DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.25050#0048
new conditions. The eastern trading route declined in importance
when the Turks and Tartars occupied the Black Sea coast. The
Gdansk monopoly over grain exports cut off Cracow’s contacts
with the West. The final blow to the economic prosperity came
with the 1655 Swedish invasion.
Culturally, the burgher community was rather conservative
and, unlike the nobles, they were largely untouched by the
Reformation. Calvinists had practiced openly since 1552, but the
heavily outnumbered Protestants were subject to harassment and
attacks, and in the first half of the seventeenth century they were
for a time banned from holding public office. The University
gradually lost in importance, with the number of students falling
after the early sixteenth century. In a well-publicized case of 15 49,
a number of students left the city in protest over the unpunished
murder of one of their colleagues. In the first half of the sixteenth
century the academic community was still relatively strong. A few
eminent scholars (Sebastian Petrycy, Jan Brozek) appeared also in
the second half of the century and even in the seventeenth cen-
tury. Many of the outstanding personalities of Polish culture,
such as Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski and Jan Kochanowski, were
connected with the University, but humanist novelties were
usually coolly received, and the school grew ever more enclosed
in an oyster of medieval organization and scholastic system.
A serious competitor appeared on the scene with the founding
in 1579 of the Jesuit order. They created their own educational
system and aimed to take over the ancient school.
The centre of cultural life and artistic patronage was the royal
court. The seeds of Italian humanism had been sown in this milieu
by Callimachus, but the modern, Italianate and Renaissance
character of the court was determined by the inclinations of King
Sigismund the Old. As a young man he had been hosted by his
brother Ladislaus, King of Hungary and Bohemia, and he had
come to appreciate the Italian Renaissance culture which had been
flourishing at Ladislaus’ court since the mid-fifteenth century. The
height of Italian influence in Poland, including not only the arts,
46
when the Turks and Tartars occupied the Black Sea coast. The
Gdansk monopoly over grain exports cut off Cracow’s contacts
with the West. The final blow to the economic prosperity came
with the 1655 Swedish invasion.
Culturally, the burgher community was rather conservative
and, unlike the nobles, they were largely untouched by the
Reformation. Calvinists had practiced openly since 1552, but the
heavily outnumbered Protestants were subject to harassment and
attacks, and in the first half of the seventeenth century they were
for a time banned from holding public office. The University
gradually lost in importance, with the number of students falling
after the early sixteenth century. In a well-publicized case of 15 49,
a number of students left the city in protest over the unpunished
murder of one of their colleagues. In the first half of the sixteenth
century the academic community was still relatively strong. A few
eminent scholars (Sebastian Petrycy, Jan Brozek) appeared also in
the second half of the century and even in the seventeenth cen-
tury. Many of the outstanding personalities of Polish culture,
such as Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski and Jan Kochanowski, were
connected with the University, but humanist novelties were
usually coolly received, and the school grew ever more enclosed
in an oyster of medieval organization and scholastic system.
A serious competitor appeared on the scene with the founding
in 1579 of the Jesuit order. They created their own educational
system and aimed to take over the ancient school.
The centre of cultural life and artistic patronage was the royal
court. The seeds of Italian humanism had been sown in this milieu
by Callimachus, but the modern, Italianate and Renaissance
character of the court was determined by the inclinations of King
Sigismund the Old. As a young man he had been hosted by his
brother Ladislaus, King of Hungary and Bohemia, and he had
come to appreciate the Italian Renaissance culture which had been
flourishing at Ladislaus’ court since the mid-fifteenth century. The
height of Italian influence in Poland, including not only the arts,
46