The First Polish-French Rendez-Vous of Cultures. Henry III of France’s (Henri de Valois’) Polish Episode

The Polish version of the article was published in “Roczniki Humanistyczne,” vol. 63 (2015), issue 1. A complex political game, differences in the level of development of the political, social and aesthetic thought, different customs, and also frequently a language gap—all these conspired against the Polish-French dialogue in the sphere of culture in the years 1573-1574. The article analyzes the opportunities for both parties to get to know each other during the Polish episode of Henri de Valois: a visit by the Polish group of envoys to Paris in the summer of 1573, and a poetical exchange between Philippe Desportes and Poles, including Jan Kochanowski, that closed the Henri period. The exchange, up till the recent times called univocally a “duel,” turns out to be, in the case of Adieu à la Pologne and Gallo crocitanti ἀμοιβή the starting of a real, albeit ephemeral dialogue beyond the political and everyday reality, one on the level of art.