Instalment Seven

Toward Spirit and Freedom
Polish Romanticism

The manuscripts of Romantic writers radiate a unique energy and possess a remarkable magnetism. The poets struggled with language, searching for the best sounds, phrases, words, and even punctuation marks – crossing out, adding, revising, striving toward an ideal known only to themselves. Did they know they were building monuments? Did they foresee that their imagination, talent, and labour would create works and ways of thinking fundamental to Polish culture?

The Kórnik collections contain a broad spectrum of Romantic writings: from the school notes of the teenage Juliusz Słowacki, through autographs of his famous works, to documents reflecting the poet’s émigré efforts on behalf of Polish identity. The manuscript of Cyprian Norwid’s On Love (O miłości ksiąg dwoje) preserved here first appeared in print only in 1958 in the pages of the Memoirs of the Kórnik Library. Chopin’s musical manuscripts and Mickiewicz’s handwritten works – especially Madam Twardowska and Part III of Forefathers’ Eve (Dziady) – are further true treasures of the collection.

The autographs and printed works of the Romantics remind us that Polish literature and music of this period were both a search for the meaning of existence and a struggle for freedom. Here, the word truly becomes a world — not only of the spirit.

A

BK 1164
Rękopis powieści Poeta i świat Józefa Ignacego Kraszewskiego ozdobiony jest wieloma autorskimi rysunkami.
1835

B

BK 1608
Z rękopisu Dziadów części III
Adam Mickiewicz
1832

C

BK 1643b
Fragment słynnego wiersza Juliusza Słowackiego zaczynającego się od słów „Smutno mi Boże”, spisany ręką autora
ok. 1836

D

Autografy wieszczów romantycznych pochodzące z kórnickiej kolekcji