EN
The article presents the biography and work of Martin Zeiller (1589-1661), a German polyhistor who authored descriptions of European countries and “lexicons”. Special attention is paid to the information he provides about the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Although the author never visited Poland, his works, based on the rich body of available literature, abound in references to the past and present of the Commonwealth. While Zeiller devoted two separate volumes (1647, 1657) to the description of Polish history, geography, society and political system, the information about the Polish Kingdom and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is scattered across all of his work, published over a period of 30 years (1632-1663). In light of the above, the analysis of Zeiller’s scripts – hardly known to Polish researchers – may be an important element of studies on the image of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and its society in 17th-century German Empire. Also, it may provide insight into such issues as the transfer of knowledge and information, reflected, for instance, in how well German writers of that time were acquainted with Polish authors.