New Leads on Polish Early Humanism: Guarino da Verona’s Works in Annals of Jan Długosz (1415–1480)

Jan Długosz (1415–1480) was the eminent Polish historian of the late Middle Ages, whose opus magnum – Annals – is one of the most significant works of Central European medieval historiography. The abundant studies accompany the unfading discussion of whether its author and style were truly medieval, or should be instead called „humanistic”, especially with the recent discovery of his profuse usage of Petrarch’s works. My study aims to reveal the new evidence of Długosz's humanist intellectual formation and interest in the form of hidden quotations from the works of Guarino da Verona, one of the most recognizable and significant humanists of Italian Quattrocento. It is worth taking a look at it since quite a large number of such quotations were found through accurate computer-assisted analysis. In this article, we present selected examples from the collected material to (1) show the method and manner of using quotations from Guarino’s texts by the Długosz and (2) add a new voice to the discussion on the Annals and the intellectual range of Polish medieval/early humanist literature. Furthermore, we are trying to answer the question about the possible source of the quotations to provide better insight into the method of literary work of Polish historian.

National Science Center (NCN), project: "Jan Długosz - still medieval or already Renaissance writer? Intertextual inspirations in the 15th century Poland" in years 2022-2025, project no. 2021/41/N/HS2/04265