Listy prozatorskie w "Zabawach Przyjemnych i Pożytecznych" – autorzy, tematy, funkcje [Prose letters in "Zabawy Przyjemne i Pożyteczne" – authors, themes, functions]

In this article, I have focused on eight prose letters in “Zabawy Przyjemne i Pożyteczne”. The first two are by Franciszek Bieńkowski and concern the issue of good education – good treatment for people with lower social status. The next four letters are the correspondence of three great figures of the Renaissance: the Polish king Stefan Batory, his secretary and statesman Jan Zamoyski and the distinguished Italian humanist Antoni Muret. These letters, coming from the 16th century and written in Latin, were translated by Józef Koblański in the 70s of the 18th century. The texts are examples of traditional epistolary art based on ancient principles. The seventh letter of unknown authorship compliments the reforms of the National Education Commission and polemizes with its opponents. The deliberate form of the letter used to promote a state educational institution and to argue with the critics of its reforms suggests that it is a letter falsified for the promotion of the social good of universal and unified education. The name of the addressee of the letter has not been specified what makes the correspondence general and illustrative in character. The last letter is basically a preface to the Polish edition of a well-known book of French doctor – Samuel Tissot. The book is entitled The Council for the People and concerns the principles of healthy living. The author of the letter – Grzegorz Piramowicz – enumerates the advantages of the book and the merits of her author and praises those who translated the book into Polish. The prose letters discussed in this article which were published in “Zabawy Przyjemne i Pożyteczne” present a large variety of themes and topics brought up in the periodical starting from current issues to the examples of early Enlightenment literature and culture