Author: Kojałowicz Kazimierz Wijuk, 1617 - 1674
Title: Concionator Extemporanevs, Sive Sexaginta Modi Sacrae Orationis Varie Formandae.
Title in English: The Improvising Preacher, or Holy Orations Crafted Differently in Sixty Ways.
Friessem, 1679.
Kazimieras Vijūkas-Kojalavičius was one of the most prominent professors of Vilnius University, a preacher and author of oratory, commemorative, and biographical works. His book on ecclesiastical oratory, entitled “Šešiasdešimt šventosios kalbos sudarymo būdų”, was first published in Antwerp in 1668, then reprinted in Cologne in 1676, 1679 and 1694, and in Vilnius in 1684.
In this work, Kojalavičius discusses sermons given between the Advent and the Pentecost, providing the material in a liturgical order and highlighting the specifics of each sermon. The author examines many composition principles similar to the ones he specified when discussing secular oratory, such as allegories, symbols, antitheses, syllogisms, etymologies, similes, questions, and various rhetorical figures. He even provides the same examples, e.g. the anagram for the name Casimir. In Latin, the name CASIMIRUS can be read as SUM AC IRIS (I am a rainbow), CASUS MIRI (the manifestation of a miracle), MIRUS ISA[A]C (the godly Isaac). In each case, one can write a completely different speech based on allegorical images, examples and similes. The anagram was one of the most popular genres in Baroque literature.
References: Narbutienė, Daiva. Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės lotyniškoji knyga XV-XVII a. Vilnius: Lietuvių literatūros ir tautosakos institutas, MMIV [2004], p. 140; Ulčinaitė, Eugenija. Kazimieras Kojalavičius – retorikos profesorius. pamokslininkas, panegiristas / Spectrum, 2014, Nr. 2, p. 34, 35.