The usefulness of the methodology proposed by Carl Gustav Jung and his followers for the analysis of literary texts was recognized by many eminent literary scholars and, with some modernizations, continues to be used today. This method is particularly applicable to the study of epic poetry, which often replicates and reshapes traditional mythical structures whose origins can be traced to pre-literate cultures. Tasso introduced analogous structures into “Jerusalem Delivered”, which in many respects serves as a mirror of the anxieties and postulated remedies that marked the European mentality at the turn of the Renaissance and the Baroque. Of particular significance in this context is the love story of Rinaldo and Armida, which contains clear elements of traditional narratives of male initiation, during which an individual establishes his personality and makes key decisions regarding the specific strategies of behavior in the surrounding culture.

In this article, I explore the subject of the figure of the young courtier, who (as it turns out) was strongly present in comic and moralistic literature of the 16th and 17th centuries. I analyze how poems for young courtiers were published (most often in poster form) and their characteristics, how the language was presented in them, and what motifs ran through various texts. Another vital element is the presentation of the stereotypical image of the young courtier, present in the 16th and 17th centuries. The article is an opportunity to bring interest in this forgotten motif. By researching this topic, we can not only learn more about the literature of that period but also about the culture of that time.

The main subject of the article is a short story written by Anna Olimpia Mostowska titled “Miłość i Psyche”, which is a forgotten translation of an ancient tale from Apuleius’ “Metamorphoses”. The analysis compares this text with two seventeenth-century Polish versions of Cupid and Psyche’s story – the fourth canto of Giambattista Marino’s “L’Adone” in anonymous translation and Jan Andrzej Morsztyn’s poem “Psyche”. The author of the article points out that even though the analyzed texts retell the same story, they differ significantly in terms of their origin, literary genres, poetics, and plot. The study suggests that some differences may arise from the fact that “Miłość i Psyche” is the first Polish adaptation of Apuleius’ story written by a woman. The article aims to bring Mostowska’s work to light and integrate it into future studies related to the Polish reception of the ancient tale.

The article was inspired by the jubilee of the coronation of Our Lady of Trokai, origined in Lithuania. On this occasion, The TR published an anniversary work in the Lithuanian language. She included the translation of a 1719 brochure originally written in Latin that described the conditions and conduct of the coronation ceremony. Her work translated by BP has also been issued in Polish. The author of the article prepared a Polish translation of the brochure for this publication. It contains a detailed description of the Triumphal Gates built for that occasion. Most likely, no iconographic representation has survived. Those decorations have never been the subject of more detailed studies in Polish scientific literature. The symbolism of the gates, especially the ones prepared by Jesuits, carries a distinct and complex rhetorical message, inscribed in the emblematic structures related to occasional architecture. The author discusses the iconographic project presented in the old text in this particular context.

The article analyses the historical relations between the people who inhabited the territories of today’s Lithuania and Finland during the longue duree period (from the first contacts until the beginning of the 17th century). Two periods are distinguished: early period and contacts in historical times (the 12th – the beginning of the 17th centuries). The study, based on a rich historiography, provides a synthetic view on the issue. The article discusses the most important aspects of communication (from cultural-linguistic and economic exchanges in prehistoric times to the political-cultural contacts from the end of the 12th to the beginning of the 17thcenturies). The article highlights the mutual communication in the present-day territory of Lithuania, hence “the Lithuanian perspective”, and reflection of this communication in Lithuanian historical culture.

The article attempts to use the optics of human-animal studies shaped by this contemporary methodology. It tries to verify the existing interpretations of the animal epitaph as manifestation of humour. In order to resign from anthropocentric look at the poem it is written without the intention of amusing the reader. The article transforms ancient, medieval and biblical inspirations. The tombstone was interpreted with a contextual reference to the epic poem “O kocie” to unravel the meaning of the phrase “to pull the cat” (or to pull smb. legs). The use of the ecocritical perspective made it possible to show that despite the pre-modern visions of nature prevailing in culture with a hierarchical order of the chain of beings. Kochanowski found in the conventions space to express the community of experiencing the fate of biological mortality, empathy, the sensitivity of conscience and responsibility for lesser brothers.