Samuel Twardowski

Samuel Twardowski (born c. 1600, Lutynia, Poland—died 1661, Zalesie Wielkie, near Krotoszyn) was a Polish poet, diarist, and essayist who was very popular in his time.

An impoverished Polish nobleman, Twardowski was a hanger-on at various magnates’ courts. While traveling as secretary with one of his patrons on a diplomatic mission to Turkey, he wrote a diary of the journey in verse: Przeważna legacja J.O. Książęcia Krzysztofa Zbaraskiego (1633; “The Important Mission of His Grace Duke Krzysztof Zbaraski”). He also wrote about many historical events, as in Wojna domowa z Kozaki i Tatary (1681; “A Civil War with the Cossacks and Tatars”), an account of the Zaporozhian Cossacks’ revolt, under the leadership of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, against Polish domination in the mid-17th century. Twardowski also wrote Baroque pastoral romances such as Nadobna Paskwalina (1655; “Fair Pasqualina”) and Dafnis w drzewo bobkowe przemienieła się (1638; “Daphne Transformed into a Laurel Tree”).