Łukasz Górnicki (1527 in Oświęcim – 22 July 1603 in Lipniki by Tykocin), was a Polish Renaissance, poet, humanist, political commentator as well as secretary and chancellor of king Sigismund Augustus of Poland. His family used Ogończyk coat of arms.
He wrote a number of works both poetic and political. Górnicki is most famous for his Dworzanin Polski (The Polish Courtier), an adaptation of Baldassare Castiglione's Book of the Courtier (Il cortegiano).
Life
Youth and education
Łukasz Górnicki was born in Oświęcim. He was the son of Marcin Góra and Anna Gąsiorkówna, poor townspeople from Bochnia. Górnicki began his education there. His early life was heavily influenced by his uncle Stanisław Gąsiorek, called Anserinu, a cleric at and director of the royal chapel on Wawel, as well as author of Polish patriotic verses and composer. Stanisław took an interest in his nephew and brought him to Kraków in 1538, seeing to the young man's studies and court career, and eventually declared Górnicki his heir.
The exact contours of Górnicki's education are uncertain, though it can be said that he never entered the Kraków Academy.
At the court of Sigismund August
Górnicki worked at court of king Sigismund August from his youth until his death. In this time he had ample opportunity to encounter the courtly life surrounding the king. In 1548 he went on bishop Filip Padniewski's diplomatic mission to Transylvania. From 1552 he worked in the royal chancery under the direction of the chancellor Jan Przerembski. In 1552 Górnicki travelled with Przerembski in the king's service Gdańsk, Kaliningrad, and Lithuania.
In this period he took low orders, and received a few benefices as a result. Having gained some financial stability from these benefices and from his uncle's will, Górnicki set off for Italy for two years in 1557. Resident in Padua, he studied law at the university there. He returned to Poland in February 1559.