Franciszka Urszula Radziwiłłowa

Who was Franciszka Urszula Radziwiłłowa?

Franciszka Urszula Radziwiłłowa was a Polish-Lithuanian noble dramatist and writer, first Polish woman playwright.

Born in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, in the szlachta family of Janusz Antoni Wiśniowiecki, the kasztalan of Kraków and married to the grand hetman Michał Kazimier "Rybańka" Radzivił, she got a brilliant domestic education and wrote numerous plays for her court theatre in Nieśwież. Many subjects and characters for her plays were taken from medieval dramas, Ancient mythology, Arab and Persian humoresques and folklore.

Works of Urszula Franciszka Radziwiłł are an example of 18th century Polish Baroque culture in its specific transition form from medieval spectacles to the theatre of the new age.