Jonas Radvanas
Jonas Radvanas (; , died after 1592) was a Renaissance poet and protestant reformer from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Very little is known about his life and he is best remembered as the author of an epic poem Radivilias dedicated to the military achievements of Mikołaj "the Red" Radziwiłł. However, the poem goes beyond a simple panegyric and paints a broader patriotic image of the Grand Duchy. In total, he wrote 18 poems that were published in various publications by the Calvinists in the Grand Duchy. All of his works were written in Latin. Biography There is very little known about Radvanas and researchers make educated guesses based on his works. Some biographical data was provided by Franciszek Siarczyński (1758–1829) but it is unclear where Siarczyński obtained that information as it cannot be verified by researchers. Siarczyński wrote that Radvanas was born and educated in Vilnius, traveled in Western Europe with the support of Lithuanian Grand Hetman Hrehory Chodkiewicz, and later worked as Chodkiewicz's secretary. Radvanas was active between 1584 and 1592 which would imply that he was born in the middle of the century. He signed his first published poem as Joannes Raduanouiuis Vilnensis (i.e. Jonas Radvanas of