KRASICKI, IGNACY. - Polish writer, b. at Dubieck on 3 Feb. 1735, d. at Berlin on 14 March 1801. Of noble family, he took Holy Orders, became a member of the Senate of Poland, court chaplain, and at the age of thirty-two a bishop.
His work as a writer bears witness to the versatility of his intellect and his genius. A lucid prose writer, he engaged in journalistic activity, traces of which remain in critical articles, tales, and novels. He published a Universal History of Poetry and a Universal Encyclopedia, entirely written by himself, the first of its kind in Poland. But K.'s fame is especially linked to his poetry, perfect in inspiration and form, to the Satires of classical beauty and the witty Fables, gems in which he reveals the smiling and indulgent scepticism he displayed towards men. K. was also the author of poems, among them the Monachomachia; he translated Plutarch and the Odyssey. He exercised a profound influence on Poland's cultural renewal, restoring literature, which had declined in the 17th century, to the level of the golden age, and thus preparing the way for the great writers of Romanticism.