Derey Błażej, *ca. 1587 Siewierz, †12 May 1666 Krakow, Polish miniature painter, poet, composer. In 1616, he joined the Dominican Order in Krakow, where he was ordained a priest in 1627. In 1630, he was chaplain to Starost Jan Bykowski in Sieradz. Before returning to Krakow, he probably stayed in other Dominican monasteries, including in Poznań.
Derey composed three polyphonic church pieces – Bogurodzica, Patrem masoviticum, Missarum in choro decantations from 1630, and a sequence in honor of St. Hyacinth, Salvatorem collaudamus. Derey was the publisher and author of the collection Nabożne pieśni, które przy gromadnym odprawianiu różańców tak błogosławionej Panny Marii, jak też najświętszego imienia Jezus śpiewane być mogą, wydane przez Błażeja Dereja [Devotional songs that may be sung during the communal recitation of the rosary to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Holy Name of Jesus, published by Błażej Derey], Krakow 1645. Four of these songs have four-voice melodies arranged by Franciszek Lilius, while the others only contain references to melodies popular at the time. Derey also published Antiphonarium (…) pars hyemalis (Krakow 1655), which took into account the Dominican reform of chant carried out by a member of the order, Isaiah of Lipnica.
As a miniature painter, Derey restored old illuminated liturgical books from the library of the Dominican monastery in Krakow. He also copied and decorated new ones, such as the Antiphonary from 1627, as well as Graduals from 1632 and 1633, among others.
Literature: R. Świętochowski Tradycje muzyczne zakonu kaznodziejskiego, “Muzyka” 1963 nos. 1-4; T. Maciejewski, preface to facsimile edition of Nabożne pieśni, Warsaw 1977; Życie muzyczne w klasztorach dominikańskich w dawnej Rzeczpospolitej, ed. A. Patalas, “Acta Musicologica Universitatis Cracoviensis” 31, Krakow 2016.
