30/10/2025
New Publication Alert 📚
We are pleased to announce a new entry in the Encyclopedia of Jesuit Translation Culture in Poland-Lithuania, 1564–1820 (Brill):
"Plautus" – exploring the reception and adaptation of the Roman playwright's comedies in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the crucial role Jesuits played as cultural intermediaries.
This comprehensive entry traces how Plautus (c. 254–184 BCE) – celebrated for his vibrant theatrical energy, linguistic inventiveness, and cunning slave characters – was introduced to Poland-Lithuania through humanist curricula and Jesuit education.
Key findings include:
🎭 Early Translation: The 1597 Potrójny z Plauta by Piotr Ciekliński (a graduate of the Jesuit college in Jarosław) represents not only a milestone in Plautine reception but stands as the earliest known Polish comedy – a creative "reforging" that relocated the action from Athens to contemporary Lviv.
🎓 Jesuit Pedagogical Theater: Franciszek Bohomolec SJ and other Jesuit playwrights integrated Plautine elements into their moral-instructional comedies, employing the classical technique of contaminatio (blending multiple sources) – mirroring Plautus's own adaptive methods. Works like Bliźnięta, Myśliwy, and Przyjaciele stołowi demonstrate sustained engagement with Plautine dramatic traditions.
✨ Cultural Mediation: The entry illuminates how Jesuit-educated translators and authors served as essential intermediaries, adapting Roman comedy to serve the pedagogical framework of the Ratio studiorum while following Horace's principle of ridendo verum dicere – "to tell the truth with laughter."
This scholarship enriches our understanding of how classical literary traditions were transmitted, transformed, and localized within Jesuit educational networks across early modern Europe.
📖 Full entry available at: https://referenceworks.brill.com/display/entries/EJTC/microfq073.xml
