KOCHANOWSKI, JAN

born 1530, Sycyna, Pol. died Aug. 22, 1584, Lublin humanist poet who dominated the culture of Renaissance Poland. Born to an aristocratic family, Kochanowski studied at the Jagiellonian University in Krakw and later at Padua in Italy. On his return to Poland in 1557, he served as royal secretary in Krakw. He married in 1575 and retired to his family estate, Czarnolas. Kochanowski's first poems, mostly elegies, were written in Latin, but he soon turned to the vernacular. Because there was no Polish literary language at that time, he invented his patterns and poetic syntax. His crowning achievement is Treny (1580; Laments), 19 poems inspired by the death (1579) of his infant daughter. Kochanowski was also the author of the first Polish tragedy, Odprawa poslw greckich (1578; The Dismissal of the Greek Envoys).