page_title: Stanisław Czerniecki
section_title: Military service and ennoblement
hierarchical_section_title: Stanisław Czerniecki / Life / Military service and ennoblement
caption_attribution_description: English: Nowy Wiśnicz Castle
context_page_description: Stanisław Czerniecki was a Polish soldier, property manager, chef and writer, best known as the author of Compendium ferculorum, albo Zebranie potraw, the first cookbook written originally in the Polish language. He was an ennobled burgher who held the titular offices of royal secretary and podstoli of Zhytomyr. During much of his life he served some of the powerful magnate houses of Poland, including the Wielopolski, Zamoyski, Wiśniowiecki and Lubomirski families. It was as head chef at the court of Prince Aleksander Michał Lubomirski that Czerniecki wrote his cookery book. As a designer of spectacular banquets, he has been called "the Polish Vatel" by Karol Estreicher, although Czerniecki did not meet the tragic fate of François Vatel, the head chef at the court of the Grand Condé.
context_section_description: Stanisław Czerniecki came most likely from a burgher family living in Strzyżów, a town in southern Poland then owned by the Wielopolski family. Nothing else is known about his birth, family, childhood and education. In 1645 or 1646, he began his service at the court of Prince Stanisław Lubomirski, voivode of Kraków, in the castle of Nowy Wiśnicz. After Stanisław Lubomirski's death in 1649, he continued to serve his eldest son, Prince Aleksander Michał Lubomirski.
  Following the 1655 Swedish invasion of Poland during the Second Northern War, Czerniecki began his military career under the command of Jan "Sobiepan" Zamoyski. He took part in the battles of Gołąb and Warsaw in 1656. After the war with Sweden, he continued his military service fighting in the battle of Chudnov against Muscovite forces in 1660 and in the battle of Brayiliv against Crimean Tatars and Cossacks (Polish–Cossack–Tatar War) in 1666.
  In 1670, Czerniecki was awarded for his military exploits with the titular office of royal secretary. The royal document, issued by King Michael Wiśniowiecki, describes Czerniecki as a long-time servant to the house of Wiśniowiecki. According to Czerniecki family lore, Stanisław Czerniecki was employed as the king's chamber servant. He may have landed this job thanks to his previous military service under Zamoyski, who was King Michael's uncle and mentor. 
  Although Czerniecki had been previously mentioned in documents as a nobleman, he was officially ennobled by the sejm (diet) which convened in Kraków after the coronation of King John III Sobieski in 1676. The act of ennoblement recognizes his military merits, to which Prince Dymitr Jerzy Wiśniowiecki, grand hetman of the Crown, testified. The same act also granted Czerniecki a coat of arms with three ostrich feathers for the crest and charged with a white dove perched on one olive branch and holding another in its beak. From this time, Czerniecki began to be officially referred to as Stanislaus Columbus Czerniecki, where columbus is the Latin word for "dove".
caption: Nowy Wiśnicz Castle, seat of the Lubomirski family in the 17th century
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