ABSTRACT
Originating from Lithuania, the Jagiellons rose to become one of the most powerful dynasties in Europe during the late Middle Ages and the beginning of the early modern period. The dynasty began in 1386 with the marriage of its eponymous protoplast Grand Duke Jogaila of Lithuania to Queen Hedwig of Poland and his coronation as king of Poland. The merging of both countries under their royal couple was a decisive event not only for Polish and Lithuanian history, but also for the history of the whole of East-Central and Eastern Europe. In Poland, the Jagiellonian period led to a noticeable cultural upturn, especially from the second half of the fifteenth century onwards. Cracow, as an international university city since the late fourteenth century, became an important hotspot of education, learning and culture. The fifteenth and especially the sixteenth centuries also gave the grand duchy of Lithuania an enormous intellectual and cultural boost.
