Ewa Śnieżyńska-Stolot
Rocznik Biblioteki Naukowej PAU i PAN, Rok LXVII (2022), 2022, s. 47 - 56
https://doi.org/10.4467/25440500RBN.22.005.17360La Pierre Eternelle ou soit la Glaura Augurelli Philosofi Angli. The mysteries of the recipe in The queen Sobieska’a Book of Kabballah, manuscript no. 2284 of the Jagiellonian Library
The article discusses one of the recipes included in manuscript no. 2284 held by the Jagiellonian Library (card 125r-126r), rewritten in French by Maria Kazimiera Sobieska. The manuscript contains various recipes including those gathered and rewritten by the queen widow herself while she was in Rome from 1699 to 1714. The title includes the words La Pierre Eternelle, that is the Philosopher‘s Stone, herafter Glaura Augurelli, which should be understood as the name of the Glaura nymph, a character in the poem titled Chrysopoeia by Giovanni Aurelio Augurello (1441–1524), an Italian poet, mistakenly called Philosofi Angli, due to Augurello’s popularity in this country. These last words were written in the language similar to Polish, which was common in Maria Kazimiera’s writings. The recipe contains a formula for the Philosopher’s Stone, which alchemists considered a means to obtain gold, but was also regarded as a remedy for all diseases. The Chrysopoeia poem describes the Philosopher’s Stone creation process, the mythological history of Lynceus, the participant in the quest for the Golden Fleece, and the Glaura nymph is another name for the Philosopher’s Stone. The discussed recipe, as well as the cabbalistic and numerological works gathered in the manuscript no. 2284 by Maria Kazimiera, contrary to popular opinion, presents her as a person deeply rooted in the elitist mindset of the turn of the 17th c. During her stay in Rome, she, like Krystyna Szwedzka, entered the circle of persons associated with studia humanitatis, and on the 16th September 1699 was admitted to the Accademia dell’Arcadia where she was renamed Amirisca Telea.
Ewa Śnieżyńska-Stolot
Rocznik Biblioteki Naukowej PAU i PAN, Rok LXIII (2018), 2018, s. 175 - 181
Ezechiel Cercha the miniaturist. From the ‘Forgotten inhabitants of Cracow’ cycle
Ezechiel Cercha, a miniaturist, was descended from an assimilated Italian family, one recorded in Cracow from the early 18th century. The exact date of his birth is not known, but it falls between 1781 and 1783. In 1803 he attended the St Anne Gimnazjum (Secondary School). He was probably trained in miniature painting by Dominik Oesterreicher (Estreicher). From 1808 he journeyed to Warsaw, where he settled permanently in 1817 and where he died on 8 January 1828. His miniatures are rarities. Two of them, untraced till now, were on display at the exhibition of miniature paintings in Lwów (Lviv) and Cracow (‘P. Bronikowska’ and an ‘Amorino’). The surviving works are now in a private collection (the ‘Madonna’), at the Castle Museum in Pszczyna (‘Stanisław Wodzicki’), and at the National Museum in Cracow (‘Józef Zakulski’); two were put up for sale at an online auction (‘An Unknown Young Man’, ‘An Unknown Woman’). All of them date back to the early period of Cercha’s activity (1809–1815); painted in watercolours or gouache on ivory, they reveal the artist’s proficiency in painting techniques and follow English miniatures in style.
Ewa Śnieżyńska-Stolot
Rocznik Biblioteki Naukowej PAU i PAN, Rok LXII (2017), 2017, s. 57 - 62
Juliusz Mien junior – painter. From the series: Forgotten inhabitants of Kraków
In multicultural Kraków from the times of Austrian-Hungarian monarchy there were many assimilated foreign artists whose figures are worth bringing back. One of them was Juliusz Mien junior (1865 Blanchefosse–1890 Kraków), a son of Juliusz (Jules) Mien, a French, poet and writer, who settled down in Kraków in 1870, and Petronela Wieczorkowska. Mien junior studied in the Cracow School of Fine Arts and in Munich, and very few of his paintings and drawings, self-portraits and portraits have been preserved in private collections and in the National Museum in Kraków. Like his father, he also wrote poems in Polish.
Ewa Śnieżyńska-Stolot
Rocznik Biblioteki Naukowej PAU i PAN, Rok LXV (2020), 2020, s. 131 - 139
https://doi.org/10.4467/25440500RBN.20.009.14168Maksymilian Cercha a Painter of the Tatras. From the “Forgotten Citizens of Kraków” Series
Maksymilian Cercha (1818–1907), whose life was linked to Kraków, was born in an assimilated Italian family and is known as a drawer, cataloguer of gravestones in the churches of Kraków and a co-author of a publication titled the Monuments of Kraków. In this paper however, his Tatra-themed paintings are discussed, which are yet to be included in the Art History. Cercha was Jan Nepomucen Głowacki’s student, who established Tatra mountains themed landscape painting in Kraków. In the summertime, he used to take his students to the Tatra mountains where he would rent an inn in Stare Kościelisko for an atelier.
Cercha painted his Tatra landscapes in the period from 1849 to 1860. These are:
–– Morskie Oko, oil on cardboard (31 x 23 cm), 1849;
–– View from Mała Łąka, oil on canvas (38 x 31 cm), 1853;
–– Mill in Chochołów, oil on cardboard (22 x 28 cm), 1853;
–– Sucha Woda Valley as seen from Brzeziny, oil on cardboard (32 x 26 cm), 1857;
–– View of the Giewont mountain, oil on cardboard (23 x 30 cm), c. 1860;
–– “Carpathians”, watercolour (22 x 14), 1860.
Except View from Mała Łąka, held by the Tatra Museum in Zakopane, all pictures belong to the family. Moreover, there are three pencil on paper drawings depicting Zakopane and Hamry from the period of 1855–1857 held by the National Museum in Kraków.
Cercha, modelling on Głowacki, used to oil paint on cardboard by firstly sketching on location and then finishing the picture back in Kraków. He used to replicate the themes drew out by Głowacki, such as the view of Morskie Oko lake. He continued the Cracovian tradition of Tatra landscape painting, whic, thanks to Głowacki, Franz Steinfeld the Younger’s student, derives from the Austrian landscape painting of Biedermeier period.
МАКСИМИЛИАН ЦЕРХА ХУДОЖНИК ТАТР. ИЗ ЦИКЛА «ЗАБЫТЫЕ ЖИТЕЛИ КРАКОВА»
Ключевые слова: Краков, пейзажная живопись, Школа рисунков и живописи, Татры
Максимилиан Церха (1818–1907), чья жизнь была связана с Краковом, происходил из ассимилированной итальянской семьи, известен как рисовальщик-инвентаризатор надгробий в краковских костёлах и соавтор издания «Памятники Кракова». В статье однако рассматриваются его живописные работы на тему Татр, ещё не вошедшие в историю искусства. Церха был учеником Яна Непомуцена Гловацкого, который положил начало в Кракове пейзажной живописи на тему Татр. Летом он выезжал со своими учениками в Татры, снимая под мастерскую корчму в Старом Косцелиско.
Пейзажи на тему Татр авторства Церхи в 1849–1860 годах это:
–– Morskie Oko (Морске-Око), картон, масло (31 x 23 см), 1849;
–– Widok z Małej Łąki (Вид с Мала-Лонки), холст, масло (38 x 31 см), 1853;
–– Młyn w Chochołowie (Мельница в Хохолове), картон, масло (22 x 28 см), 1853;
–– Dolina Suchej Wody od strony Brzezin (Долина Суха-Воды со стороны Бжезин), картон, масло (32 x 26 см), 1857;
–– Widok na Giewont (Вид на Гевонт), картон, масло (23 x 30 см), около 1860;
–– „Karpaty” (Карпаты), акварель (22 x 14 см), 1860.
За исключением работы Widok z Małej Łąki, которая находится в Музее Татр в Закопане, все они являются собственностью семьи. Кроме того, в Национальном музее в Кракове хранятся три карандашных рисунка на бумаге, созданные в 1855–1857 годах, представляющих Закопане и Хамры. Следуя примеру Гловацкого, Церха писал маслом на картоне, создавая зарисовки под открытым небом, который завершал после возвращения в Краков. Он повторял темы, которые затрагивал Гловацкий, например, вид на Морске-Око. Он продолжал традицию краковской живописи на тему Татр, которая посредством Гловацкого, ученика Франца Штайнфельда Младшего, пришли из австрийского пейзажа периода бидермайера.
Ewa Śnieżyńska-Stolot
Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki, Tom 64, Numer 2, 2019, s. 199 - 209
https://doi.org/10.4467/0023589XKHNT.19.021.10351Ewa Śnieżyńska-Stolot
Terminus, Tom 22, zeszyt 3 (56) 2020, 2020, s. 233 - 250
https://doi.org/10.4467/20843844TE.20.013.12371The “Anagrams” of Marie Casimire Sobieski The “Anagrams” of Marie Casimire Sobieski
This article concerns the residence in Rome from 1699 to 1714 of Marie Casimire Sobieski, widow of King John III. She belonged to the Accademia dell’Arcadia with occult tradition, and collected cabbalistic manuscripts which today are held in the Jagiellonian Library (Ms 2284). They include numerology predictions (fols. 160r–162v, 194r) described by the queen as “anagrams”. The deciphering of these predictions by replacing the numbers with the corresponding letters of the Latin alphabet enabled the determination of the names and titles of twenty-one persons. The veracity of the deciphering is confirmed by the first two letters of the name which are placed above each numerological representation and by the year of birth of a given person. In addition to Marie Casimire’s son Jakub Ludwik, these are the relatives of the Sobieski family and people related to it by marriage as well as figures of importance to the political life of the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century. It was the abbot Pompeo Scarlatti, the ambassador of Maximilian Emmanuel, Elector of Bavaria, in Warsaw, who made the queen interested in numerology; he accompanied her on her journey to Italy and remained at her court in Rome. Marie Casimire took an interest in numerology predictions after a tragedy in 1704, when her sons Jakub Ludwik and Konstanty were kidnapped and imprisoned by Augustus II, to be released only two years later. However, the majority of these predictions date from the years 1711–1713. Contrary to the tradition of maintaining secrecy, binding at Italian academies, the queen disclosed some of the methods of numerology prophesying; however, except for one case, she did not reveal the content of the prophecies hidden behind the obtained numbers.
Ewa Śnieżyńska-Stolot
Rocznik Biblioteki Naukowej PAU i PAN, Rok LXII (2017), 2017, s. 209 - 235
„Polen im Zeitalter der Jagiellonen 1386–1572”. The Jagiellonian Dynasty exhibition in Schallaburg (May 8–November 2 1986) and in Warsaw (March– June 1987). A recollection on the 30th anniversary
The Jagiellonian Dynasty exhibition presented in Schallaburg in Lower Austria and then in Warsaw was a very important cultural event for Polish and foreign recepients from the 80s of the 20th century. The article describes how, in completely different political and technical conditions, this exhibition came into being. The article is based on reviews published in newspapers issued in the People’s Republic of Poland and in foreign ones, mostly Austrian, on the direct recollections of the authors of the exhibition – Dr. Franciszek Stolot (1937–2006) and Dr. Gottfried Stangler (1948–2005), letters and comments written by the visitors to the exhibition.
The exhibition presented the times of the Jagiellonian rule in Poland, beginning with Władysław Jagiełło until Zygmunt August, 1386–1572, it was artistic and historical in character , but dominated by the works of art from state and church collections. It was held in 22 rooms of Schallaburg Castle and consisted of 600 exhibits. On the occasion of the exhibition a catalogue Schallaburg‘86 Polen im Zeitalter der Jagiellonen 1386–1572 was published, it consisted of 596 pages and 92 colourful illustrations compiled by 60 authors. The exhibition was a cognitive element not only for foreign tourists but for Polish visitors as well beacause it gathered the antiques from the Jagiellonian period in one place. Due to the success of the Jagiellonian Dynasty exhibition in Schallaburg, it was presented a year later in the Warsaw Castle. A modest catalogue Poland of the Jagiellonian Dynasty 1386–1572 was also published. It was edited by Prof. Aleksander Gieysztor, then the director of the Warsaw Castle.
The Schallburg exhibition was reviewd nad commented upon by Wilfried Schaber in “Weltkunst”, and it triggered international interest in the culture from the period of the Jagiellonian rule not only in Poland but also in the Czech Republic, Hungary, on the territory of the present Slovakia (Upper Hungary) and in Romania (Transylvania), and initiated scientific publications on that topic. As a result, an exhibition was organised in 2012 in Kutna Hora. It later visited Warsaw and Potsdam. The catalogue of the exhibition Europa Jagellonica 1386–1572 Art and Culture in Central Europe under the Jagiellonian Dynasty was published. It was edited by Jiři Fajt.
Ewa Śnieżyńska-Stolot
Rocznik Biblioteki Naukowej PAU i PAN, 2015, 2015, s. 217 - 244
https://doi.org/10.4467/25440500RBN.15.015.6607Cracow’s Monuments, a three-volume publication completed in 1904, holds a special place among numerous publications about the monuments erected in Cracow in the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. The authors of the illustrations were the Cerchas, father and son – Maksymilian (1818–1907) and Stanisław (1867–1919). The text, which was the first history of Polish art, was written by Feliks Kopera (1871–1952). Maksymilian was one of the painters who after the fire of Cracow in 1850 documented Cracow’s monuments in their drawings. He co-operated with the Department of Archeology and Fine Arts of the Cracow’s Scientific Society and together with Józef Łepkowski published Cracow’s Antiquities and Monuments. Stanisław Cercha was the third child of Maksymilan and Leokadia née Burdzińska. He studied painting at the Cracow Academy of Fine Arts and Anton Ažbé’s school in Münich, where he was later employed (1891–1896). He was interested in archeology, ethnology and art history, he was a member of the Cracow’s History and Monuments Lovers’ Society and the Society for the Preservation of the Monuments of Art and Culture in Cracow, Committee of the Research into the Art History in Poland of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, he also co-operated with Committee of Anthropology and Archeology of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. Basing its presentation on the letters of Leokadia Cercha, the article discusses the history of the preparations for the publication of Cracow’s Monuments, which was subsidized by the Austrian – Hungarian Ministry of Education, the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cracow, National Parliament and Cracow’s City Council, and private people. From 1900 Cracow’s Monuments were published in a form of magazine series, as a whole they constitute three volumes encompassing Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque. The core of the publication are the drawings depicting the tombstones from Cracow’s churches, there are also the images of churches and fragments of the old city buildings. They are printed with the use of Zink ink-free technology. The materials remaining after the publication were passed to the Archives of Old Files in Cracow (now National Archives, The Files of Maksymilian and Stanisław Cercha, classification number 29/1548: 1–1843). Some of the drawings included in Cracow’s Monuments are part of the collections of the National Museum in Cracow and Historical Museum of the City of Cracow.
Ewa Śnieżyńska-Stolot
Terminus, Tom 17, zeszyt 1 (34), 2015, s. 1 - 38
https://doi.org/10.4467/20843844TE.15.001.4527“[…] nec si rationem siderum ignoret, poetas intellegat […]”, or did poets know astrology? Quintilian, Inst. Orat. 1.4.4
This article aims to demonstrate – using selected examples of English Medieval poetry as well as Polish Renaissance and Baroque works – the way poets applied their knowledge of astrology, which modern researchers define as metaphor. Astrology, the study of the geocentric Cosmos, today a historical science, was ultimately formulated in Ptolemy’s time. As one of the seven liberal arts (septem artes liberales) it constituted the basis of education from late Antiquity to Medieval universities, surviving until as late as the 18th century.
The literary works produced from ancient times till the modern era, whose authors use their knowledge of astrology, can be divided into three groups.
The first includes the works which in rhymed form convey the knowledge of the Cosmos, for example, the Phaenomena of Aratos of Soloi, Aratea by Cicero, by his brother Quintus, by Germanicus and by Avienus as well as the lost Aratea of Ovid, Hyginus’s De astronomia, the poem Astronomicon of Marcus Manilius, and also Keter Malkhut written by the Andalusian Jew Solomon ibn Gabriol, known as Avicebron.
Ovid’s Fasti and Metamorphoses belong to the second group in which the knowledge of astrology is accompanied by the mythological prototypes, that is, Greek gods and heroes, of planets and constellations and also by explanations of mythological stories in relation to the appearance above and disappearance below the horizon of the celestial bodies which bear their names; there, too, we find the system of calendar holidays and annual rites. The planets and constellations in these works are the Greek gods and heroes “transferred onto the sky” as a reward for their service and virtues on earth (Greek katasterismos).
The third group embraces writings in which the structure of the Cosmos itself has become the basis for composing a poem. They are defined as stories embedded in a Chinese box structure. The characters and their tales form chains linked in imitation of astrological treatises, each chain opening with a planet or a sign of the zodiac. The precursor of such stories was an Andalusian Jew, Pedro Alfonso of Huesca, who was baptised in 1106 and subsequently resided at the court of Henry I in London, where he wrote his Disciplina clericalis. In this group of Medieval writings the most famous are The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer and Boccaccio’s Decameron. The knowledge of the Cosmos is also reflected in such works as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Arthurian tales, including the celebrated quest for the Grail, Le Roman de la Rose, and naturally Dante’s Divine Comedy and Milton’s Paradise Lost.
In each of these groups the static spherical Earth is the central point of the Cosmos, around which there rotate seven planets and the sphere of the fixed stars, or Greek constellations; movement to them all is imparted by the Primum Mobile, in the Middle Ages identified with God the Father. The Cosmos is built of four elements which have their equivalents in the form of the four humours in the human body, four temperaments, etc. In its annual travel the Sun moves across the twelve constellations, that is, the twelve signs of the zodiac.
In the development of Polish poetry on this subject an important role was played by Jan Kochanowski, who translated the Phaenomena of Aratos of Soloi, adding an invocation to God. In Mikołaj Rej’s Life of an Honourable Man, a poem modelled on the Zodiacus Vitae by Palingenius, we find an invocation to Divine Providence. Naturally, Ovid’s Metamorphoses were known to the Polish poets of the 16th and 17th centuries, such as Kasper Miaskowski, Mikołaj Wolski, Jan Gawiński, Zbigniew Morsztyn, Wacław Potocki, Wespazjan Kochowski, Wojciech Stanisław Chrościński, who translated Lucan’s Pharsalia into Polish, and Stanisław Słupski. In astrological treatises the planets and zodiacal signs formed chains of mnemonic associations, this additionally finding reflection in rhetorical dissertations, for instance, in one written by Kazimierz Jan Woysznarowicz.
Man’s interest in the sky has accompanied him ever since he assumed an upright position and saw what was above his head. The Old Babylonian stories about Gilgamesh, about Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven in particular, as well as cosmological references in the Bible, the Egyptians’ practical knowledge based on the observation of the sky, the knowledge of the sky viewed from a philosophical perspective by the Greeks – from Plato, Aristotle and the philosophers of late Platonism onwards – and the Apocalypse of St John are incessant returns to this subject. The place where Christian, Muslim, and Judaic cosmological thought converged was Andalusia from the 10th to 13th centuries.
That the catechumens in the 4th century knew more about the Cosmos than about the new Christian religion is testified by the sermons preached to them by St Zeno of Verona, who for mnemonic purposes assigned the figures of Christ, Mother of God, and the apostles to the signs of the zodiac. It was on the basis of cosmological knowledge that Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite wrote his works. The influence of the late-Platonic philosophy of Plotinus and Proclus as well as references made to the writings of the mythical Hermes Trismegistus found response in medieval mysticism, and the Cosmos became a subject for contemplation. This is best testified by the writings of Hildegard of Bingen and of the blessed Jan van Ruusbroec, the latter being a precursor of devotio moderna. Pierre d’Ailly in his Advent sermons preached from 1385 and also Jan Szczekna, confessor to Queen Hedvige (Jadwiga), wife of Ladislas Jagiello, referred directly to the Chaldeans, who were believed to be the earliest representatives of astrology. Fascination for the Cosmos did not end in the Middle Ages, but has accompanied the mystic trends within the three main religions and a variety of sects up until our times – witness the New Age of Aquarius.