Jan Aleksander Gorczyn

Place: Kraków

Biography:

Jan Aleksander Gorczyn, also known as Gorczyński, was a Polish printer, publisher, engraver, etcher, religious and devotional writer, mathematician, heraldist and composer. He was born in Kraków around 1618 and died after 1695. Gorczyn was the son of Urszula and Piotr Ulanowski, a mieszczanin from the village of Gorczyn near Poznań. He studied at the Wydział Sztuk Akademii Krakowskiej from 1634 but did not complete his studies. Gorczyn owned a house in Kraków, ran a bookstore and began his career as a printer. He also worked as an engraver. In 1647, he married Dorota, probably the daughter of Jakub Celesty. Gorczyn often appeared before the Krakow court as a defendant and plaintiff, and spent 15 months in prison for debts (from February 1683 to April 1684). Gorczyn's most famous works include the modlitewnik 'Kwiatki liliowe albo modlitwy nabożne' (1647), the arithmetic textbook 'Nowy sposób arytmetyki' (1647), the music textbook 'Tabulatura muzyki abo zaprawa muzykalna' (1647), the heraldic work 'Herby Królestwa Polskiego' (1653) and the religious work 'Bł. Stanisław Kazimierczyk' (1672). He also worked as a journalist and was one of the first editors of the 'Merkuriusz Polski' (1661).