PL
The Culture of Oratory in the Court of Radziwiłł of Birże. Unknown Speeches of Piotr Kochlewski and Salomon RysińskiThe article presents some newly discovered and hitherto unanalyzed speeches of two trusted courtiers of Krzysztof Radziwiłł, namely Piotr Kochlewski and Salomon Rysiński. Piotr Kochlewski’s orations have been found in the Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw (a speech at the wedding of Paweł Demitrowicz), in the University Library at the Catholic University of Lublin (four orations at the wedding of Władysław Dorohostajski) and in the Raczyński Library (a speech at the funeral of his mother – Dorothy from Madalińscy). It is thought that Piotr Kochlewski is also the author of a speech about Stankiewicz, which is copied in a manuscript kept in the National Library of Poland. One can learn about the speeches of Solomon Rysiński from the letters concerning the funerals of Krzysztof Radziwiłł’s children. Describing the course of the farewell ceremony of Nicholas (d. 1611), Steckiewicz and Patrykowski expressed their good opinion of the oration given by Rysiński, who thanked the guests. This speech was copied into the Czartoryski Library manuscript (along with poems signed with Rysiński’s name) and into a manuscript kept in the Lithuanian State Historical Archives. Krzysztof Radziwiłł also asked Rysiński to speak at the funeral of his younger son, Jerzy. Another manuscript found in the former Ossolineum Library in Lviv includes a speech given by “a servant” at Jerzy’s funeral. Perhaps the author of this oration is also Rysiński, although he himself justified the denial of this order to speak at the funeral in his letter to Krzysztof Radziwiłł.