Mikołaj Rej, Polish poet and author (d. 1580)
Mikołaj Rej or Mikołaj Rey of Nagłowice (4 February 1505 – between 8 September/5 October 1569) was a Polish poet and prose writer of the emerging Renaissance in Poland as it succeeded the Middle Ages, as well as a politician and musician. He was the first Polish author to write exclusively in the Polish language, and is considered (with Biernat of Lublin and Jan Kochanowski), to be one of the founders of Polish literary language and literature.