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Ioannes Dantiscus' Itinerary

Dantiscus Itinerary is a digital journey through the life and legacy of Ioannes Dantiscus, Renaissance diplomat, poet and church leader

About the project

It is primarily through this correspondence—its dates, records of letter receptions, and the information contained within, supplemented to a limited extent by other sources—that we can trace the path of this remarkable individual.

The Itinerary of Ioannes Dantiscus offers an engaging journey through time and space. This unique insight into the life of a key figure from Poland’s Golden Age—the first permanent Polish ambassador at the imperial court, humanist, poet, bishop, and senator of the Kingdom of Poland—is made possible by an extensive collection of his correspondence. Among the many individuals with whom he exchanged letters, notable names include Nicolaus Copernicus and Hernán Cortés.

Following Dantiscus, we traverse Poland, Prussia, Lithuania, Austria, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, France, England, Spain, and the Netherlands. In his youth, he takes us on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land; later, in his maturity, he brings us to Santiago de Compostela. His diplomatic duties lead us to the courts of emperors and kings, where we witness military campaigns, peace negotiations, coronation ceremonies, royal weddings, funerals, theological debates, and poetic contests. We encounter prominent scholars, artists, theologians, religious reformers, merchants, and bankers of the Renaissance era.

Highlights of the project
Itinerary

The Project presents the life of Ioannes Dantiscus, chronicled day by day – from his birth in 1485 to his death in 1548 – along with the places he visited as he rose to prominence among the elite of his „little homeland”, Royal Prussia, and the broader, multicultural and multi-religious elite of the Kingdom of Poland, to whose rulers he remained loyally devoted; as he undertook diplomatic missions, interacted with notable figures in the political and cultural spheres of contemporary Europe, and, in the final period of his life, held episcopal authority in the Ermland Diocese.

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Interactive historical map

The map illustrates all documented and source-verified stays of Ioannes Dantiscus (1485–1548) along with selected, thoroughly substantiated journeys. The map’s content can be filtered using the following criteria: certainty of the ‟entry”, date precision (precise or approximate), number of ‟entries” related to a given location (ranges: 1, 2–10, 11–50, 51–100, >100), phases of Dantiscus’s life, and chronological scope. Users can search for locations by their historical or contemporary names.
see the map

About Dantiscus

Ioannes Dantiscus (Dantyszek, von Höfen, de Curiis, Flachsbinder) (1485 –1548), eminent diplomat and humanist in the service of the Jagiellons, neo-Latin poet, Bishop of Kulm and Ermland
Biographic note
Major dates
Why Dantiscus

About itineraries

The Late Latin term itinerarium denoted a route, an account of a journey, or a guidebook. In the present publication, the term ‘itinerary’ is used in accordance with its usage in contemporary historical scholarship, where it signifies “a critical compilation of the dates and locations of an individual’s stays and travels” (encompassing either a selected period or the entirety of a person’s life). Our Itinerary of Ioannes Dantiscus spans the whole of the eminent humanist’s life, from his birth in Danzig on 1 November 1485 to his death in Heilsberg on 27 October 1548.
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Sources

The primary sources for the Itinerarium are, above all, the preserved correspondence of Ioannes Dantiscus, with his literary works serving to a much lesser extent. Additional sources include documents issued by or for Dantiscus, external documents (such as the records of Prussian assemblies), and, as supplementary material, scholarly studies. These materials are collected and published as part of the online Corpus of Ioannes Dantiscus’ Texts & Correspondence and the printed series Corpus Epistularum Ioannis Dantisci, within the long-term research program “Registration and Publication of the Correspondence of Ioannes Dantiscus (1485-1548)”, conducted by the Laboratory for Source Editing and Digital Humanities at the Faculty of “Artes Liberales” at the University of Warsaw.
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How to use the Itinerary

The basic unit of the Itinerary is an “entry”. Each entry consists of a specific date and location. Accompanying each entry is information about the primary source (in most cases, also with a link to a digital edition of the source). The “Itinerarium” also includes approximate dates (accounting for just under 5% of entries) and a small number of “uncertain entries” (representing just under 3% of all entries). The criterion for including an “uncertain entry” was the existence of strong evidence supporting its likelihood, which is always indicated in the accompanying commentary.
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Project Team

The Dantiscus Itinerary project is brought to life by a dedicated team of historians, digital archivists, and designers passionate about Renaissance history

WAL UW
Anna Skolimowska

Anna Skolimowska

as@al.uw.edu.pl

Doctoral degree and habilitation in the humanities; Classical scholar, editor of medieval and Renaissance correspondence (Korespondencja żupnika krakowskiego Mikołaja Serafina [Correspondence of Cracow salt mine administrator Mikołaj Serafin]; the series “Corpus Epistularum Ioannis Dantisci”; online Corpus of Ioannes Dantiscus Texts & Correspondence), head of the Laboratory for Source Editing and Digital Humanities of the Faculty “Artes Liberales”, University of Warsaw (WAL UW); her research interests include all aspects of the activities of members of the humanist respublica litteraria and digital humanities, and the application of digital humanities in scholarly editing.
WAL UW
Katarzyna Jasińska-Zdun

Katarzyna Jasińska-Zdun

k.jasinskazd@uw.edu.pl

Doctoral degree in the humanities; Classical scholar. She specialises in Latin teaching, Latin paleography, editing (including digital editing) of medieval and early modern sources. She works at the University of Warsaw (in the Laboratory for Source Editing and Digital Humanities at the Faculty of Artes Liberales and in the Institute of Classical Philology at the Faculty of Polish Studies). Her non-academic interests encompass opera music and astronomy.
WAL UW
Mateusz Materek

Mateusz Materek

m.materek@uw.edu.pl

MA in Polish Language and Literature at the College of Interdisciplinary Individual Studies, University of Wrocław (also studied Computer Science and Economics within the program). Academic interests: memetics, application of ICT, especially corpus methods, in literary research. Non-academic interests: climbing, hiking, music, stage technology.
IH PAN
Katarzyna Słomska-Przech

Katarzyna Słomska-Przech

IH PAN

Aniela Wrzesińska

WAL UW

Katarzyna Tomaszuk

kato@al.uw.edu.pl

Classical philologist, graduate of the University of Warsaw, editor of Neo-Latin texts, translator, and editor of scholarly publications.
WAL UW
Katarzyna Gołąbek

Katarzyna Gołąbek

katia.gol@gmail.com

M.A. in History. Academic interests: political elites, the history of the Church and the execution movement in 16th-century Poland.
WAL UW
Patryk Sapała

Patryk Sapała

patryksapala@al.uw.edu.pl

Jinntec
Julia Peshkova

Julia Peshkova

WAL UW / JinnTec
Magdalena Turska

Magdalena Turska

tuurma@gmail.com

Open source software developer and co-author of the TEI Processing Model and TEI Publisher - a publication platform for XML corpora. Member of e-editiones society and an elected member of the TEI Board of Directors (formerly also Technical Council). Lead developer or technical editor for a number of editorial projects in Europe and US.
Jinntec
Joern Turner

Joern Turner

joern.turner@jinntec.de

Jinntec
Wolfgang Meier

Wolfgang Meier

wolfgang@jinntec.de

Research financed by the Minister for Science and Higher Education through the National Programme for the Development of Humanities in 2020-2025, Project No. 11H 11 0042 87, subsidy in the amount of 771,523.00 PLN.

tel. (+48) 22 55-20-202 / -112 / -212

Anna Skolimowska

as@al.uw.edu.pl