Marcin Bielski, Polish writer and historian, was born in 1495 and died in 1575 in the village Biała, almost 200km from Krakow. As a young man he was a courtier of Piotr Kmita, the Grand Crown Marshal and Krakow mayor. In 1531 he took part in a battle at Obertyn. He spent few years living in Krakow and here he got interested in the Reformation movement. In 1540 he came back to Biała village where he started writing his novels and history books. Here are some of his works:
- “Żywot filozofów” (Life of Philosophers )1535, he used a nickname Wolski to sign it;
- “Kronika wszystkiego świata” (Chronicle of all the world )1551, it was a first attempt in Poland to note the events from the world history;
- “Sprawa rycerska”(Knight’s job) 1569;
- “Sen majowy” (The May Dream);
- “Kronika polska”(The Polish Chronicle), was published after his death and included information about different epidemics, floods, fires and unusual events as a story about a woman from Krakow, Katarzyna Malcherowa, who changed her faith to Judaism, for which she was sentenced to death by bishop Gamrat and was burned at the Main Market Square.
