On the track of Szymon Starowolski’s Sarmatian necropolis

The article seeks to analyse chosen epitaphs adopted from Szymon Starowolski’s oeuvre titled Monumenta Sarmatarum (Cracoviae 1655). This book contains Latin epitaphs originating from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth territories, as well as from abroad. The inscriptions bequeathed by Starowolski are presented at the backdrop of the European epitaph tradition. The paper also briefl y discusses the content of inscription collection published in early modern period, which might have inspired the Polish author. The epitaphs from Buczacz and Potok in commemoration of the members of the Buczacki, Tworowski and Potocki’s houses, included in Monumenta Sarmatarum, are analyzed in-depth. Particular attention is paid to both the content, with the commonplaces typical of funerary genres, and the form. As corroborated, the prose texts usually take the form of eulogium – a genre characteristic of the baroque culture – and poetic epitaphs act as funerary epigrams. The source texts of the inscriptions in question are then juxtaposed with the texts of the same epitaphs included in the Latin armorial Orbis Polonus by Szymon Okolski (Cracoviae 1641–1643). Finally, it is posited that further research of Starowolski’s works is required from historical, literary and philological standpoint related to the transmission of text