Some Remarks on the New Edition of Jakob Balde

Abstract

Two early modern Polish translations of “Poema de vanitate mundi” by Jakob Balde edited by Maria Kozłowska is an important publication from the perspective of research into Baroque religious poetry, especially the Saxon times. The popularity of Balde’s poem in late Baroque can be seen not only in its subsequent editions, but also in the references to it in the works of the contemporary religious poets, including Dominik Rudnicki and Karol Mikołaj Juniewicz. In the introduction to this edition the author presents Balde as a Jesuit poet, who subordinates his writing to didactic and moralistic objectives, but at the same time strives to engage the reader’s senses, following the principles of Ignatian meditation.