An Astrologer in Search of a Patron: the Case of Jan Latosz and Nicholas Christopher ‘the Orphan’ Radziwiłł

This article aims to shedsome critical light on two episodes in the biography of Jan Latosz (Joannes Latosinus, 1539–1608), which are related to his attempts at winning the patronage of Duke Nicholas Christopher ‘the Orphan’ Radziwiłł (1549–1616). Latosz is well known due to his involvement in calendrical polemics at the end of 16th century. As a result of his attacks on the newly introduced Gregorian calendar, his works were banned and the astrologer himself was expelled from the Academy of Cracow. Today, we have access to a limited number of his works, mostly those published in 1590s and 1600s and even his major work dedicated to calendar reform remains unknown. The works of Latosz that came down to us either as prints or in the form of manuscript copies provide important, yet fragmentary, information onhow he tried to establish patronage relations with a number of influential figures in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. One of his early prognostications – the Obwieszczenie [Announcement] of 1572 – was dedicated to Duke Radziwiłł, yet it seems that this publication did not result in a long-lasting relationship. However, there is another piece of understudied evidence which can be found in Latosz’s letter to Radziwiłł of 27 December 1594. In the light of this letter, it seems that in 1594 Latosz succeeded in publishing another prognostication dedicated to the duke, most likely in the hope that Radziwiłł would protect him from attacks by the Jesuits and Cracow academics. While the article discusses information that can be excerpted from Latosz’s writings addressed to Radziwiłł, the appendices provide editions of the dedicatory letter from 1572 and a brief letter from 1594