‘They stood up [to serve] in need’. Military service of future members of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences between 1914 and 1920

This article heralds a book describing the military career of members of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences during the First World War and the subsequent Polish-Bolshevik War. Thus far the author has succeeded in selecting 158 professors who between 1914 and 1920 were definitely called up and who took part in active military service. For many of them numerous biographical entries have been written; however, these mainly consider their academic activity. The book is meant to contain detailed information about each individual professor’s participation in the particular armed conflict, to elaborate on where the operation took place, in which army and detachment they served and under whose command, as well as when and to what military rank they were promoted and what decorations were awarded. Iconographic material is to represent an important part of the upcoming publication

‘My Military Service’. Recollections of the Reverend Jan Twardowski, a soldier of the 13th ‘Guidobald Starhemberg’ Galician Infantry Regiment, called the ‘Cracow Children’

Recollections of all sorts constitute an important supplementary historical source. The authors of this article, historians – Dr hab. Ewa Danowska and Piotr Świątczak – have edited the interesting recollections of the Rev. Dr Jan Twardowski from the period of his service in the Austro-Hungarian army from 1894 to 1895. They form part of his voluminous legacy deposited in the Special Collections Department of the Scientific Library of PAU and PAN in Cracow. They are very illuminating.
Having completed his education at the Austro-Hungarian Higher Gimnazjum (Secondary School) in Bochnia, Jan Twardowski served in the army for one year as a volunteer in the 13th ‘Guidobald Starhemberg’ Galician Infantry Regiment stationed in Cracow. He was quartered in the Archduke Rudolf barracks.
The hero of the present paper has left behind a comprehensive characterization of this period of his life. He describes in detail the course of his service in the partitioner’s armed forces and his adventures at that time; he also shares with posterity his private experiences and reflections and depicts the relations between the officer cadre and the rank-and-file soldiers.
These recollections form part of Jan Twardowski’s memoir written down late in life. He writes, among other things, about his childhood (he was born in 1873), his schooldays, his studies at the Jagiellonian University, and his work as a catechist and teacher in a secondary school; we can also learn about a suspension imposed on him, his struggle for the right to his pension, and the later fate of Jan Twardowski as a mature man. The paper additionally discusses the general question of military service for Poles from Galicia in the Austro-Hungarian army.

‘We are living in truly historic days’. The renascent independent Polish state as portrayed in Franciszek Duda’s ‘Diary from the time of the 1914–1921 war’

Franciszek Duda, a representative of the Cracow intelligentsia, an employee of the National Archives of Municipal and Land Records (today the National Archives in Krakow) and from 1924  its director, has left behind a five-volume Diary from the Time of the 1914–1921 War. He undertook to put down his recollections with future scholars in mind. The present edition comprises a part of volume 4, concerning the period between 8 October and 19 November 1918, in which he gives a picture of Cracow and its inhabitants on the threshold of the revival of independent Poland; this picture is enriched with his own, very interesting comments and reflections on the events of the day.

Jan Kazimierz Tetmajer in the light of his manuscript legacy in the Scientific Library of PAU and PAN in Cracow

In 1969 a large assembly of the family papers of Włodzimierz Tetmajer (1861–1923), an eminent Polish painter, but also a poet and politician, was purchased for the collections of the Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow. Among his personal and family papers, articles, autographs, and drafts of poems, as well as sketches, notebooks, and drawings there were also materials concerning his eldest son, Jan Kazimierz Tetmajer, who in 1919 volunteered for the Polish Army then in formation and who was killed in July 1920 fighting against the Bolsheviks at the Battle of Stanisławczyk.
After his grave was found, his body was brought to Cracow and buried in the Bronowicki Cemetery. The monument standing over the grave bears a plaque with a portrait of the young uhlan; it is also engraved with patriotic poems and additionally decorated with an uhlan’s shako.
Preliminary research into the artist’s manuscripts allowed the author to single out and present Włodzimierz Tetmajer’s notes and personal reflections as well as the artist’s poems, ones full of love and pride in his son. His legacy also includes four different sketches of the sepulchral monument.

Beszowa and Mielec. Contributions to their earliest history

The historical issues discussed in the present publication concern the discovery of and an attempt to interpret the sources relating to the earliest history of the parish and church at Beszowa (situated between Nowe Miasto Korczyn and Połaniec) and their medieval and later relations with the estate of the Gryfita family of Mielec on the right bank of the Vistula and subsequently with the family’s town, Mielec.
The problems pertain to 14th- and 15th-century source documents, published but for the most part never referred to for information, as well as to the hitherto unknown book of privileges – covering the period from the 15th to the 17th century – which were granted to the Beszowa parish and to the later Mielec parish. The latter document provides a great deal of information about settlement (especially in the part of the Wiślica region situated on the right bank of the Vistula), the foundation of the Pauline monastery at Beszowa, and the short-lived parish at Orzelec, but mainly about the development of the Mielec estate and its division in the late 16th century. The final part of the book presents the issues of the Vistula river trade in the 16th and 17th centuries, hitherto unknown from other sources (or equally for other Polish territories), which was plied by two-thirds of the Mielec middle class. This observation may apply to the majority of the towns situated along the Vistula as a testimony to their wealth and development until the Swedish ‘Deluge’ and the accompanying invasion by György Rákóczy, Duke of Transylvania, which was to bring about economic and demographic disaster for the Polish Kingdom.

Kazimierz Dobrowolski’s study of settlement in old Poland

The research carried out by Kazimierz Dobrowolski (1894-1987), a historian, ethnographer, and sociologist, focused on religious life as well as on the spiritual culture, mentality and the manuscript book in medieval and Renaissance Poland. However, his scholarly achievements include also numerous works of value concerning settlement in our country. They are more worthy of note as before him the history of research on settlement in Poland had not been very advanced. The scholars who had taken up this issue were Tadeusz Wojciechowski, Karol Potkański, and Franciszek Bujak. The last-mentioned researcher inspired Dobrowolski, his pupil, whose works embrace a number of studies concerning the earliest forms of the Polish village, Carpathian place-names, migration, as well as the earliest settlement in the Podhale region. It is worth recalling this aspect of Dobrowolski’s activity in view of the recent 30th anniversary of the eminent scholar’s death.

A nobleman–burgher. The fortunes of the Lublin swordsmith Józef Siestrzeński in the light of his will of 17 June 1652

This article presents the person of the Lublin burgher Józef Siestrzeński (d. 1652). In all likelihood descended from the impoverished Mazovian gentry, Siestrzeński resolved to seek his livelihood in the town, hence his decision to settle in Lublin. Here he achieved success; admittedly, he never became a member of the local municipal élite, but he attained a strong position both in his trade (in the swordsmiths’ guild) and financially, in the latter aspect by acquiring a house in a prestigious quarter of the city. Additionally, his testament sheds some light on everyday life during the great plague in 1652.

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.

Józef Julian Sękowski (1800–1858) – doctor of philosophy of the Jagiellonian University and foreign member of the Cracow Learned Society

This is a short outline of the activity of an eminent orientalist, talented writer and journalist, and professor at St Petersburg University (1822–1847), with particular consideration of his stay in Cracow in the autumn of 1826. It was then that Sękowski donated to the collections of the Jagiellonian University an Egyptian papyrus scroll 3.5 m long, acquired during his journey to Egypt and Nubia in 1821. The scroll is accompanied by a four-page treatise entitled Observationes de papyro Aegyptiaca a Iosepho Senkowski reperta atque Universitati Cracoviensi dono data, written by Gustav Seyffarth (1796–1885), including basic information about the ancient owner of the papyrus and the dating of the object. Appended to the treatise is a reproduction of the entire text of the Observationes (leaves 1–2). On 16 August 1826, in recognition of Sękowski’s merits both as a researcher and donor, by the decision of its Department of Literature the University conferred on him a doctor’s degree in philosophy. On 15 November of the same year Sękowski was also appointed as a foreign member of the Cracow Learned Society. Soon, in 1827, thanks to the endeavours of the Cracow University a lithographic reproduction of the precious scroll appeared in 25 + 8 [sic] copies. It had been prepared on the basis of an accurate drawing executed by the Cracow painter Jan Nepomucen Lewicki (1802–1871). The hieratic tomb scroll, in the literature known as the Sękowski Papyrus, has been held in the Jagiellonian Library to this day. Thanks to the findings of Tadeusz Andrzejewski and Albertyna Szczudłowska, it is now known that the scroll was designed for a priest by the name of Nesmin, the son of Ankh-hap and Ta-dis-Amun-opet; it is dated to the first century AD and probably comes from a Theban necropolis

‘O God, have mercy on us, one is overcome with despair to see the sufferings of the Poles’. On the aid rendered by the émigré community to the émigrés

The émigrés who arrived in France could count on a friendly and compassionate reception from the French, but government aid was not to reach all of them. They had to be mainly self-reliant. The military pay was not sufficient for a decent living, and the money they had brought with them was soon spent. The majority of them had been dispossessed of their patrimonies, deprived of their lands and revenues. The life they had led hitherto was now gone, they had to begin everything from a scratch. The émigrés, determined from the start to survive, sought aid in mutual help as well as assistance from those who – in their opinion – were better off or who, as some thought, because of their social standing had an obligation to help the needy. Charitable assistance was formally organized in the first few years of the emigration, mainly in two societies: The Polish Emigration Funds Commission and The Polish Ladies Charitable Society. On 25 March 1834 The National Committee of Polish Emigration brought into being The Polish Emigration Funds Commission. The aim of the Commission was to organize the collection of funds for fellow-countrymen most in need. It survived until 1866, but was only officially disbanded after the Franco-Prussian War. The Polish Ladies Charitable Society was established at the meeting of 12 March 1834 for the purpose of helping the poor and those in need, regardless of the beneficiaries’ social background. For many years thousands of emigrants benefited from this aid. The Society was still active in the 1930s. Despite various difficulties both institutions accomplished their mission conscientiously, this  being however very often forgotten. It is therefore worthwhile to rediscover anew the commendable pages from the history of the Polish mutual aid.

Józef Rydel and his correspondence with Erazm Majewski

Józef Rydel was born on 8 February 1873 in Jarosław. Here he completed his education in an elementary school and a state gimnazjum (secondary school). In 1893 he enrolled at the Jagiellonian University to study law and administration, where he received credits for five semesters, but failed his exam in law. In 1896 he started working in the Bureau of the Academy of Arts and Sciences (AU), being paid by the day (as a diurnista), while in the following year he served in the army, signing up for one year. In 1898 he began to study at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Jagiellonian University. He intended to be a teacher specializing in mathematics and physics as well as the natural sciences. He obtained a certificate of completion on 24 June 1904; however, he gave up efforts to be certified as a teacher. By that time he already had a permanent job in the Bureau of AU as an assistant adjunct. Four years later he was appointed adjunct and in 1918 director. He worked in the AU Bureau for 35 years until his retirement in 1931. He died in Cracow on 12 October 1939. The collections of the State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw include Józef Rydel’s correspondence with Erazm Majewski from 1900 to 1911. It provides a wealth of information about both men, who probably first met in March 1900 in Cracow. From the start they had very good relations, ones which went slightly beyond official courtesy, as the facts described in their letters witness. Majewski wrote about Rydel that he was a very amiable and friendly man and Rydel called himself ‘a true friend of Erazm Majewski’.

Educational issues in the periodical ‘Krakus’ (1891–1895)

In the first half of the 19th century Galicia was the first partition zone in which educational societies were established with the aim of disseminating learning and culture. The second half of the century, in turn, saw the rise on a larger scale of magazines which for less educated people  were often the basic source of information. They were predominantly conservative in character and most of them dealt with religious subjects. Articles discussed the issues of interest to the people living in the Galician countryside. These were in large measure social, political and also cultural subjects. One of such periodicals was the ‘Krakus’ weekly, which appeared in Cracow from 1891 to 1895. It popularized the works of contemporary young poets of peasant descent. Furthermore, the periodical published articles dealing with political and social matters as well as science; it also included puzzles and articles devoted to the dissemination of practical information which the readers could use in their work on the land and in their everyday lives. Analysis of the ‘Krakus’ contents allows one to note that the magazine included educational elements as well, that for peasants it was a treasure trove of information and an excellent source of knowledge of history and religion. We may state that ‘Krakus’ provided a very wide-ranging education and edification for the Galician peasants

The Niedzielski family of Śledziejowice – A collection of art and artefacts

In Śledziejowice, near Wieliczka, the Niedzielski family gathered over the years a valuable collection of old coins, paintings, graphics, artefacts, fabrics, and national memorabilia. The collection was kept in the manor house, where the family had lived since 1830. Many of these items came to be in Śledziejowice by way of collecting activity, others came as dowries, some were purchased and others were donated by various benefactors. Their stories are interesting, although we do not know about all of them.
The Niedzielskis were wealthy, intelligent and very sociable, which meant that many prominent artists, such as Artur Grottger and Andrzej Grabowski were often guests in Śledziejowice. Their paintings, bearing occasional dedications, decorated the walls of the hospitable manor. There were family portraits on the walls and, next to them, old patriotic and historical scenes, as well as landscapes. In addition to the paintings, there were antique pieces of furniture, magnificent fabrics and valuable decorative items. As often happens in noble houses, weapons, original hussar armour from the 2nd half of the 17th century and (kontusz) sashes were hanging on the walls as a symbolic reminder of the family’s noble origins. There were also souvenirs from trips around Europe, such as items from archaeological excavations and priceless manuscripts acquired in France. Unfortunately, the economic changes from the turn of the century, the destruction caused by the First World War and the subsequent economic crisis, caused the economic and financial situation of the Niedzielski family to deteriorate considerably. From the end of the 19th century onwards, they were forced to sell the most valuable of the collected treasures. In the interwar period, pieces from the collection were transferred or sold to various museums and institutions, where they are still kept today. It is thanks to this that we still know about them. Translated by Kinga N. Kuchta

The books of Jan de Witte and his son Józef in Helena Dąbczańska’s library

Fragments from the library of Jan de Witte (1709–1785), a bibliophile, architect, and commander of the Kamieniec Podolski stronghold, from the book collection owned by his son Józef (1739–1815), and from that of Józef’s wife, Zofia (1760–1822) form part of the library of Helena Dąbczańska (1863–1956), a Lwów (Lviv) collector. They are now held in Cracow, in the Main Library of the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts and in the Jagiellonian Library. In the course of examination of Dąbczańska’s library the books of the De Witte family, among other items, were selected on the basis of their provenance. Seventy-nine books belonged to Jan de Witte, forty-one to Józef, and three to Zofia. Other parts of the libraries owned by these three persons were found after the Second World War by Zbigniew Rewski in the library of Łańcut Castle. The present article is a supplement to those earlier examinations. Jan de Witte’s books are of the greatest significance because of his social standing and his passion for books. In their formal aspect they differ from those in the Łańcut library, though the subject matter is general in both assemblies. The article shows which items may have been used by De Witte as a military man and architect and which reveal his interests. The books owned by Józef de Witte exemplify a small collection assembled by a military man; their subject matter is also general. Predominant among them are French publications which appeared in Józef ‘s lifetime. The number of items owned by Zofia de Witte is too small for an attempt at their broader characterization. Nevertheless, what Zbigniew Rewski once  oted has since been confirmed: Zofia de Witte, later Potocka, showed a lively interest in literature. The fragments of the book collections discussed here were found to include numerous first editions, in some cases their owners having actually met the authors of those works, this testifying to their active participation in European culture.

The original manuscripts of Jan Lechoń’s two patriotic poems

Among the particularly valuable original manuscripts which are accessible in the collections of the Scientific Library of PAU and PAN are those of two poems by Jan Lechoń (Leszek Serafinowicz) (1899–1956): A Song about Stefan Starzyński and Farewell to ‘Marsellaise’, written in exile during the Second World War; they belong to the legacy of Ryszard Ordyński (1878–1953), a world-famous Polish theatre, opera, and film director. They form a part of the varia among Ordyński’s papers. The poems have never been cited by the authors of studies of Lechoń’s oeuvre, hence the presentation of their scholarly edition in the current volume of the ‘Yearbook of the Scientific Library of PAU and PAN in Cracow’.

Szczęsny Mysłowicz – a documentary film-maker of interwar Cracow

The article presents the work of the engineer Szczęsny Mysłowicz (1890–1946), a little-known and forgotten film-maker active in interwar Cracow, the owner of the ‘Lumen’ Film Institute, who documented the city’s cultural, social, and political life. Mysłowicz’s films are shown against the background of the burgeoning Polish cinematography in that period, with particular consideration of the Cracow themes in the then still few documentaries. The author also used the film literature which has recorded the no longer existing productions of Mysłowicz and of other film companies functioning in Cracow at that time. Presented here are the documentaries relating to Cracow, earlier unknown but recently found in the archives, and also profiles of their makers. Furthermore, the style, character, and significance of the surviving films are discussed.

Krzysztof Skórczewski. A self-portrait. The artist’s 70th birthday

Krzysztof Skórczewski is one of the foremost Polish graphic artists. He has become famous mainly for his numerous copper engravings, although he received his first awards and distinctions for his linocuts. The turning point in the artist’s career came in 1976, when he not only abandoned his earlier technique and style but also radically changed his working methods, creating a new graphic narration and gaining a deeper insight into his own personality. Large-format, almost abstract linocuts had been replaced with miniature copper engraving, a medium in which, intent on his work, he realized his great narrations (The Tower of Babel, The Ark, The Flood). However, the choice of the Great Theme does not serve the needs for a contemporary morality play. It is, above all, the artist’s confrontation with his own ego. Skórczewski ‘peregrinates in the meanders of his personal architecture as in a labyrinth of the subconscious […] in the copper plate and the integrated circuits of drawing he sees his countenance […]. This dialogue between the artist and the medium assigned to him, [the dialogue of] the reciprocal, one would like to say, fascination, has developed for several decades. Imperceptibly to those less initiated, step by step he has been drawing a self-portrait.’ The artist is well known not only among connoisseurs and professionals. With his creations, representing the highest artistic quality, he has won for his graphic works a broad audience and has attracted the interest of new media. Moreover, his art intrigues younger generations who find in it something which the artist probably never expected – the poetry of ‘fantasy’.

Krzysztof Skórczewski. A self-portrait. The artist’s 70th birthday

Krzysztof Skórczewski is one of the foremost Polish graphic artists. He has become famous mainly for his numerous copper engravings, although he received his first awards and distinctions for his linocuts. The turning point in the artist’s career came in 1976, when he not only abandoned his earlier technique and style but also radically changed his working methods, creating a new graphic narration and gaining a deeper insight into his own personality. Large-format, almost abstract linocuts had been replaced with miniature copper engraving, a medium in which, intent on his work, he realized his great narrations (The Tower of Babel, The Ark, The Flood). However, the choice of the Great Theme does not serve the needs for a contemporary morality play. It is, above all, the artist’s confrontation with his own ego. Skórczewski ‘peregrinates in the meanders of his personal architecture as in a labyrinth of the subconscious […] in the copper plate and the integrated circuits of drawing he sees his countenance […]. This dialogue between the artist and the medium assigned to him, [the dialogue of] the reciprocal, one would like to say, fascination, has developed for several decades. Imperceptibly to those less initiated, step by step he has been drawing a self-portrait.’ The artist is well known not only among connoisseurs and professionals. With his creations, representing the highest artistic quality, he has won for his graphic works a broad audience and has attracted the interest of new media. Moreover, his art intrigues younger generations who find in it something which the artist probably never expected – the poetry of ‘fantasy’.