The question of the unknown co-author of Alexander Guagnini's "Kronika Sarmacyey Europskiey"

The present review-article is devoted to the biography of Marcin Paszkowski carefully reconstructed by M. Kuran. The question of Paszkowski's role in composing the Chronicle of European Sarmatia have remained unresolved until the recent appearance of a Polish philologist Michal Kuran's fundamental monograph "Marczin Paszkowski - a topical poet and moralist of the first half of the 17th century" ("Marcin Paszkowski - poeta okolicznosciowy i moralista z pierwszej polowy XVII wieku"). As a result of Kuran's work, an interesting version of the poet's life history has appeared. Though Michal Kuran himself called this version "approximate", due to the information collected by Kuran, it has finally become possible to estimate Paszkowski's contribution to the creation of the Chronicle of European Sarmatia. Although the issue still requires further research, Kuran has largely succeeded in substantiating the thesis that Paszkowski is more worth to be called "co-author", rather than just a "translator" of Guagnini's work.