In 1745, a Polish parish priest named Benedykt Joachim Chmielowski published Nowe Ateny (New Athens), the first encyclopedia ever written in the Polish language. Spanning nearly a thousand pages, divided into thematic “classes” rather than arranged alphabetically, it was intended—as its sprawling subtitle announced—for “the wise to remember, for fools to learn, for politicians to practice, for melancholics to entertain.”
It drew on more than a hundred sources, from the Bible and Aristotle to Pliny the Elder and contemporary European authors. But Nowe Ateny was not a dry compilation of facts. Chmielowski mingled scholarship with folklore, theological speculation, travel tales, and outright fantasy. The result was an exuberant baroque miscellany—part reference work, part cabinet of curiosities.
The book’s most famous entry is about horses:
Horse: What a horse is like, anyone can see. (Polish: Koń jaki jest, każdy widzi )
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