Jan Kochanowski

Jan Kochanowski (1530–1584), born at Sycyna near Radom, was the foremost poet of the Polish Renaissance. He wrote in Polish and Latin, adapting and popularizing forms of Polish verse.

Educated at Kraków and Padua, he travelled in Italy and France before returning to Poland in 1559. From 1564 he served as royal secretary to Sigismund II Augustus and attended the 1569 Sejm of Lublin.

After retiring to his Czarnolas estate he wrote The Dismissal of the Greek Envoys (1578), the first Polish tragedy, and the Laments (1580) mourning his daughter Urszula. He died at Lublin in 1584.