Maciej of Miechów

(pseudonym of M. Karpiga). Born in 1457, in Miechów; died Sept. 8, 1523, in Krakow. Polish historian and geographer.

Maciej of Miechów became a professor at the University of Krakow in 1485, serving as its rector from 1501 to 1519. He published the Treatise on the Two Sarmatias, in 1517 (Russian translation, 1936), making use of accounts of Russian travelers in Poland. The work became one of the chief sources of knowledge about Russia in Western Europe during the 16th century. His Polish Chronicle of 1519, the first history of Poland to be printed, was fervently patriotic and written in the spirit of humanism. The first edition was confiscated in 1521 because of its anticlerical overtones, and the work was later republished with substantial alterations.