Description of European Sarmatia (1578)

Nicholas Zharkikh

Shortened text of the section. Full text in ukrainian version

Italian officer in the Polish service Alexander Guagnini (1538 – ca 1614) in 1578 published his "Description of European Sarmatia" [ […] Alexandri Gwagnini. – [Kraków:] 1578. – different pagination]. This work was very popular, and in 1611 was reissued in Krakow translated by Martin Pashkovsky in Polish, with significant additions.

Juri Mytsyk exactly this edition 1611, translated into Ukrainian and published in 2007 [Alexander Guagnini Chronicle of European Sarmatia. – Kyiv: 2007. – 1006 p.]

Of course, we are interested in borrowing from the "Lithuanian" chronicles. They are as follows (table 27 rows).

We see that Alexander Guagnini took only Lit1L: march to Braslav and Polotsk (here – Episode 4) is mentioned only in Lit1L and nowhere else.

From the composition Lit1L used "Fabulous emergence of Lithuania", "Tale of Vytautas" and "Acts of Vytautas". For the later period, starting with episode 22 Alexander Guagnini used only Polish chronicles.

Dissatisfaction Stryjkowski concerned is the misuse of his unpublished manuscript (supposedly Polish translation Lit1L) in Alexander Guagnini work, and the latter in his defense might point to "Messenger of virtue" as to its source.