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Orszula's Death: Grief And Consolation In The Renaissance--The Treny Of Jan Kochanowski, Michael Tworek

History Honors Theses

n this thesis, I use the Treny, a late 16th century collection of nineteen poems by the Polish humanist Jan Kochanowski, as a basis from which to reconstruct a historical narrative of his attempt at self-consolation over the death of his daughter and, in the process, reconsider our current understanding of the Renaissance in Europe. Until fairly recently, scholars have tended to view the Renaissance as a primarily Italian or western European phenomenon. Eastern Europe receives little mention in current academic discussions of the Renaissance. This thesis, however, will show that the Treny does offer compelling evidence that this view …