Genologiczne ukształtowanie listów dedykacyjnych Marcina Czechowica

The aim of the article is to describe the shape of letters of dedication (epistola dedicatoria) from the generic perspective. The study is based on dedications to Marcin Czechowic’s writings. The author is found the master of the sixteenth-century prose. The analyses allowed identifying in an intensely petrifi ed genre both conventional and innovative elements. Conventional elements indicate skillful references to a literary tradition, whereas innovative elements are a sign of creative originality. The whole of pragmatic determinants largely infl uenced the linguistic form of dedication. It makes Czechowic’s prologues specifi c author’s versions of epistola dedicatoria: a letter-preface of a mainly descriptive type; a letter-message which purpose is to build a bond in the community of worshippers and fi nally a letter-polemic in which an offensive tone dominates.