Gramatyka języka polskiego Statoriusa ukazała się 450 lat temu. Refleksje o jej znaczeniu dla historii polskiego językoznawstwa

The aim of this paper, concerning the first grammar book of Polish, published by a French, Piotr Statorius, in 1568, is to determine its significance in the history of Polish linguistics. First, the author presented Statorius’s biography and a general description of his work titled “Polonicae grammatices institutio”, with a focus on the infl uence this grammar book exerted on authors of later ones. Afterwards, he determined its position in the Polish linguistics by referring to the studies by S. Urbańczyk, who associated the beginning of the Polish linguistics with 1751 although he was not consistent about it. In order to get a new perspective on this problem, the author referred to the history of the European linguistics and presented the grammar book by Statorius against many grammar books of modern languages prepared in Europe in the 16th c. Finally, the author recalled the existing “Historia nauki polskiej” (“History of Polish science”) edited by B. Suchodolski (1970), where P. Rybicki recognised P. Statorius and J. Mączyński as the first representatives of “a scientific work on the Polish language”. The author supported this view by arguing in favour of moving the beginning of the Polish linguistics back by 200 years, that is to the 1560s.