prodromus reginae artium 88 second, devoured by lust for his personal glory, cannot count on respect and a reward” (Book III, letter 46). Edition IV also includes the Author’s Preface (Amice Lector) and is dedicated to the Mother of God, similarly to previous editions. The Importance of Prodromus As he was composing his textbook on rhetoric, Fr. Papczyński referred to the works of many authors. In the preface to editions I and II, he indicates the following: Cicero, Aristotle, Quintilian, George of Trebizond11, Caussinus, [Cyprian] Soarez, Lauxminus (Lith.: Žygimantas Liauksminas). Mr. Kupis also names – among others – Radau, Kojałowicz, and Sarbiewski, whom Papczyński quotes in Prodromus as a “Sarmatian poet.” The importance of Prodromus is indicated by the fact that it underwent three reprints in a period of only a few years, and also that Piarist novices in their first and second years were using it to learn rhetoric until the 19th century. The book was also mentioned by Stanislaus Konarski12. However, it is noteworthy that Prodromus, being essentially a textbook of rhetoric, includes passages on the current situation of the 17th-century Commonwealth and seeks to influence the course of events by shaping the students’ minds. Thanks to that, despite the cumbersome rhetorical forms – as they may seem sometimes – one learns the author’s personal views on various issues of the social, political, and religious life of that time. Certainly some of them may seem today somewhat outdated or unduly moralizing, for example Locus communis in Saltatores. The others provide an in-depth theological reflection (e.g., Exponitur vox illa Ecclesiae usitatissima: Amen, Laus Deiparae Mariae Virginis), or they contain a sober assessment of the sociopolitical situation of the 11 George of Trebizond (1395–1486) was a Renaissance philosopher, scholar, and humanist of Greek descent. Upon learning Latin, he became a teacher of Latin literature and rhetoric. He published the works of Cicero [Rhetorica. Libri V] and acquired a great reputation as a translator of Aristotle. 12 See A. Pitala Sch.P., Pijarskie zakłady kształcenia nauczycieli w dawnej Polsce – profesoria, in Wkład pijarów do nauki i kultury w Polsce XVII-XIX wieku, Ed. I. Stasiewicz-Jasiukowa, Warzsawa–Kraków 1993, p. 395.
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