ini, an Italian, but naturalized and
ennobled in Poland, and Piasecki, a Protestant, distinguished for his
frankness, wrote works on Polish history; Koialowicz, on that of
Lithuania. They all wrote in Latin. The first who published an
historical work in Polish was Martin Bielski, ob. 1576. His chronicle
of Poland, which is of value in every respect, is written in a style
so beautiful, that it was called _le style d'or_. His son Joachim
continued this work as far as to the reign of Sigismund III.[35]
Another Polish chronicle, compiled with more erudition than taste, was
written by Stryikowski, the author of numerous works on various
subjects.

Other writers of merit, some of whom published original works on
portions of history, while some translated the Latin volumes of their
countrymen, or those of classic historical authors, were Wargocki, the
Polish translator of Julius Caesar, and other Roman writers;
Orzechowski, also lauded as an orator; Januszowski, Blazowski,
Paszkowski, Cyprian Bazylik, and others. Works on tactics were
published by John Tarnowski, a general celebrated in his time; by
Strubicz, and Cielecki. Collections of statutes and laws were made by
Herbart, Sapieha, Groicki, Sarnicki, and others.

Several memoirs referring to this period, and written during it, have
been first published in our days; since the value of cotemporary
historical documents has begun to be sufficiently appreciated. One of
these publications (Wilna, 1844) is a chronicle referring to the first
half of the sixteenth century; and was written by John Tarnowski, the
general mentioned above. The manuscript had been long considered as
lost.

It still remains to note the progress made in the philosophical
sciences. We remarked above, that scientific works in Poland were
mostly written in Latin; and since the case with them is different
from that of historical works,--because, as the results of scientific
examination and discovery, they are independent of the country where
they are written, and belong to the world,--we therefore mention here
only those works which were published in the Polish language.
Falimierz, in Latin Phalimirus, first ventured to use the vernacular
tongue of the country for a scientific book. He published as early as
1534 a work on natural history, and especially _Materia medica_. The
first medical work in the Polish language was written in 1541 by Peter
of Kobylin; the first mathematical work by Grzebski. Their ex