later, on 8 April.125 It is rather more complicated to explain why the Livonian magnate was in Moravia at that time. It has been established, of course, that his family had longstanding friendly contacts with several eminent Moravian aristocrats, in particular with Ladislav Velen of Žerotín. Much later, when the latter had to go into exile after the Battle of White Moun-tain, this acquaintance proved most fortuitous. It was thanks to the Denhoff family that he was able to fi nd a temporary refuge in Gdańsk.126

In addition, the young Ernest Magnus Denhoff was undoubtedly also acquainted with Oldřich of Kounice because he was one of the people whom this Moravian mag-nate entrusted with the upbringing of his sons Fridrich and Jan. When these young aris-tocrats, together with Opsimathes, left Moravia and travelled via Prague and Frankfurt am Main to Herborn at the end of March and over April 1606, they were undoubtedly also accompanied by Ernest Magnus. He was closely connected with them as their older companion for the entire time of their studies at Herborn. It is not clear how tutorial duties were divided between Opsimathes and Denhoff , but there are hints that their relationship was not harmonious. This is suggested, for example, in a letter that Oldřich of Kounice wrote on 28 March 1606 to the chancellor and professors of the Herborn school. In it he asked them to try to limit the negative infl uence that squabbles between his sons’ ‘preceptor’ and ‘tutor’ (‘Hofmeister’) might have on their education (the head of the school shrewdly resolved the matter by putting Professor Matthias Martini, at that time a teacher at the school, in charge of the young aristocrats).127

By accompanying the young Kounice aristocrats to the ‘Hohe Schule’ in Herborn, Opsimathes’ fame grew immensely. Nonetheless, in the end it was only Denhoff who continued on with the young men to study in Geneva. They enrolled together at the academy there on 14 May 1608. Thus, in the end, it was also Denhoff who witnessed the sudden death of one of the brothers, Jan of Kounice, in Geneva.128 One can only

125 See the entries of Václav of Kaliště and Bernard Hochhauzer of Hochhauz made on this date. British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 42v and 47.126 František HRUBÝ, Ladislaus Welen von Zierotin im Kampf um die Heimat und sein Aufenthalt im Elbing 1629/30, Elbinger Jahrbuch 8, 1929, p. 120. For another mention of one of the Denhoff s (‘Denhoff ubet sich in Fechten’) see the letter of 14 July 1619, which Johann Steinberger wrote to Ladislav Velen of Žerotín from Strasbourg as preceptor of his sons. See František HRUBÝ, Étudiants Tchèques aux écoles protestantes de l´Europe occidentale à la fi n du 16e et au début du 17e siêcle, Brno 1970, Nr. 200, p. 282.127 For more detail, see Gerhard MENK, Kalvinismus und Pädagogik. Matthias Martinius (1572–1630) und der Einfl uss der Herborner Hohen Schule auf Johann Amos Comenius, Nassauische An-nalen. Jahrbuch des Vereins für Nassauische Altertumskunde und Geschichtsforschung 91, 1980, p. 102, footnote 134; KOSTLÁN – HADRAVOVÁ, Carmina propemptica, p. 128.128 On Denhoff ’s pedagogical relationship to the young Kounice brothers, see ODLOŽILÍK, Jednota bratrská, p. 87, and HRUBÝ, Étudiants Tchèques, p. 285, footnote 5; STELLING-MICHAUD (ed.), Le Livre, Vol. III, p. 122.

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speculate about the reasons that led the Livonian magnate to take up a position as tutor to the young Moravian aristocrats. It was certainly a surprising step considering that Denhoff came from a family that was at the very least equal to the Moravian Kounice family in terms of social prestige and political infl uence. It is possible that the decision was motivated by temporary upheavals in the power positions of his family, connected with the military activity of some members of the family.129 It is also possible, however, that it suited him to prolong his youth in the relatively carefree life of the student before returning home.

In the spring of 1607, Jan Opsimathes often left Herborn for Marburg, another Ger-man university town. There too he was in close contact with the local scholars, in par-ticular Protestants of a Calvinist bent. On 4 June of that year, a group of four Polish students, who were studying there at the time, signed his book of friends. The fi rst of these was Jan Bal of Hocew, a member of the third generation of a Polish noble family that passionately supported Calvinism. Their seat was the castle in Hocew, a large vil-lage near Sanok, which the brothers Stanisław Bal (died 1563) and Matjasz Bal (prob-ably died in 1575) subjected to a fi erce Calvinist purge. In 1558, the church in Hocew was rebuilt as a Calvinist congregation house (remaining thus until 1629). The brothers even went so far as to overturn serfdom violently and to confi scate the property of the Catholic and Orthodox churches. They were thus targeted with a number of sanctions, including an interdict and interventions on the part of the Polish King Sigismund II Augustus. The second Calvinist generation in the family was distinctly more cultivated. Jan, Maciej, Piotr (who converted to Catholicism) and Samuel Bal were educated at uni-versities abroad (particularly in Germany and Italy) in the 1580s and 1590s. It was for their sake that the preacher Jan of Sanok, a writer and translator, came to Hocew. The third generation was represented by Jan (who wrote the entry in Opsimathes’ album), Samuel, Adam and Stefan. In the fi rst two decades of the 17th century, they too studied at German, Swiss and Dutch universities. As they remained faithful to Calvinism, they later faced increasing pressure from Polish society, which was re-Catholicised.130 It has been established that Jan of Hocew enrolled at the university in Marburg in 1607 with his brother Stefan;131 in addition, Jan also studied at the universities in Heidelberg and Leiden.

Other Polish aristocrats with whom Opsimathes met in Marburg in 1607 included the brothers Maciej Stanisław and Jan Paris Drohojowski of Drohojów. Their family background was very similar to that of Jan Bal of Hocew, with whom they were closely related. Their mother was Anna, the daughter of the abovementioned Maciej Bal of

129 See, for example, the account of the mutiny of army units under the command of prefect Dön-hoff in July 1613 in Stefan HARTMANN (ed.), Die Herzöge Albert Friedrich und Georg Friedrich von Preussen und das Bistum Ermland (1568–1618). Regesten aus dem Herzoglichen Briefarchiv und den Ostpreussischen Folianten mit ergänzenden Schriftstücken bis 1699, Cologne – Weimar – Vienna 1994, Nr. 2658, p. 345.130 On the history of the family and its connection with Calvinism, see Wojciech HEJNOSZ, Bal Matjasz, in: Polski słownik biografi czny I, Kraków 1935, p. 228.131 Wilhelm FALCKENHEINER, Personen und Ortsregister zu der Matrikel und den Annalen der Uni-versität Marburg 1527–1652, Marburg 1904, p. 6.

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Hocew; after the death of their father, he became their guardian.132 Their family had its seat in Drohojów, which was near Przemyśl. Their grandfather Stanisław (died in 1583) had established the family’s fame. He had studied in Padua and had been awarded the title of royal secretary and Castellan of Przemyśl. He was a fervent propagator of Calvin-ism. From 1559 on, he helped to found a number of Calvinist congregations. Together with the preacher Stanisław of Opatowiec, he also carried out iconoclastic purges of churches (both of them were placed under interdict by the Catholic Church). Stanisław’s son Jan (died around 1606) went on a grand tour in his youth, for educational purposes, together with young members of the Ossoliński family (Zofi a Ossolińska was his father’s third wife and thus his stepmother). Together they visited the imperial court in Vienna in 1576, among other places. He was one of those clever, gentry fi nanciers who ruth-lessly seized the property of their neighbours. In 1579 he was given the title of royal secretary and in 1588 he became Castellan of Sanok. He too was an ardent supporter of Calvinism. In 1589 he signed the minutes of the Włodzisław synod and acted as an evangelical provisor. His sons, Maciej Stanisław and Jan Paris, were thus members of the third Calvinist generation in the family. It has been established that in 1607 they enrolled to study at the Marburg academy; in 1608 they were recognised as having reached the age of majority.133 In 1615, after returning home, they divided their property, which had been integral until then. In doing so, they went their separate ways. Jan Paris founded an independent, important branch of the family and died around 1640. In terms of religion, he was still a ‘dissident’ who espoused a strong form of Protestantism.134

Of course, these young aristocrats wrote entries in other albums besides that of Opsi-mathes during their studies. While at Marburg, for example, they also signed the book of friends of the Moravian aristocrat Bernard Diviš Petřvaldský of Petřvald, which he kept during his studies at university from 1610 to 1613.135 One can compare the entries they made in these two albums and thus further defi ne Opsimathes’ book of friends. Petřvaldský’s album includes just under a hundred entries from Heidelberg, Marburg and Strasbourg. The entries are typical of student books of friends, consisting mainly of entries by professors under whom he studied, and by fellow students with whom he was acquainted. Most of these students were of the same social status as Petřvaldský and often came from important ducal and aristocratic families in Central Europe. For them, an entry in an album was primarily a means of representing their families. Thus, at least a third of the entries in Petřvaldský’s album include a coloured depiction of the inscriber’s coat of arms. This is the case of the entries by Jan Bal of Hocew and the

132 On the history of this family, see Jan DROHOJOWSKI, Kronika Drohojowskich, Vol. I–II, Kraków 1904. On Anna Balowa, see ibid., Vol. I, pp. 106–107.133 FALCKENHEINER, Personen und Ortsregister, p. 45; Jan DROHOJOWSKI, Kronika Drohojowskich I, p. 110.134 He signed in 1638 a contract with a school in Belżyce concerning the Protestant upbringing of his sons. See DROHOJOWSKI, Kronika Drohojowskich I, p. 132–133.135 Moravian Provincial Archives in Brno, Berchtolds of Buchlov family archive, C 138, inv. no. 70. On Moravian sources of this kind, see František HRUBÝ, Moravské památníky z doby předbělohorské [Moravian books of friends in the period before the Battle of White Mountain], ČMM 49, 1925, pp. 196–223.

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brothers Maciej Stanisław and Jan Paris Drohojowski, which were made together in Marburg on 9 February 1609.136

Their entries in Opsimathes’ album were completely diff erent, and were undoubtedly made for diff erent reasons. There was no reason why the sons of rich Polish aristo-cratic families should honour an insignifi cant Moravian co-religionist whom they hardly knew by signing his album. But Opsimathes was a superb diplomat who knew how to exploit his role as an intermediary between leading magnates of his own faith. When he met the Polish students on 4 June 1607 in Marburg, Opsimathes must have boasted of the entries of Andrzej Leszczyński and his sons, thereby awakening in the students a desire to leave their mark in proximity to these great magnates. And that is what hap-pened: on the page signed by Andrzej Leszczyński, Jan Paris Drohojowski of Drohojów drew a small triangle in the lower left corner and wrote his name, the date and a short aphorism there.137 His brother Jan Paris and Jan Bal of Hocew made use of the space that was left under the entry of Rafał Leszczyński. They too simply wrote down short aphorisms, the date and their names.138 Another Polish aristocrat, Maciej Zabawski of Zabawa, wrote the fourth Polish entry on that day.139 For his entry, he chose the page that Radzimiński had signed. He too drew a small triangle in the lower left corner and wrote in the date, his name and a four-word Italian aphorism, ‘Che prende, se pende’.140 Given the shortage of space, all four entries were written in small letters. They do not include a dedication.

For Opsimathes, his album was not simply a commemorative book, but rather an instrument of personal self-representation, which helped him to acquire contacts and acquaintances. It should be noted that at the Marburg academy, these Polish students, like some of the young Moravian aristocrats among their acquaintances who also stud-ied there, were considered to be highly respected individuals whose presence added to the prestige of the school. This is clear from a legal work that was printed there in 1609 by a professor of law at the school, Mattheus Philipp. The work was dedicated to fi ve students at the school who were listed in the dedication in this order: the brothers Maciej Stanisław and Jan Paris Drohojowski of Drohojów, Jan Bal of Hocew, Bernard Diviš Petřvaldský of Petřvald and Bernard Skrbenský of Hříště, who also came from an eminent Moravian family. The dedication begins with these words of praise: ‘Sunt

136 Ibid., fol. 33, 34 and 46. All three entries are in Latin.137 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 19v. The entry is in Latin and is dated Marburg 4 June 1607. However, it is written so close to the edge of the page that the day was cut off when the book was repaired.138 British Library, Eg.1220, fol. 19. Both entries are in Latin and dated 4 June (the day before the June nones) 1607. Only Jan Bal indicated the place as Marburg, while the last fi gures of the date in Stanisław Drohojowski’s entry have been cut out. The inscribers identifi ed themselves thus: ‘Joannes Bal de Hoczew Eq[uus] Polo[nus]’ and ‘Mathyas S. Drohojowsky Equ[us] Pol[onus].’139 In 1607, Maciej Zabawski had enrolled to study at the university there. See FALCKENHEINER, Personen und Ortsregister, p. 180.140 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 23v. The entry is in Italian and Latin and is again dated Mar-burg 4 June (the day before the June nones) 1607. The inscriber identifi ed himself as ‘Mathias Zabawski a Zabawa equ[us] Polon[us]’.

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nonnuli, inclyti et generosi domini, qui eam animo imbiberunt opinionem, dedecere viros principes scire litteras.’ It goes on to praise all of the powerful and noble men of this world who recognise the importance of education.141

Jan Mecziński of Kurozwieki also wrote an entry in Opsimathes’ album, on 15 Au-gust 1608. He came from a Polish aristocratic family, which included eminent Catholics like Wojciech Mecziński (1601–1643), the Jesuit missionary who worked in Brazil and the Philippines and was martyred in Japan.142 Other members of the family were ardent supporters and propagators of Calvinism. Two of these, Andrzej the Elder and Andrzej the Younger Mecziński of Kurozwieki, lords in Działoszyn, are particularly important for the purposes of this study. Andrzej the Elder (died in 1603) attended a number of Polish Diets, where he was usually on the side of the king and defended the Protestants, including the Unity of Brethren. He was awarded the title of Castellan of Wieluń. As such, he was one of eleven Protestants who were members of the senate or royal council in the mid 1590s (the Toruń general synod, which had a great impact on religious condi-tions in the country, was held at that time).143 He was a great supporter of the Calvinist congregation in Działoszyn and enjoyed the respect of other authorities connected with this confession. In 1590, the abovementioned pastor of the Calvinist congregation in Hocew, Jan of Sanok, dedicated his versifi ed paraphrase of the Book of Ecclesiasticus to him. He was married to Anna Balowa of Hocew. His daughter Kataryzna married Krysztof Drohojowski. As one can see, the Calvinist noble families were joined not only by religion, but also by marriage.144 His son Andrzej the Younger (died before 1620), was at the court of Sigismund III in his youth and took part in the military campaign against Sweden. He too was a fervent Calvinist and supported the local con-gregation.145

Establishing the relationship between the two Andrzejs and the Jan Mecziński of Kurozwieki who signed Opsimathes’ album is complicated by the fact that the name Jan was relatively common in this family. It was shared by Andrzej the Elder’s brother and son, the son and grandson of his son Maciej, as well as the son of Andrzej the Younger. Given his probable age, it is most likely that the entry was made by the son of Andrzej the Elder, i.e. the brother of Andrzej the Younger; after Jan’s premature death the latter assumed, among other things, the care of his orphans. It is known that he had two daughters, Helena and Teodora, both of whom married important local nobles. Jan Mecziński’s entry was written in Prague, where he was staying for reasons unknown to

141 Philippi Matthaei […] in Libri XII. pandect. tit. I. qui est De rebus creditis, &c. commentarius, Marburg 1609 (VD17 1:014601T). For the dedication, see pictorial appendix no. 2.142 See, for example, Wacław a Tadeusz SŁABCZYŃSCY, Słownik podróżników polskich, Warszawa 1992, p. 222.143 See BIDLO, Jednota bratrská v prvním vyhnanství, Vol. IV, p. 141; on his role in politics, cf. pp. 99, 196 and 202 in the same source.144 See Włodzimierz DWORZACZEK, Mecziński Andrzej z Kurozwiek, in: Polski słownik biografi czny XX, Kraków 1975 (citation according to PAB I – 356, 27–28). See also Kaspar NIESIECKI, Herbarz polski VI, Leipzig 1841 (citation according to PAB I – 356, 7).145 See Jerzy MICHALEWICZ, Mecziński Andrzej (Jędrzej) z Kurozwiek, in: Polski słownik biografi cz-ny XX, 1975 (citation according to PAB I – 356, 29–32).

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us; apart from his dedication it also includes, as was common, a short piece of moral advice on bravery.146

Another fi gure who cannot be omitted from this survey is the Calvinist writer and pedagogue Paweł Demitrowicz. He came from the minor Lithuanian nobility and was a student at the Calvinist grammar school in Vilnius, where he subsequently taught many years in various capacities, fi nally becoming the rector. In addition he often acted as the preceptor for sons of prominent noble families and was partially responsible for the education, among others, of a number of the Radziwiłł family. He was also one of the people who helped create the particular cultural ambience at the court of Krysztof Radziwiłł. He wrote a number of historical and theological texts. His largest histori-cal work is the Compendium albo Krótkie opisanie (Compendium or brief description) from 1625, which was inspired by the chronicle of Marcin Kromer and which refl ects the patriotic spirit of the period. For example, he writes: ‘bliższa ojczyzna miła, która nas zrodziła i wychowała, aniżeli kraj jakikołwiek odległy’ (our beloved country, which gave birth to us and reared us, is closer than any far-away land). His theological works were primarily aimed at defending a Calvinist religion, particularly against its possible contamination by anti-Trinitarianism. It is attested that he was trustee of the grammar school in Slutsk shortly before his death in 1641.147

Demitrowicz’s entry in Opsimathes’ book of friends includes a short aphorism, ‘Po-tentia peccati lex’, and is dated Prague 31 January 1614.148 It was therefore made when he was acting as preceptor for the young Lithuanian noble Feliks Przyłubski of Przyłubie during his studies at German universities from 1611 to 1613 (they visited Frankfurt an der Oder, Leipzig, Heidelberg, Ingolstadt and Altdorf). It was during this grand tour that Demitrowicz clearly formulated his theological views for the fi rst time in his cer-emonial address at Altdorf in 1613. It was subsequently published with laudatory poems by the Altdorf professors Georg Remus (whose later correspondence with Demitrowicz has been preserved), Georgius Queccius, Scipio Gentilis and Martin Piccart.149 The same year saw the publication of a university dissertation on the Holy Trinity; it was defended by the theology student Johann Saubert at Altdorf in October 1613 under the chairmanship of Professor Jakob Schopper. In the appendix to this publication, Demetrowicz likewise strongly attacked the anti-Trinitarian views of various writers, from Michael Servetus to Valentin Schmalz, igniting a turbulent debate with the latter, a preacher from Raków.150 Schmalz refuted the opinions of his critics in his treatise

146 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 29v. The entry is in Latin and consists of an aphorism and a short dated dedication (Prague 15 August 1608, probably according to the Gregorian calendar).147 See Stanisław KOT, Demitrowicz (Demetrowicz, Demetri, Demitrovitius) Paweł, in: Polski słownik biografi czny V/1, pp. 104–105.148 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 284. The entry is in Latin and consists of an aphorism and a dated dedication (Prague 31 January 1614, here we must assume the Gregorian calendar). The inscriber signed himself as ‘Paulus Demitrowitius Lithanus’.149 Paulus DEMITROVITIUS, Oratio academica de ss. theologia ab omnibus tractanda, Altdorf 1613 (VD17 23:235524P). It is dedicated to the father of his then protégé Marcin Przyłubski.150 Johann SAUBERT, Theses de sacrosancta unitate divinae essentiae et in eadem sacrosanta per-sonarum trinitate, Altdorf 1613 (VD17 23:325551K). An internet edition made by Herzog August

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Refutatio thesium, published in 1614 (he addressed the attacks of Paweł Demitrowicz on the page entitled Ad Demitrovitium Lithuanum);151 Johann Saubert issued a reply in 1615.152 What is of interest to us is that the book of Saubert’s original dissertation, which caused such a stir, was dedicated not only to Feliks Przyłubski, the young man entrusted to Demitrowicz’s preceptorial care, but also to Kryštof Adam Vencelík of Sarabitz, one of the most distinguished members of the Bohemian nobility studying at Altdorf at that time, and an active participant in aff airs at the university.153 The anti-Trinitarian debate thus has certain Bohemian connections. In the midst of these events, Paweł Demitro-wicz went to Prague and met, among others, Jan Opsimathes, whose acquaintance he had made earlier. This can be concluded from the fact that he indicates in his dedication that he is making his entry as a sign of a friendship that has already lasted a number of years (‘in symbolam perannaturae amicitiae’).

When Opsimathes set off from Bremen on his second trip to England in May 1616 with the aim of giving a copy of the Czech version of Calvin’s Institutes to the English king, he stopped in the small Dutch university town of Franeker; here he met a number of people, including another Pole. Jan Makowski (1588–1644, Maccovius in Latin) came from a noble Polish family and is primarily known as a Calvinist theologian. He acquired his higher education at Marburg, Heidelberg, Leipzig, Wittenberg, Jena and Franeker. First arriving in Franeker in October 1613 as a young noble’s preceptor, he put down roots and made a career for himself relatively swiftly. He began to lecture at the local university in July 1614, becoming an assistant professor in January 1615 and attaining full professorship in June 1616. According to Janusz Tazbir, his original con-tribution to Calvinist doctrine, one which was not always accepted, mainly consisted in his use of scholastic methods and other techniques derived from an earlier philosophi-cal tradition.154 Makowski settled in Holland for good and taught in Franeker until his death. He was married three times; it should be noted that his fi rst wife was Antje van Uylenburgh, the sister of the famous Saskia van Uylenburgh who married Rembrandt van Rijn. Despite the physical distance, Makowski always kept up contacts with his home and Central Europe, taking under his wing Polish students who came to him in

Bibliothek (Wolfenbüttel) is avalaible: http://diglib.hab.de/wdb.php?dir=drucke/184-6-theol-1s - to the text written by Paweł Demitrowicz see fol. E2b–E3b. 151 See S. KOT, Demitrowicz, p. 104.152 Johann SAUBERT, Anti-Smalcius, hoc est vindiciae pro Thesibus de sacrosanta unitate divinae essentiae [...] adversus Refutationem Valentini Smalcii, coetus Racoviensis ministri, Giessen 1615 (VD17 12:112805C).153 It was in this year that Kryštof Adam Vencelík composed a Latin panegyric to honour the memory of the recently deceased Altdorf professor Konrad Rittershausen – see Cristophorus Adamus WENZELIK A SARABITZ, Panegyris consecrata perpetuae memoriae & laudibus cl. et summi viri Conradi Rittershusi, Altdorf 1613 (VD17 14:070532S).154 Janusz TAZBIR, Makowski (Maccovius) Jan, in: Polski słownik biografi czny XIX, Wrocław – Warszawa – Kraków – Gdańsk – Łodź 1974, pp. 240–241. See also Ferenc POSTMA – Jan VEENHOF, Disputen omtrent de predestinatie. Het logisch denken van Johannes Maccovius (1588–1644) en de doorwerking daarvan, in: Universiteit te Franeker 1585–1811. Bijdragen tot de geschiedenis van de Friese hogeschool, Leeuwarden 1985, pp. 249–263.

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great numbers (quite a few of them members of the Unity of Brethren). Indeed, thanks to him, a number of Bohemians also studied at the university. He was also responsible for the fact that it became an important place in the religious life of Protestants exiled from Bohemia after the Battle of White Mountain.155

Makowski’s entry in Opsimathes’ album, which can be dated to May 1616, was per-haps one of the fi rst occasions on which he could sign himself as professor. In it the popular Franeker teacher expresses in particular his appreciation for his Moravian col-league, whom he calls a man of great experience and his friend.156 Makowski’s charac-ter, however, evidently became increasingly argumentative later. The fi rst to experience this was his teacher at Franeker, Sibrandus Lubbertus, with whom Makowski soon came into sharp confl ict over some of his theological interpretations (most controversial at the time was Makowski’s opinion that God was not interested in saving everyone). The dispute soon became personal and was fi nally ruled on by the Synod of Dordrecht. In July 1624 the Bohemian exile Pavel Ješín of Bezdězí complained bitterly about Ma-kowski to Sibrandus Lubbertus, who was then rector. He had come there to study in 1621 and from that time on he had had a number of arguments with the Polish theolo-gian: ‘Offi cere quidem Makovium tuis luminibus non ego, sed uno ore omnes praedicant. Et sane doleo vicem tuam, pater, irascererque Macovio, si ex proaeresi ista facere in animum suum induxisset unquam.’157 Some members of the Unity of Brethren had similarly bad experiences with him, a fact that Jan Amos Comenius later condemned: ‘Makowski has

155 See, for example, Otakar ODLOŽILÍK, Moravští exulatni Jiří a Jan Veselští – Laetové [The Mora-vian exiles Jiří and Jan Veselský– Laetus], ČMM 54, 1930, pp. 79–182; Ferenc POSTMA – Marta BEČKOVÁ, Ein unbekannter Empfehlungsbrief für zwei brüderliche Studenten an die Universität Franeker (1630), AC 13, 1999, pp. 159–164. Bohemians exiled after the Battle of White Moun-tain and active at this university have been most recently and thoroughly covered by Wilken ENGELBRECHT, Die Bedeutung der friesischen Universität zu Franeker für die tschechischen Exulanten nach der Schlacht am Weissen Berg, in: Piter BOERSMA (ed.), It Fyftjinde Frysk Filologekongres or-ganisaerre troch de Fryske Akademy 8, 9 en 10 Desimber 1999, Leeuwarden 2000, pp. 57–87; ID., Význam fríské akademie ve Franekeru pro pobělohorský exil [The signifi cance of the Frisian acad-emy in Franeker for exiles after the Battle of White Mountain], Acta Universitatis Palackianae Olomucenis, Moravica 3, 2005, pp. 23–34.156 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 178. Makowski’s entry consists of a short aphorism in Greek and a dedication in Latin along with his signature, in which he identifi ed himself as ‘S[acrae] T[heologiae] professor’. Though he neither dated nor indicated a place, the meticulous Opsi-mathes later added ‘1616 Franekerae’ on the top edge of the page. That Opsimathes really was in Franeker in this year is confi rmed by the fact that the local professor Sibrandus Lubbertus signed the album on 9 May. Makowski may have made his entry at some point after 9 May of this year, since Opsimathes was then still in Harlingen, and before 21 May, when Opsimathes was already in Enkhuizen – on his movements see British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 99, 199 and 121.157 A copy of Pavel Ješín’s letter of 14 July 1624 to Rector Lubbertus is preserved in the collec-tion of handwritten documents kept by the university trustee Johann Saeckma (Codex Saeckma, no. 54, Provinciale Bibliotheek van Friesland, Leeuwarden) – see Martin H. H. ENGELS (ed.), Brieven aan den curator van der universiteit van Franeker Johannes Saeckma (1572–1636), 2001 (for the electronic version of the handwritten document see http://home.wanadoo.nl/mpaginae/BrvnSaeckma/brstekst.htm). On Ješín see RHB 2, pp. 444–446.

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stopped eating and drinking? So the nuisance that he used to cause has stopped. If only the others would come to their sense, if any of his rabble are still around.’158 The impres-sion that Jan Opsimathes had of their encounter, however, was far from negative.

After completing his mission in London Opsimathes returned via Paris, where, on 23 August 1616, another entry was made in his album in Polish: ‘Kto Bogu wiernie słuzy [= służy], temu wiek scsensnie płuzy [= szczęśnie płuży]’ (time passes happily for those who serve God faithfully). This short sentence in Polish is one of fi ve moral aphorisms writ-ten by Hieronymus Pretorski. From other sources we know that he came from Silesia and that he studied at the time at Italian and German universities: in December 1614 he enrolled at Padua, in November 1617 at Tübingen, and in August 1619 at Siena.159 Each of the fi ve aphorisms is written in a diff erent language; Latin, French, Italian and German are found in addition to Polish. Such linguistic exhibitionism is not uncommon in scholars’ autograph books in the early modern period. As a rule, however, inscribers used it as a way of showing off their knowledge of Greek, Hebrew and other biblical languages. Pretorski, on the other hand, preferred to demonstrate his acquaintance with living languages, in itself a sure sign of his more worldly orientation. As is clear from the dedication, even though this was the fi rst time that he met Opsimathes (the entry was made as a token of ‘perpetuum feliciter initae amiticiae nostrae’), he was charmed. Al-though he spelt Opsimathes’ name incorrectly, he appended a fi ne list of his admirable characteristics.160 It is very likely that the entry was made at a cheerful get-together. This is also supported by the fact that Opsimathes’ countryman, Jan Markolt of Tedražice, left his mark for posterity very near to Pretorski’s entry on the same day – he may have introduced them to each other.161

Finally, the last entry in Opsimathes’ album connected with Poland should be men-tioned. It was made in Lyon on 7 September 1616, again on his return from his second English trip. It was here that Andrzej Żarczyński wrote a short aphorism in Latin togeth-er with a dedication. He indicated that he was Polish and held the offi ces of chamberlain and secretary to the Polish king.162 In passing, the entry of Arthur Johnston (1587–1641)

158 For the citation, see HREJSA, Sborové, p. 250.159 On his studies, see Claudia ZONTA, Schlesische Studenten an italienischen Universitäten. Eine prosopographische Studie zur frühneuzeitlichen Bildungsgeschichte, Stuttgart 2004, p. 349, No. 1050.160 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 211. The entry consists of a rather long aphorism in Latin, four more aphorisms in various languages (French, Italian, Polish and German in that order) and a dated dedication in Latin (Paris 23 August 1616 – the date is indicated with a chronogram; it must be assumed that it was dated according to the Gregorian calendar). The dedication reads: ‘praestantissimo tum variorum multarum virtutum, charissimo excellentissimoque viro domini Jo-hanni Obsimathi.’161 Jan Markolt of Tedražice made an entry on the same page as Pretorski. Written in the upper right corner of the page, it has the same date and the location is also given as Paris.162 British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 202v: ‘Andreas Zarczynsky natione Polonus, SRM Poloniae cu-bicularius et secretarius.’ Given where the entry was made, it must be assumed that it was dated according to the Gregorian calendar. The entry is in Latin and consists of a short aphorism and a dated dedication (Lyon 7 September 1616). On the family, see Kaspar NIESIECKI, Herbarz polski X, Leipzig 1844 (citation according to PAB I – 356, 7).

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should be noted. A Scottish physician to English kings, he was also known for his human-ist poetry, which celebrated, among others, the Bohemian ‘Winter King’, Frederick V.163 Johnston signed the album on 2 September 1603 in Heidelberg and is only mentioned here because he was probably a distant relative of the well-known polymath Jan Jonston (1603–1675). The latter, a member of the Unity of Brethren, settled into the Polish milieu and became friends with Jan Amos Comenius.164

3. Recapitulation and conclusion

In Opsimathes’ entire album I have found altogether twenty-one entries that are con-nected with residents of the Polish state at that time or written in Polish. That is only slightly more than three percent of the total number of entries in the album. Although the number of such entries is rather small, I believe that the sample allows one to de-scribe more precisely the source, that is, the album amicorum of Jan Opsimathes. In ad-dition, it allows one to identify in greater detail the group of Polish Protestant exponents who sought contacts with Calvinists abroad in the two decades before the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War.

The relatively small number of Polish entries has to do with the fact that Opsimathes never travelled to Poland and Poles were never consciously at the centre of his attention. He usually met them on his travels abroad. Most frequently, he met them in Geneva and at other universities and schools of a Calvinist or radically Protestant orientation in Hol-land (Leiden and Franeker) and in Germany (Herborn and Marburg). Some other en-counters occurred when he happened to be travelling through places in France (Paris, Lyon and Orleáns) and in Germany (Leipzig). One sees here vividly that Geneva and the other abovementioned university towns were very important not only as centres of education and the formation of doctrine, but also as centres of communication. There the intellectual leaders of Calvinism established contacts with their followers abroad, and Calvinist representatives of various European nations encountered one another. Of course, there is nothing new in this assertion; years ago, Otakar Odložilík and František Hrubý tried to demonstrate this from the perspective of developments in Bohemia and Moravia.165

163 See, for example, Th. A. FISHER, The Scots in Germany, Edinburgh 1902 – an electronic ver-sion of this publication was used – see http://www.electricscotland.com/history/germany/states-man.htm. For his entry, see British Library, Eg. 1220, fol. 188v; it is dated Heidelberg 2 Septem-ber 1603.164 See, for example, Marta BEČKOVÁ, Jan Jonston a Jan Amos Komenský, in: O Janie Jonstonie 1603–1675, sympozjum 1975, Warszawa 1978, pp. 187–197; Adam MATUSZEWSKI, Jonston Jan, in: Słownik Biografi czny Leszna, Leszno 2004, pp. 166–169 (which also gives the other literature). Arthur, however, was certainly not a very close relation of Jan Jonston since Max von Johnston-Rathen never refers to him. See Max von JOHNSTON-RATHEN, Geschichte der Familie von Johnston und Kroegeborn, sine loco 1891.165 See in particular ODLOŽILÍK, Jednota bratrská a reformovaní francouzského jazyka; HRUBÝ, Étu-diants Tchèques, passim.

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Table I: Summary of the entries in Opsimathes’ book of friends related to Poland

No. Folio Date* Place Person Language

1 170 23 May 1600 Leiden Jasmanicki, Jan Latin

2 268 23 May 1600 Leiden Wideman, Mauritius Latin

3 129 15 Aug 1600 Paris Borkowski of Borkowice, Piotr

Latin

4 241v [30 Aug–9 Sep] 1600 Orléans Essken, Henricus Latin, Polish

5 19v [1] Mar 1601 Geneva Leszczyński of Leszno, Andrzej

Latin

6 19 [1] Mar 1601 Geneva Leszczyński of Leszno, Rafał

Latin, French

7 23v [1] Mar 1601 Geneva Radzimiński, Jan Latin

8 209v [1] Mar 1601 Geneva Turnowski, Samuel Latin

9 209 10 Mar 1601 Geneva Mikołajewski, Daniel Greek, Latin

10 149v 15 Mar 1605 Herborn von Nolde, Ernest Latin, Greek, Hebrew

11 27 5 Oct 1605 Leipzig Abramowicz, Mikołaj Latin

12 148v 30 Mar 1606 Tišnov Denhoff , Magnus Ernest Latin

13 19 4 Jun 1607 Marburg Bal of Hocew, Jan Latin

14 19 4 Jun 160[7] [Marburg] Drohojowski of Drohojów, Maciej Stanislaw

Latin

15 19v [4 Jun] 1607 Marburg Drohojowski of Drohojów, Jan Paris

Latin

16 23v 4 Jun 1607 Marburg Zabawski of Zabawa, Maciej

Italian, Latin

17 29v 15 Aug 1608 Prague Mecziński of Kurozwieki, Jan

Latin

18 284 31 Jan 1614 Prague Demitrowicz, Paweł Latin

19 178 [9–20 May 1616] [Franeker] Makowski, Jan Greek, Latin

20 211 23 Aug 1616 Paris Pretorski, Hieronymus Latin, French, Italian, Polish,

German

21 202v 07 Sep 1616 Lyon Żarczyński, Andrzej Latin

* The dates which must be assumed to correspond to the Gregorian calendar are in italics. The remaining dates correspond to the Julian calendar.

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Some encounters, however, occurred in Moravia, where Opsimathes hailed from and whence he returned occasionally. One thinks of the encounter with Denhoff , which was clearly the result of his friendly relations with several magnate families in Mora-via. Other encounters occurred in Prague, where Opsimathes regularly lived in the pe-riod before the Battle of White Mountain, when he was not travelling. The meetings in Prague were probably not coincidental because Polish visitors there undoubtedly turned to specifi c people to whom they had been recommended, usually people of the same faith. They clearly had specifi c reasons for seeking out Opsimathes. In the introduction, I mentioned that Opsimathes’ publication of the Czech translation of Calvin’s Institutes was probably partly intended for Polish readers as well. In at least one case, there is rea-son to assume a link between the visit to Prague of an inscriber of Opsimathes’ album and the publication of the Czech version of Calvin’s Institutes (Demitrowicz’s visit to Prague in 1614).

I speculated above that the Poles who wrote entries in Opsimathes’ book would be mainly people of Calvinist or radical Protestant views. This conjecture has been fully confi rmed. To a certain extent, these entries also indicate that at that time the two Prot-estant currents in Poland, Calvinism and the Unity of Brethren, were intertwined. From the perspective of social structure, this little sample corresponds to those who generally held radical Protestant views in Polish and Lithuanian society. Only rarely does one fi nd among the inscribers a person of burgher origin. In the case of the Turnowski family, for example, it has been confi rmed that in the Polish milieu they were anxious about their social status on account of their burgher origin and thus tried to construct a legend about their aristocratic origin.166 The great majority of Polish, Lithuanian and Livonian inscribers, however, were of noble origin. In this respect, the ‘Polish sample’ diff ers most signifi cantly from the other nationality groups in the album, in which burghers were more numerous, if not predominant.

There are, of course, fundamental diff erences between the confi rmed noblemen in terms of their nobility, economic base, rank and political infl uence. At one end of the spectrum, there is a group of minor gentry who choses to pursue an intellectual pro-fession connected with education in a more or less burgher milieu (Demitrowicz in Poland, Nolde in Silesia and Makowski in Holland). In the middle, there is a group of relatively affl uent regional nobles (the Bal, Drohojowski and Mecziński families). At the other end of the spectrum, one fi nds the most powerful group of Polish, Lithuanian and Livonian magnates, most of whom had ducal titles and considerable infl uence over the highest authorities in the land (the names of Leszczyński, Radzimiński, Abramowicz, Denhoff ). This last group had its own intellectual base in the form of theological advis-ers and organisers (in the case of the Leszczyński family, Turnowski and Mikołajewski). As has been noted above, in Poland the magnates had a decisive infl uence on the devel-opment of the local Reformation. Likewise, in this small Polish sample it was they who had the greatest impact, direct and indirect, on the number of entries by other people and the manner in which they were written in the album.

166 See DWORZACZKOWA, Bracia czescy, p. 144 (where further examples of preacher families that had made similar eff orts are given). Makowski’s noble origins were also rather questionable – see TAZBIR, Makowski (Maccovius) Jan, p. 240.

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From 1598 to 1620, the years when Opsimathes kept his book of friends, members of the pioneering generation, which had spontaneously promoted the Reformation in the Polish lands, were for the most part no longer alive. Thus, in the album one fi nds entries by the two succeeding generations of Polish and Lithuanian Protestants. The fi rst was the generation of ‘builders’ whose task it was to direct the spontaneous gains of the Ref-ormation in Poland into more cultivated spheres and to stabilise them temporarily. For example, Andrzej Leszczyński was born in 1559 and was thus forty years old when he met Opsimathes in 1601. The second was the ‘dissident’ generation; its members were mostly the age of students when they wrote their entries in the album. Rafał Leszczyński was born in 1579 and was thus just over twenty when he met Opsimathes. The same was true of Jan Bal of Hocew and the Drohojowski brothers. Later, as the years passed, they had to deal with the fact that if they remained true to the faith of their fathers, they would be increasingly isolated and marginalised in Polish society.

In Poland as in the Bohemian Lands, the major trend was towards the re-establish-ment of Catholicism. In Bohemia and Moravia, however, this occurred more or less at one leap after the Bohemian Protestants and their allies were defeated militarily in the Battle of White Mountain in November 1620. In Poland, by contrast, it took the form of gradual but systematic pressure. Over the course of the 1620s, Bohemian and Moravian Calvinists, like other Protestants, were faced with the choice of converting to Catholicism or leaving the country and going into exile (as was clearly the case with Jan Opsimathes). By contrast, their Polish fellow-believers gradually found themselves in an isolated position, scorned and feared by their Catholic neighbours.167 Likewise, one of the major reasons why Polish aristocrats returned to Catholicism was that it opened up career opportunities for them.168

SUMMARY

‘Kto Bogu wiernie służy, temu wiek szczęśnie płuży’:Czech-Polish Relations in Light of the Album Amicorum of the Moravian Calvinist Jan Opsimathes

This study is based on an analysis of Moravian Calvinist Jan Opsimathes’s book of friends (cca. 1568–after 1620), housed today at the British Library in London at the shelf mark Eg. 1220. The album contains roughly 590 entries spanning the years 1598–1620 and represents a valuable source for the study of the contacts between the Czech Lands and intellectual and political Calvinism across Europe. At the core of the study is an analysis of the album’s entries

167 See, for example, TAZBIR, Szlachta, p. 117ff .168 See most recently J. DWORZACZKOWA, Konwersje na katolicyzm szlachty ewangelickiej wyzna-nia czeskiego w Wielkopolsce w XVI i XVII wieku, Odrodzenie i Reformacja w Polsce 50, 2006, pp. 89–100.

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authored by individuals originating from Greater Poland, Lesser Poland, Lithuania, Livonia and other lands falling within the Polish king’s sphere of infl uence. The author was able to fi nd a total of 21 such individuals. They encountered Opsimathes at Swiss, Dutch and German academies and universities, during his travels in France and, exceptionally, in Prague and Moravia. Although most of them were of noble origins, they diff ered considerably with regard to aristocratic descent, economic status, ranks attained and political sway. At one end was a group of lesser nobles and intellectuals; in the middle a group of relatively wealthy regional aristocrats; and at the other end a group of Polish, Lithuanian and Livonian notables (Andrzej and Rafał Leszczyński, Jan Radzimiński, Mikołaj Abramowicz and Magnus Ernest Denhoff ). Their common unifying trait was their close adhesion to the Calvinist confession and, in certain instances, the Polish branch of the Unity of the Brethren. The study also off ers new information on the life of Jan Opsimathes based on freshly unearthed sources.

„Kto Bogu wiernie służy, temu wiek szczęśnie płuży“:Česko-polské styky ve světle alba amicorum moravského kalvinisty Jana Opsimatha

Studie je založena na rozboru alba amicorum moravského kalvinisty Jana Opsimatha (asi 1568–po 1620), jež je dnes uloženo v British Library v Londýně pod sign. Eg. 1220. Album obsa-huje cca 590 zápisů z let 1598–1620 a představuje zejména cenný pramen pro poznání kontaktů českých zemí s evropským intelektuálním i politickým kalvinismem. Jádrem studie je rozbor těch zápisů v albu, jejichž autory byly osoby, které pocházely z Velkopolska, Malopolska, Litvy, Livon-ska nebo jiného území spadajícího do mocenské sféry polského krále. Takových osob se v albu podařilo najít celkem 21. S Opsimathem se potkaly na švýcarských, holandských či německých vyšších a vysokých školách nebo během jejich cest po Francii, výjimečně i v Praze a na Moravě. Většina z nich sice byla šlechtického původu, ale mezi nimi byly značné rozdíly v jejich uroze-nosti, hospodářském zázemí, dosažených hodnostech i politickém vlivu. Na jedné straně tu stojí skupina drobných šlechticů – intelektuálů, uprostřed stojí skupina relativně bohaté regionální šlechty a na druhém konci tohoto spektra najdeme skupinu polských, litevských a livonských magnátů (Andrzej a Rafał Leszczyńští, Jan Radzimiński, Mikołaj Abramowicz, Magnus Ernest Denhoff ). Jejich jednotícím společným znakem je úzký vztah ke kalvínskému vyznání, popř. k polské větvi Jednoty bratrské. Studie přináší i některé nové poznatky k životopisu Jana Opsima-tha na základě nově objevených pramenů.