Gentiluomo armato. Contesti militari della presenza degli studenti polacchi a Padova

Abstract

Gentiluomo armato. Military Contexts of the Presence of Polish Students in Padua Studies in Padua became firmly established in Polish intellectual culture primarily as a place for the education of eminent representatives of the First Republic, from whom a rich writing legacy remains. Hence, among the wide range of so-called ‘Paduan’ people identified, writers and poets are associated with the Paduan Athenaeum in the first place, followed by medics, especially professors and lecturers at the Kraków Academy, or royal secretaries. The article addresses the hitherto overlooked issue of military education, and in the wider context of military culture, encountered by students arriving from Poland to a university city under the strict control of the Republic of Venice. Research in this area makes it possible to better understand not only, for example, the European circulation of knowledge on the art of fortification, but also the origins of the Zamoyski Academy or the sources of the assimilation of the idea of honour into Polish language and culture.