Ignacy Krasicki

Ignacy Błażej Franciszek Krasicki (3 February 173514 March 1801), from 1766 Prince-Bishop of Warmia (in German, Ermland) and from 1795 Archbishop of Gniezno (thus, Primate of Poland), was Poland's leading Enlightenment poet ("the Prince of Poets"), a critic of the clergy, Poland's La Fontaine, author of the first Polish novel, playwright, journalist, encyclopedist, and translator from French and Greek. His most notable literary works were his Fables and Parables (1779), Satires (1779), and poetic letters and religious lyrics, in which the artistry of his poetic language reached its summit. Life Ignacy Krasicki was born in Dubiecko, on southern Poland's San River, into the noble Krasicki family, which bore the title of Imperial Count. His parents were Count Jan Boży Krasicki (1704-1751) and the Count's wife, Anna Starzechowska (1706–1766) of the Nieczuja coat of arms. Ignacy was related by blood to the most illustrious families in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, including the Sapieha, Potocki, and Rzewuski families, and spent his childhood surrounded with the love and solicitude of his own family.