Lumen 2018

The Fame of His Textbook of Rhetoric It has already been mentioned that, while he taught in Podoliniec, Stanislaus Papczynski wrote a textbook of rhetoric entitled Regina Artium and that the manuscript of this textbook did not survive to the present times, even though it was presented during the Informa- tion Process in 1769. It has also been said that, later, in Rzeszow, he prepared an abbreviated version of this textbook. It was published in Warsaw in the fall of 1663 under the title Prodromus Reginae Artium (forerunner of the Queen of the Arts ). It was an abbreviated version of the first textbook of rhetoric combined into one whole from the former six volumes. 147 In his textbook, Papczynski, after Vernulius, called rhetoric “the Queen of the Arts.” Apart from theoretical information, he also provided examples of beautiful elocution, quoting the works of many ancient writers such as Aristotle, Cicero, Quintilian, Alpho- nius, 148 and Herodotus. He was also familiar with contemporary or- ators like Kojalowicz (1609-1677) — a Jesuit, Voelius — a 15 th century poet, and Michael Radau (1615-1687) 149 — a Jesuit. The latter was not only a teacher of rhetoric, but also a philosopher and a distinguished orator. 150 Papczynski’s work could compete with the textbooks of rhetoric already in existence. He had to, as he wrote, put a lot of effort into this work so that, by making use of the works written by the ancient and more recent masters, he might adapt it to his times and make it useful. 151 He explains in the introduction that his textbook does not contain anything exquisite, therefore it is meant not for masters but for the students of rhetoric and its purpose is to help them in exer- cises and in acquiring adequate knowledge. He adds his textbook to a list of numerous other textbooks of rhetoric written by various au- thors and explains that some students might simply consider it more suitable for themselves than other textbooks. 152 What merits special attention in Papczynski’s textbook is his care for the proper upbring- ing of youth, so that they might grow to be good Catholics and good S TANISLAUS P APCZYNSKI 122