Krasicki, Ignacy

KRASICKI, IGNACY. - Polish writer, b. at Dubieck on 3 February 1735, d. at Berlin on 14 March 1801. Of a noble family, he took holy orders, became a member of the Senate of Poland, court chaplain, and at the age of thirty-two bishop.

His work as a writer bears witness to the versatility of his intellect and his genius. A lucid prose writer, he had a journalistic activity of which traces remain in critical articles, tales and novels. He published a Universal History of Poetry and a Universal Encyclopedia, entirely compiled by him, the first of its kind in Poland. But K.'s fame is especially linked to his poetry, perfect in inspiration and form, to his Satires of classical beauty and to his witty Fables, jewels in which he reveals the smiling and indulgent skepticism he held toward men. K. is also the author of poems, among them the Monachomachia; he translated Plutarch and the Odyssey. He exercised a profound influence on the cultural renewal of Poland, bringing literature, which had declined in the 17th century, back to the height of the golden age, and thus preparing the way for the great writers of Romanticism.

Marina Bersano Begey