The acrostic

Dominica laetare! Seu applausus festivus pro insigni die solemnitatis et laetitiae… Jawor, [1698].

This commemorative publication that is dedicated to Thomas Schaffarczyk, a prelate of the Premonstratensians (Norbertines) and a preposit of Czarnowąsy, contains a rare example of acrostic. The sentence SOL EST THOMAS (The Sun is Thomas) goes around the sun. From each letter of the word, like a sunbeam, goes a line created following a certain metre (hexameter, iamb, anapaest etc.), which is completed with a Roman numeral marking the end of the Latin word, for instance, Hortos suos valet ingredi, stant perVII (You may walk in your gardens, they are open).

Text compiled by M. Grubliauskas, A. Rinkūnaitė, I. Saudargienė.

Photograph by Mindaugas Česlikauskas (2025).