Hic liber libenter legitur in Polonia. Mapping the Popularity of the Zodiacus Vitae in Poland between the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Abstract

Marcellus Palingenius Stellatus’ Zodiacus vitae was one of the biggest editorial sensations of the sixteenth century, despite which its popularity in the Renaissance has not yet been the subject of a comprehensive study. The aim of this article is to partially fill that gap by addressing the circulation of the work in sixteenth-century Poland, where the first adaptation of the text into a language other than Latin was produced by the poet Mikołaj Rej. Indeed, several other illustrious exponents of Polish Renaissance culture were also interested in the Zodiacus and we can find references to it in both poetic works and in philosophical treatises. The particular political and social organisation of Poland at the time, and its intensive contacts with Italian and German universities, make it an excellent field of investigation for an understanding of the impact of the Zodiacus between the end of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth.