CHRONICLES BY ALESSANDRO GUAGNINI IN M. P. KOVALSKYI’S RESEARCH AND IN CONTEMPORARY POLISH HUMANITES

Abstract

The article analyses the contribution made by Professor Mykola Pavlovych Kovalkyi to studying a historical and geographical narrative by Alessandro Guagnini, an Italian who did military service in Poland. The chronicle was popular in many countries of Western Europe in the late XVIth – XVIIIth centuries. The researcher investigated this work, first of all, as a source of Ukraine’s XVIth century history, pointing out that the 1611 edition in Polish was substantially supplemented compared to the first Latin edition of 1578. The scientist also characterized historiography of narrative’s research, including the issues of authorship, chronicler’s biography features, Chronicle’s source base and its impact on Ukrainian chronicle writing, handwritten translations of different editions to Russian and Ukrainian made in the late XVIth – XVIIIth centuries. M. P. Kovalkyi’s publications were used by his students as a basis for more detailed studies on A. Guagnini’s Chronicle (O. O. Dyachok) and its 1611 edition’s commented translation to Ukrainian (Yu. A. Mycyk).
A. Guagnini’s Chronicle was not attracting interest of Polish humanitarian scientists for a long time. Researchers were only addressing the issue of 1578 edition’s authorship from time to time. This issue has been ardently argued about since «Sarmatiae Europeae decriptio» was first introduced. However, the situation has remarkably changed over the last decade. Michał Kuran considers the Polish «Kronika Sarmacyey Europskiey» (1611) a collection of historical and geographical data, aimed at popularizing Sarmatian myth. The researcher argues, that it was Marcin Paszkowski who translated the text from Latin to Polish and supplemented it with new fragments. In Wanda Decyk-Zięba’s opinion, it was M. Paszkowski who introduced words from East European languages to the Polish text. Zbysław Wojtkowiak concluded that «Sarmatiae Europeae decriptio» was finished between May, 28 and June, 21 1574, and was dedicated to electing Henri de Valois as a Polish monarch. He considers the chronicle is a common work of Maciej Stryjkowski and Alessandro Guagnini, and perhaps somebody else. Wojciech Paszyński was studying Guagnini’s Chronicle in the context of Sarmatian theory.