Andrzej Wiszowaty

Who was Andrzej Wiszowaty?

Andrzej Wiszowaty Sr. was a Socinian theologian who worked with Joachim Stegmann on the Racovian Catechism of 1605, and taught at the Racovian Academy of the Polish Brethren.

After the expulsion and exile from Rakow in 1639 Andrzej Wiszowaty Sr. is notable as the main mover in the printing of the Bibliotheca fratrum Polonorum which was to influence Voltaire and John Locke. He supervised the printing in Amsterdam by Frans Kuyper, first of the works of Johann Crell and then, backnumbered as "Volume 1" the works of his grandfather Fausto Sozzini 1668. He was working on a revised edition of the Racovian Catechism when he died in 1678, this was published in Amsterdam in 1680 and became the basis for Thomas Rees' English translation of 1818. His own major work Religio rationalis "Rational religion" was published by his son Benedykt Wiszowaty.