Harold B. Segel: Renaissance Culture in Poland: The Rise of Humanism, 1470–1543. Cornell University Press, 1989, ISBN 0-8014-2286-8 With the Vita of Philippus Callimachus (since that is the name the Italian wrote under) as our guide, then, let us explore the career of Gregory of Sanok and his role in the development of Renaissance humanism in Poland. According to Callimachus, Gregory was from the gentry (a claim generally disputed now by Polish scholars, who find no evidence to back it up) and at age twelve ran away from home because of harsh parental discipline. He came to Cracow to further his education and begin a career, but he found that doors were closed to him because he knew no German, the language of the city's urban and academic patriciate. Determined to remedy the situation, Gregory crossed the Elbe into Germany. He spent the next five years traveling (where, we do not know for certain) and earning his living by tutoring (what, precisely we are also unsure of). He must have spent considerable time in German-speaking lands, because he is eventually credited with knowing German well. It is also possible that his travels took him as far as Italy. In 1428, after ten years of a largely itinerant life, Gregory returned to Poland and enrolled in the University of Cracow as a candidate for the bachelor of arts degree.S. 20. In 1418, at only twelve years of age, he ran away and traveled from one town to another until he eventually reached Cracow. He spent a few years there and then left for a five- year stay in Germany. When he returned to Cracow in 1428 to enroll at the university, he had behind him ten years of wandering, propelled by the twin hungers of mind and body.S. 31.
