Łukasz Opaliński (1612–1666)

Łukasz de Bnin Opaliński (* 1612, † 1666) was a Polish nobleman, political activist and one of the most important Polish writers and poets of the 17th century. He belonged to the Crest Community Lodzia.

Life

From the year 1631 held the post of Starosta Opaliński of Pobiedziska, the office of chamberlain of Kalisz from 1638 to 1640 and finally the chamberlain of poses of the same year. From March 10 to May 1, 1638 he was Marshal of the Sejm in Warsaw and marshal of the Polish-Lithuanian crown from in 1650.

Opaliński received his extensive training of Lubrański Academy in Poznan, University of Leuven, the University of Orléans and also attended the universities of Strasbourg and Padua.

His marriage with Izabela Tęczyńska enabled him to take on the considerable possessions of her family. Because he - like his brother - was a bibliophile, he enlarged his library, which he had inherited from Jan Tęczyński, an uncle of his wife Izabela. This extended library of him was one of the largest private libraries in Europe and grew through his contacts with most book printers in Europe, of which he usually received first editions, constantly.

At the age of twenty years he agreed during the Wahlsejms from 1632 for King Władysław IV Vasa. As an active politician, he was a member of many Opaliński Sejm and its committees ( such as the areas of military, finance and diplomacy ). He criticized the golden freedom and called for reforms, including about a reform of the advisory procedures of the Sejm ( in his work Rozmowa Plebana z Ziemianinem (...), 1641). He was against the liberum veto and the abuse of power by the magnates ( Coś nowego (...), 1652). After the death of Władysław IV he supported the election of his brother John II Casimir king. Against the Swedish invasion ( the so-called "Swedish Deluge" ), he was John II Casimir in even after the defection of his own brother Krzysztof Opaliński on the Swedish side in 1655.

In 1652 he was chairman of a Sejmtribunals, the Hieronim Radziejowski banished for his collaboration with the Swedes during their invasion. In 1661 and 1662, which meets Sejm he was among the supporters of a Vivente regulations regulation, which was favored by King John II Casimir. 1661, he promoted the publication of the first Polish newspaper, the Merkuriusz Polski Ordynaryjny. In the same year he also published his work Poeta nowy, the first work in Polish about the principles of poetry. Also, the invention of the football variant woodske is attributed to him. He died in 1666 in Rytwiany.

Works

• Rozmowa Plebana z ziemianinem albo Dyskurs o postanowieniu teraźniejszym Rzeczypospolitej io sposobie zawierania sejmów ( 1641) ( conversation between a pastor and a squire, or discourse on current activities in the Republic and how the Sejm is formed) - published anonymously
• Polonia defensa contra Joannem Barclaium (1648, in Latin) ( defense of Poland against John Barclay ) - a response to animorum Icon of John Barclay, the Opaliński regarded as a very unfair representation of Poland
• Coś nowego (...) ( 1652) ( Something new (...))
• De Officiis libri tres (1659 ) - Textbook on Ethics, which has been used by many Jesuit schools and often reprinted
• Poeta nowy ( c. 1661) ( New Poet)

Note

In some sources, the year of his death is given as 1662.