The master and his apprentice, or the secrets of the huanists : the dialogue of Jan of Wiślica (Joannis Vislicensis) and Paweł of Krosno in "The Bellum Prutenum" (1516)

The article contains the original text and the Polish translation of two Latin elegies from the Bellum Prutenum (The Prussian War) by Jan of Wiślica (Joannis Vislicensis), published in Cracow in 1516. The first is a plea addressed to the author by Paweł of Krosno (Paulus Crosnensis Ruthenus) to start his book with an appropriate epigram; the latter is a reply to that request. This description, however, does not exhaust the meaning of the two poems. Their full, more complex significance can be unlocked with help of the conventions and codes of the Humanist discourse. Interpreted in the light of the 16th-century thinking about poetry and the process of learning, this versified dialogue appears to be a record of a master-pupil relationship, which, after Jan of Wiślica’s apprenticeship ceremony, is transformed into a bond of friendship. The poems also contain a string of timely reflections on the nature of the poetic craft.