| Mikołaj Rej | |
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| Born | February 4, 1505 Żurawno, Poland (now Zhuravno, Ukraine) |
| Died | between September 8 and October 5, 1569 (aged 64) Rejowiec, Poland |
| Occupation | Poet, writer, politician, musician |
| Nationality |  Poland |
Mikołaj Rej or Mikołaj Rey of Nagłowice (February 4, 1505 – between September 8 and October 5, 1569) was a leading Polish poet and prose writer of the Renaissance, as well as a politician and musician. He was the first Polish author to write exclusively in the Polish language, and is considered, with Biernat of Lublin and Jan Kochanowski, to be one of the founders of Polish literary language and literature.
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Rej was born into a noble family at Żurawno, near Halicz. His father had moved to Rus from Nagłowice, near Kraków, Poland.
Though young Rej received little formal education in Lwów and attended but one year at the Kraków Academy, he managed to educate himself by studying Latin literature.
In 1531 Rej moved to the Chełm area, and thereafter frequented the court of Hetman Mikołaj Sieniawski.
In 1541 or 1548 Rej converted to Calvinism. He took part in synods and founded Protestant schools and communities on his lands.
In 1543 Rej debuted as a writer, under the pen name "Ambroży Korczbok Rożek," with the book, A Brief Discussion among Three Persons: a Lord, a Commune Chief and a Priest.
Rej took part in sejms and thought his writing an important social mission. He was the first Polish writer to receive a substantial reward for his output. By the end of his life, he owned several villages. He received Temerowce from King Zygmunt I the Old, and Dziewięciele from King Zygmunt II August as a lifelong possession and two towns, one of them Rejowiec, founded by Rej in 1547.
Rej died at Rejowiec in 1569.
Rej's works touch on a large array of matters. He authored prose works that described the ideal of the Polish nobleman, criticized the Catholic Church, and showed a genuine solicitude for his country. His prose syntax is strongly influenced by Latin style.
His poetic meter discloses a deliberate effort to impart to the medieval metrical model a regularity that it had lacked.
Rej's works include:
"A niechaj narodowie wżdy postronni znają,
iż Polacy nie gęsi, iż swój język mają."
"Let it by all and sundry foreign nations be known
that Poles are no geese — they have a language of their own."[1]
In 1994–97, Mikołaj Rej's descendant and namesake, Nicholas Andrew Rey (1938-2009), served as American Ambassador to Poland.
In commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the birth of Mikołaj Rej, Poland's Sejm (parliament) declared 2005 to be the Year of Mikołaj Rej.
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