Z pamiętników muzykalnego humanisty Schreibkalender Eliasa Maiora (1588–1669) jako źródło do historii kultury muzycznej Wrocławia

Already at the end of the fifteenth century the Saint Elisabeth middle school (St. Elisabeth-Gymnasium) at Wrocław was a key centre of Silesian humanities, owing its reputation to, among others, Laurentius Corvinus (in Polish Wawrzyniec Korwin) and other graduates of the Cracov University. A next generation of St. Elisabeth-Gymnasium’s teachers studied in Wittenberg, also at Philip Melanchthon’s, who exerted a profound impact on Wrocław’s intellectual elites. The Reformation introduced to the churches of the city was accompanied by a reform of education that made it possible in 1562, under Vice-Chancellor Andreas Winkler, to grant the school the status of gymnasium. Also the following vice-chancellors of Elisabetanum were guided by humanist ideals, including Elias Maior (1631–1669), who greatly developed a tradition of performing theatre plays. Elias Maior’s literary and didactic achievements are set in an interesting interpretative context in his Schreibkalender – diaries he kept for several decades of his vice-chancellorship. These notes are an extremely rich source documenting the everyday life of St. Elisabeth-Gymnasium’s vice-chancellor, both in publicis: in his school, his parish church and in the municipal council; and privatim: at his friends’ places, gardens, and taverns. What merits special attention here are numerous references to music played in all those circumstances. All this reveals a unique picture of musical life of the city on the Oder painted by the Wrocław’s learned Poeta Lauretaus.