Between Vilnius, Rome and Antwerp on P.P. Rubens’ Two Projects For Six Editions. Of Lyricorum Libri IV by Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski in Officina Plantiniana

Abstract

The famous neo-Latin poet Maciej Kazimierz Skarbiewski was known in Europe from the middle of the 17th to the end of the 19th centuries as Sarbievii vel Sarbivii or Casimire. The theorist of literature and theatre, expert on ancient mythology, he wrote a lot of works; unfortunately some of them are lost. His hand-written treatises were only edited after the middle of the 20th century.

The poet was born in 1595 as the eldest son of Mateusz Sarbiewski, the lord of Sarbiewo, whose coat of arms was Prawdzie, and of Anastazja née Milewska; both of them belonged to the nobility. Sarbiewo is a small village in Mazovia, located in the picturesque valley of the River Racia˛żnica, about 10 kilometres north of Płoń sk. From 1608 Mazovia was part of the Lithuanian (northern) province and this is why in 1612 Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski was accepted for the Jesuit noviciate in Vilnius. He was a poetics and rhetoric teacher in Jesuit colleges of the Jesuit Lithuanian Province, among others in Kroże in Samogitia in 1617 and then in Połock. After short theological studies in the Vilnius Academy in 1620-1622 he was sent to study in Rome, where he stayed in the years 1622-1625. Immediately after he came there he wrote the elegy IterRomanum, whose manuscript Father Jan Grużewski, the procurator of the Lithuanian Province, took to Poland for the Jesuits in Pułtusk.

Sarbiewski took the holy orders on 3 June 1623. In the academic year 1623/24 he completed the fourth year of theological studies in Collegium Germanicum and then he worked there as studies prefect.

In August or September 1623 he had a discussion on De acuto et arguto in the presence of rhetoricians and poets; the discussion was later included in his lectures De poezis. An important role in Sarbiewski’s intellectual and poetic formation was played by Alessandro Donati, a Jesuit archaeologist and writer, the author of, among others, Roma vetus etrecens (1638), who acted as a guide for him in the Eternal City. In Rome Sarbiewski wrote poems dedicated to the Barberini family, odes to the Emperor Ferdynand II and one on the occasion of P. Friger’s doctorate in philosophy. In May or at the beginning of June 1625 he handed the manuscript of Lyricorum liber II to Pope Urban VIII (The Vatican Archives). Sarbiewski devoted a number of his songs to Cardinal Francesco Barberini.

In June 1625 the Jesuit order authorities recalled him from Rome to Nieśwież where he underwent the third monastic probation. Before leaving Rome Sarbiewski let Marek Goleń ski (vel Gołyń ski; Golenius in Latin) copy his 62 odes and 71 epigrams. Another Pole, Stanisław Piratyń ski (?) (Piratinius in Latin), a nobleman, had them edited in Cologne in 1625 as Lyricorum libri tres. The young poet’s participation in the edition was obvious, but in my opinion it was concealed from the authorities of the Jesuit Order.

The second edition of Lyricorum libri tres, with the author’s emendations, was published in Vilnius by the Academic Publishing Office of the Jesuit Society in 1628. The third edition of Lyricorum libri tres, with the author’s approval, was published in 1630 by Jan Knobaerr, an Antwerp printer, in the format 12o. Six odes were added to Book III and one to Epodon. The edition was dedicated to Chrisostom Van der Sterne, the abbot of the Premonstratens in Antwerp. In the edition there was no approval of the Lithuanian Jesuit authorities, which was the usual practice.

The next edition of Sarbiewski’s poetry (the fourth one) was published with the help of “Societatis Iesu Antverpiae” in Officina Plantiniana, in more than 1000 copies. A new book of odes was added (38 works), and hence the new title: Lyricorum libri IV. The volume, edited in a refined form in format 4o was dedicated to Pope Urban VIII by the Antwerp Jesuits. Imprimatur was signed by the Provincial of the Lithuanian Jesuits, Mikołaj Łęczycki: in Vilnius, on 11 July 1631. Epicitharisma, that is a collection of 14 poems dedicated to Sarbiewski, is an additional part of the volume (apart from Epodon and Epigrammatum). The poems were written by Flemings belonging to the circle of the Leuven University and the French Jesuit Gilbert Jonicus and the Lithuanian nobleman Mikołaj Kmicic, Sarbiewski’s favourite disciple. It was a luxury edition of Lyricorum libri IV, with the front page engraved according to P. P. Rubens’ design, with the Barberinis’ coat of arms and Urban VIII’s attributes.

Rubens’ design for the 1632 edition of Lyricorum libri IV is kept in the Museum Plantin- Moretus in Antwerp, established in the building of Officina Plantiniana. It is a modelli made in oil en grissaille on a plank (with vertical grain), 187 mm long and 144 mm wide. The sum of 12 guldens was paid to Rubens’ account for this design, one of the eight ones made for B. Moretus the Elder.

It is worth mentioning Andrea Sacchi’s composition of about 1630, engraved by Charles Audran. It was Allegory of Pope Urban VIII’s Birthday, signed in the following way: Andreas Sacchj Romanus Inuentor; Karol’ Audran Paris Fecit Romae.

These were allusions to the Pope as a ruler, orator and poet with mellifluous speech. As it is well known, Sarbiewski’s odes contain numerous allusions Ad Apes Barberinas, with the poet’s statement that Melleum venisse saeculum – the honey age has come, so the Golden Age is back.

For its execution on 8 October 1632 the engraver Theodoor Galie was given by the editor the sum of 44 guldens (in settlement of his brother’s accounts). For printing 1033 copies of the figure (from the above mentioned plate) after 15 days he received 8 guldens and 5,5 stuivers. In my opinion the figure il. 2) existed in at least four stages. Its size was 197 x 135 mm and it was signed Pet. Paul. Rubens pinxit.; Corn. Galle sculpsit.

One copy of the 1632 edition of Lyricorum libri IV cost in Antwerp 1 gulden 12 stuivers. 2 florens 2 stuivers were subtracted from Rubens’ account with Moretus for one copy of “Casimiri Lyrica [in] 4o” that he took to his library W. Maybe this was due to the more luxurious binding of the book.

In 1637, when Stefan Simoni’s Silvae Urbanianae were being edited, the copperplate of 1632 was used; the letters in the title of the print were only changed and the date of edition was corrected, which was done by the engraver’s son, Cornelis Galie II. The retouched plate has survived in the Plantin-Moretus Museum.

Two years later, in 1634, Baltazar Moretus the Elder published a cheaper edition of Liricorum libri IV in format 24o. New works were added: five to Lyrics and five to Epodon. This edition became canonical as it was the last one published while the poet was still alive. There we find the poet’s thanks for Epicitharisma in the ode entitled Ad Amicos Belgas. Rubens’ drawing for the 1634 edition of Lyricorum libri IV has not been preserved in the collection of the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp. The entry saying that Rubens was paid „[...] Pourtrois frontispices en 24o. Sarbievij, Bauhusij et Bidermani afi. 5... 15. confirms that all the three drawings made in drawing-pen on paper were Rubens’ work. The latter two have been preserved in the Plantin-Moretus Museum.

All the three volumes of poems: by Sarbiewski, by Bidermann and the last one comprising poems by Bauhuis, B. Cabilliau and C. Malapert were published in a format reduced to the so-called 24o in the same year, that is in 1634. I will also add that Sarbiewski’s Lyricorum libri IV were published in 5000 copies, which is proven by the remark about the payment to the engraver, Camelis Galle I, who received as much as 37 fl. 10 st from the publisher. The plate is 100 mm long and 51 mm wide. The inscription on the copperplate, probably like in the case of two other front pages of the same year, was made by Karel de Mallery. After Rubens’ death four editions were published in Officina Plantiniana with an engraved front page whose size was 100 by 51 mm. The editions took place in the years: 1646, 1647, 1659, 1669.

Rubens’ engraving of 1634 was faithfully followed by editors in other cities: Rome (1643), Cologne (1682), Paris (1647). In the latter edition it was clearly stated that „Iuxta Exemplar Antverpiense”. From each of these editions, apart from the Antwerp one, Rubens’ name was omitted, although it was the most popular engraving of all the editions prepared according to his drawing.

In 1635 Sarbiewski received the title of the Polish King’s court preacher when he was at King Władysław IV’s court in Warsaw, where he died in 1640.

Without the initiative and help from the Antwerp Jesuits there would be no editions of Sarbiewski’s book in 1632 and 1634, and also no re-edition (with editorial privileges), or finally, no „pirate” repetitions of Rubens’ composition of 1634.