BIO
Born on 13 October 1952 in Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki; son of the construction technician Stefan Karpiński and the teacher Teodozja, née Pstrągowska. He lived in Zakroczym, where he attended primary school, until 1971. He completed his advanced secondary education at the Tadeusz Kościuszko Grammar School in Modlin in 1971. The following year, he and his family moved to Buraków near Warsaw. He moved to the capital in 1975. He studied Polish philology at the University of Warsaw (UW) from 1971, graduating wiht a master's degree in 1976. He wrote a master's thesis on Kształt artystyczny „Rozmów Artaxesa i Ewandra” Stanisława Herakliusza Lubomirskiego (The Artistic Form of Stanisław Herakliusz Lubomirski's "Conversations between Artaxes and Evander"), which was supervised by Prof. Jadwiga Rytel. He then joined the doctoral programme at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IBL PAN). He made his debut in 1977 with a review of the anthology Literatura barska (The Literature of the Confederacy of Bar), which appeared in the journal "Pamiętnik Literacki" (no. 4). His research focused on the history and editing of Old Polish literature. He was awarded a doctoral degree in 1980 for his dissertation Staropolska poezja ziemiańska. Próba przekroju (Old Polish Gentry Poetry: Towards an overview), which was supervised by Prof. Janusz Pelc. The same year he was appointed to the Department of Renaissance and Baroque Literature at IBL PAN, initially as an assistant, before being appointed lecturer in 1981. Between 1991 and 1993, he was scientific secretary of the Polish Academy of Sciences' Committee on Literary Studies (KNoL PAN). He was awarded a habilitation degree from IBL PAN for his work as editor on Stanisław Herakliusz Lubomirski's Poezje zebrane (Collected Poetry). The same year he was appointed head of the Department of Renaissance and Baroque Literature at IBL PAN. In 1997, he founded and became head of the Team on Scholarly Editing and Textual Criticism (from 2000, the Center for Philological Studies and Scholarly Editing). From 1992/93 to 1996 he was also employed at the Faculty of Humanities at the Catholic University of Lublin (KUL), while in 1994 he was employed by the Institute of Polish Literature (ILP) at UW where he taught on the history of Polish literature, textual criticism and the editing of Old Polish texts. He was appointed to the Institutes's Scientific Council in 1996. In 1995, he was appointed to the Scientific Council of IBL PAN. Between 1995 and 1998, he also lectured at the private Alexander Gieysztor Higher School of Humanities in Pułtusk. In 1994, he established the Pro Cultura Litteraria Association, becoming its chairman. In 1995, he founded the publication series Biblioteka Pisarzy Staropolskich (Library of Old Polish Writers), becoming chairman of the editorial team (37 volumes had appeared by 2009). This published by the Association in collaboration with IBL PAN. In 1996, he joined the Editorial Board of the bi-annual journal "Barok", before joining its Editorial Committee in 2007 as editor of the Inedita section. He was made scientific editor of the project to publish Jan Kochanowski's complete works, Dzieła wszystkie. In 2000, he joined the editorial team of the series Biblioteka Pisarzy Polskiego Oświecenia (Library of Polish Renaissance Writers), while in 2001 he was appointed to the Editorial Committee of the series Studia Staropolskie. Series Nova (Old Polish Studies, Seria Nova). In 2010, he was appointed deputy editor-in-chief of the series. Between 2001 and 2004, he was a member of the Board of the Adam Mickiewicz Literary Society, while from 2003 to 2006 he was a member of KNoL PAN. In 2002, he was appointed head of the Commission for Editorial and Textual Scholarship at the International Congress of Slavists. In 2004, he was made state-appointed professor, while in 2005 he was appointed full professor at IBL PAN. That year he joined the Editorial Committee of Słownik języka polskiego XVII i 1 połowy XVIII wieku (Dictionary of the Polish Language of the seventeenth century and first half of the eighteenth century), while in 2007 he was appointed to the Editorial Board of the yearbook "Odrodzenie i Reformacja w Polsce" (The Renaissance and Reformation in Poland). His studies, articles and reviews appeared in the journals "Pamiętnik Literacki" (1984, 1994, 1997, 1999), "Przegląd Humanistyczny" (1984), "Barok" (1994-1995, 1998, 2000-03), "Ogród" (1994), "Teksty Drugie" (1999, 2003) and "Odrodzenie i Reformacja w Polsce" (2003, 2004). He married the literary historian Joanna Krauze in 1975; they had a daughter, Marta (b. 1976). He lived in the village of Sadowa in the Łomianki district from 2000. He died on 26 October 2011 in Warsaw, where he is buried at the Northern Communal Cemetery.
Twórczość
1. Staropolska poezja ideałów ziemiańskich. Próba przekroju. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Ossolineum 1983, 208 s. Polska Akademia Nauk Instytut Badań Literackich. Studia Staropolskie, t. 49.
2. Tekst staropolski. Studia i szkice o literaturze dawnej w rękopisach. Warszawa: Instytut Badań Literackich PAN 2003, 196 s. Fundacja Akademia Humanistyki Instytut Badań Literackich PAN. Studia Staropolskie. Series Nova, t. 8.
Zawartość
3. Renesans. [Podręcznik]. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe 2007, 282 s., Mała Historia Literatury Polskiej.
Artykuły w czasopismach i książkach zbiorowych, m.in.
Prace edytorskie i redakcyjne
Omówienia i recenzje
• Ankieta dla IBL PAN 2010.