Manu propria. Wpis Olbrychta Karmanowskiego do Liber amicorum Andrzeja Lubienieckiego

Abstract

Manu propria. Olbrycht Karmanowski’s entry to Andrzej Lubeniecki’s Liber amicorum

The article concerns Olbrycht Karmanowski’s entry to Andrzej Lubieniecki’s album. The book of friends (Liber amicorum, now stored in Czartoryski Library in Cracow) of Andrzej Lubieniecki, who was a respected writer and Antitrinitarian activist, is a unique object. One can find there the entries of almost all intellectual élite of the Congregation – its ordinary members as well as sympathizers who visited the New Jerusalem of the Polish Brethren. Karmanowski’s entry consists of the proper text and his dedication to Lubieniecki. The main part of the entry was probably taken from some compendium of loci communes. It refers to the Platonic topoi of the world as theatre and philosophy as a preparation to death. It is followed by two Latin aphorisms and their Polish translations in verse added by the poet. These poems are the only poetic autograph of Karmanowski which has been preserved. Karmanowski’s entry to Lubieniecki’s album became an important fact in the poet’s biography reconstructed with difficulty from the few documents preserved. It was also the basis of the introduction of a Socinian thread to it. The article argues with the idea of Karmanowski’s too close connection with the milieu of Raków Congregation (e.g. his alleged studies in Raków College and permanent residence in Raków). It also argues with the place of Stanisław Kurosz (a member of the Congregation and one of the most trusted man of Krzysztof Radziwiłł) in Karmanowski’s biography.