ABSTRACT
In 1580, Poland’s premier Renaissance poet, Jan Kochanowski, published Lyricorum libellus, a book of Latin odes that he had composed mainly during the period 1573–79. These years witnessed a political crisis in Poland, provoked by the flight of the recently elected king, Henri Valois, who had returned to France to take the throne upon the death of his brother. Poland was left in chaos, with the nobles in conflict over the choice of a new regent. Moreover, as the country fell into anarchy, Tartar hordes were invading the eastern provinces. Kochanowski participated in the caucuses of the nobles and recorded, in the twelve odes of Lyricorum libellus, the events of the interregnum and the eventual election of Stefan Batory. His work is notable not only for its historical content but also as an example of the adaptation of the neo-Latin ode to Polish circumstances.
