author
Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski
1595–1640
A Jesuit poet once praised across Europe, he became one of the best-known Latin writers of the 17th century. His verse blended classical grace with Christian thought, earning him the lasting nickname "the Christian Horace."
1 Audiobook
The Odes of Casimire, Translated by G. Hils
by Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski
About the author
Born in 1595 in Sarbiewo in Mazovia, Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski entered the Society of Jesus as a young man and went on to study and teach within the Jesuit world. He was educated in places including Vilnius and Rome, and his life moved between scholarship, teaching, preaching, and poetry.
Sarbiewski wrote in Latin and was admired far beyond the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. His lyric poems, especially the Lyricorum libri, brought him an international reputation, and later readers often compared him to Horace for his polished style, moral seriousness, and musical sense of form.
He was also a theorist of poetry and served as court preacher to King Władysław IV. Although he died in Warsaw in 1640, his work continued to travel widely in print, and he is still remembered as one of the great Neo-Latin poets of early modern Europe.