Maciej Wirzbięta (alternatively ''Wierzbięta''; (b. 1523

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

, d. June 1605) – Polish

printer Printer may refer to: Technology * Printer (publishing), a person or a company * Printer (computing), a hardware device * Optical printer for motion picture films People * Nariman Printer (fl. c. 1940), Indian journalist and activist * James ...

, translator and bookseller based Kraków. He printed the works of

Mikołaj Rej Mikołaj Rej or Mikołaj Rey of Nagłowice (4 February 1505 – between 8 September/5 October 1569) was a Polish poet and prose writer of the emerging Renaissance in Poland as it succeeded the Middle Ages, as well as a politician and musician. ...

Jan Kochanowski Jan Kochanowski (; 1530 – 22 August 1584) was a Polish Renaissance poet who established poetic patterns that would become integral to the Polish literary language. He is commonly regarded as the greatest Polish poet before Adam Mickiewicz. ...

Łukasz Górnicki Łukasz Ogończyk Górnicki (1527 in Oświęcim – 22 July 1603 in Lipniki by Tykocin), was a Polish Renaissance, poet, humanist, political commentator as well as secretary and chancellor of king Sigismund Augustus of Poland. He wrote a numbe ...

, and Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski, among others.

Biography

Maciej Wirzbięta was born in 1523 to a Kraków burgher family. He most likely learned the art of printing from

Florian Ungler Florian Ungler (died 1536 in Kraków) and Kasper Hochfeder were printers from Bavaria that after 1510 became pioneers of printing and publishing in the Polish language. *1512 ''Introductio in Ptolomei Cosmographiam'', with maps of America *1513 ...

, whose printing office he managed for his wife Helena Ungler after Florian's death in 1536. In 1544 he acquired a house with a printing office near Sławkowska Street and outfitted the office with equipment bought from the widow of the

Bernard Wojewodka Bernard (''Bernhard'') is a French language, French and West Germanic masculine given name. It is also a surname. The name is attested from at least the 9th century. West Germanic ''Bernhard'' is composed from the two elements ''bern'' "bear" an ...

, printer of the

Brest Bible The Brest Bible ( pl, Biblia Brzeska) was the first complete Protestant Bible translation into Polish, published by Bernard Wojewodka in 1563 in Brest and dedicated to King Sigismund II Augustus. Polish full original title: ''Biblia święta, T ...

. It's possible that there was a connection between the death in 1554 of Jakub Przyłuski and Wirzbięta establishing his printing office. Wirzbięta converted from Catholicism to

Calvinism Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Cal ...

and subsequently printed predominantly Protestant works. Twice married, he died in June 1605.

Works

He printed the majority of the works of

, as well as

's '' Szachy (Chess)'',

's '' Dworzanin polski'' (an adaptation of

Baldassare Castiglione Baldassare Castiglione, Count of Casatico (; 6 December 1478 – 2 February 1529),Dates of birth and death, and cause of the latter, fro, ''Italica'', Rai International online. was an Italian courtier, diplomat, soldier and a prominent Renaissanc ...

Book of the Courtier ''The Book of the Courtier'' ( it, Il Cortegiano ) by Baldassare Castiglione is a lengthy philosophical dialogue on the topic of what constitutes an ideal courtier or (in the third chapter) court lady, worthy to befriend and advise a Prince or pol ...

, and works by Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski. He printed theological works, polemics, confessions and other religious works. He also published a significant amount of music notation, mostly Protestant solo songbooks, using a combination of type and woodblock. The final dated work printed by Maciej printshop appeared in 1609, and his son, Paweł, took over the shop a year later in 1610. Other works printed by Maciej Wirzbięta include: * Agrippa, Heinrich Cornelius. ''O ślachetności a zacności płci niewieściej''. Kraków, 1575. *Tebańczyk, Cebes. ''Tablica albo Konterfet Cebesa tebańskiego filozofa''. Kraków, 1581.

Bibliography

*Frantz, Wiktor. ''W gnieździe drukarstwa polskiego''. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1974. *Ptaśnik, J. "Cracovia impressorum XV et XVI ss." ''Monumenta Poloniae Typographica XV et XVI Saeculorum'', vol. 1. Lwów, 1922. *''Encyklopedia wiedzy o książce''. Wrocław, Warszawa, Kraków: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, 1971. *''Bibliografia Literatury Polskiej – Nowy Korbut'', vol. 3 Piśmiennictwo Staropolskie, pp. 395–6. Warsaw: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1965.

Notes

External links

Collection of books printed by Maciej Wirzbięta
in digital library

Polona Polona is a Polish digital library, which provides digitized books, magazines, graphics, maps, music, fliers and manuscripts from collections of the National Library of Poland and co-operating institutions. It began its operation in 2006. Colle ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wirzbieta, Maciej Polish printers Polish booksellers 1523 births 1605 deaths 16th-century Polish businesspeople