POLISH LITERATURE. The Polish language belongs to the western branch of the Slavonic tongues, and the closest affinities with Czech, Slovak and Lusatian Wendish.
The earliest connected specimens of Polish prose are : the f rag mentary Holy Cross Sermons, and the complete Psalter of St. Florian, both preserved in 14th century mss. which are probably copies of earlier originals. The beginnings of poetry are repre sented by the Bogurodzica song, a hymn in honour of the Virgin, often sung by the Poles of the middle ages when going into battle. Legend ascribed the origin of the song to St. Adalbert (Wojciech), in the i oth century. The oldest ms. of the song is dated 1408.
The 15th century brings a fuller development of religious poetry. A number of devotional songs are preserved, being mostly translations of Latin or Czech hymns. Many of these songs are the work of Ladislas of Gielniow, a Bernardine preacher, and of other friars of the same order.
The secular lyrics of the 15th century which have come down to us are not numerous but varied in contents, some being didactic in vein, such as the verses on table manners, some amatory and some in the nature of historical ballads on important public events; the victory over the German Knights in 14ro, the defeat of Poles and Hungarians at the hand of the Turks in the battle of Varna (1444), Tartar invasions and other disasters, a riot of the Cracow citizens who kill an unpopular nobleman (1461)—such are the facts commemorated. The coming controversies of the Reforma tion period cast their shadows before them in a vivid poem by Andrew Galka, on the doctrines of Wycliffe, which had become known through the Hussite movement in Bohemia.
Prose works in the 15th century are scarce : Polish 15th century prose is largely devotional: its longest specimen is a translation of the Bible made for Sophia, queen of Poland, about 1455; sev eral books of the Old Testament only are preserved.
Latin Literature in Mediaeval Poland.—If literature in Polish is scanty, Latin literature in Poland throughout the middle ages is fairly abundant, especially in the field of history. The first chronicle of Poland written in Latin is an early 12th century work by an anonymous foreign monk, whom tradition called "Gallus." It tells the story of Poland from the beginnings of the Polish State in the middle of the loth century till 1113. A hun dred years later, a continuation of this chronicle was undertaken by Vincent Kadlubek, bishop of Cracow.
In the 13th and 14th centuries, the number of chronicles increases: we may single out that of Jan of CzarnkOw (d. 1389), which gives a vivid account of conditions in later 14th century Poland. A great centre of intellectual and literary activities was created by the foundation of the University of Cracow. The uni
versity was originally erected as a legal college in 1364; in 1400 it was reorganised on a broader basis, mainly through the efforts of Queen Jadwiga, who, by her marriage with Duke Jagiello, united Poland and Lithuania in a powerful monarchy. It is in the shadow of Cracow university that Poland's most distinguished mediaeval historian, Johannes Dlugosz or Longinus (1415-1480) undertakes his great Latin work on the history of the country. Through diligent study of the royal and ecclesiastical archives, which were open to him, and of the works of native and foreign historians, Dlugosz produced in his Historia Poloniae the first monumental work of Polish historiography which unites critical scholarship with literary excellence. History is supplemented by the lives of saints, ever popular in the middle ages.
Latin poetry in mediaeval Poland, as in other European coun tries, is represented by church hymns as well as by the Latin carollings of the clerici vagantes. As the Renaissance approaches, the ground for the elegant Latin versification of the humanist scholars is prepared.