author
Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski
1595–1640
A Jesuit poet from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, he became one of the best-known Latin writers in 17th-century Europe. His verse, shaped by classical models and Christian themes, earned him lasting fame as the “Sarmatian Horace.”
1 Audiobook
The Odes of Casimire, Translated by G. Hils
by Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski
About the author
Born on February 24, 1595, in Sarbiewo, Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski was a Jesuit priest, poet, and literary theorist whose work traveled far beyond his homeland. He studied and taught within the Jesuit world, spending important years in Vilnius and also living in Rome, where his poetry won high praise.
Sarbiewski wrote mainly in Latin, and readers across Europe admired the way he blended the forms of Horace and other classical poets with Baroque energy and religious feeling. He became one of the most celebrated Neo-Latin poets of his age, and his collections of lyric poetry helped make him the first Polish author to gain wide international recognition.
Alongside his poetry, he was known as a thinker about literature and poetics. He died in Warsaw on April 2, 1640, but his reputation endured for centuries, especially in Poland and Lithuania, where he remains a major figure in early modern literary culture.