The New World in “The New Athens”: Father Benedykt Chmielowski about America

Abstract

“Nowe Ateny” (The New Athens), written by a Polish priest Be-nedykt Joachim Chmielowski (1700-1763), was the first Polish-language encyclope-dia. It was published in 1745-1746, and the second edition was supplemented between 1754 and 1764. Benedykt Chmielowski, on the basis of the available sources of the time, gathered information from various domains of knowledge. My article intends to shine a light on the extensive image of America presented by Father Chmielowski, whose book served to arouse the interest and curiosity of the Polish readers in the 18th century, for whom “Nowe Ateny” constituted, till the Enlightenment, the unique source of knowledge about the New World.