![Teofil Lenartowicz, *Lirenka: Enchantment and the Blessed One* [1855]](https://gcp-la8-storage-cdn.lot-art.com/public/upl/46/Teofil-Lenartowicz-Lirenka-Enchantment-and-the-Blessed-One-1855_6ac031373296a-full-75794300_1790980408-6ac03138b90d1.jpg "Teofil Lenartowicz, *Lirenka: Enchantment and the Blessed One* [1855]")
Teofil Lenartowicz, *Lirenka: Enchantment and the Blessed One* [1855]
Title: Lirenka; Enchantment and The Blessed One.
Author: Teofil Lenartowicz (1822–1893) [poet, sculptor, and ethnographer; a “Mazovian minstrel” and one of the most outstanding poets of the folk movement within Polish Romanticism].
Publisher: Poznań, Published by Jan Konstanty Żupański’s Bookstore; typeset by M. Zoern.
Year of publication: 1855.
Format: 18 cm.
Number of pages: 232.
Binding: Publisher’s half-cloth binding.
The first editions of two collections by Teofil Lenartowicz, published in 1855 in Poznań by Jan Konstanty Żupański’s publishing house and combined into a single volume. Żupański was one of the most important publishers of Polish literature in the Prussian Partition and eagerly published works by émigré authors. “Lirenka” is the poet’s most famous collection, based on the stylization of a folk song from the Mazovia region. It includes “Złoty kubek” (“The Golden Cup”), in which a child asks a goldsmith for a cup decorated with images of the Polish countryside—one of the most famous poems in 19th-century Polish lyric poetry. “Zachwycenie” and “Błogosławiona” are two religious poems that combine folk piety with a mystical vision. Both collections were written in exile and earned Lenartowicz the reputation of a poet who, with unprecedented purity, transposed the tone of Mazovian folk songs into artistic poetry.
Teofil Lenartowicz was born on February 27, 1822, in Warsaw. His travels through Mazovia and his collaboration with the ethnographer Oskar Kolberg provided him with themes that became the central motif of his work. In 1848, facing arrest for his involvement in a conspiracy, he fled to Kraków and then went into exile. He lived in Dresden, Brussels, and Paris, and in 1856 he settled in Italy, first in Rome and, from 1860, in Florence. He was also a sculptor, having studied under Henryk Stattler in Rome and Enrico Pazzi in Florence. From 1879 to 1886, he taught Slavic literature at the University of Bologna. His publications included *Polish Lands in Pictures* (1848) and *The New Lyre* (1859). He died on February 3, 1893, in Florence, and his ashes were interred in the Crypt of the Distinguished at Skałka in Kraków.
Provenance: on the title page, a stamp reading “Zbiór Książek HR. Łosiów” (Count Łosiów’s Book Collection), certifying that the volume belonged to the book collection of the Counts of Łosiów. On the endpaper, an inscription in German (translation: “Where the rose blooms, there your happiness also blooms; and when you pick roses, then think of me”), accompanied by the signature “Helene Straszewska 20/9 1881.”
These are first editions of the most famous collections by the “Mazovian bard,” with aristocratic provenance, in their original publisher’s bindings. A must-have for collectors of Polish Romantic poetry, Żupański’s publications, and pieces with documented landed gentry provenance.
The text blocks of both works are complete, compact, and stable; the original stitching firmly holds the covers in place, and the edges are even. The paper is stiff, light in color, free of watermarks, waviness, and creases, with natural, scattered specks, discoloration, and minor soiling. The inscriptions and stamp are legible. The original publisher’s half-cloth binding is clean, without cracks, scuffs, or losses; the corners and edges are straight.
Catalog ID: 6895-18-A-Z
Title: Lirenka; Enchantment and The Blessed One.
Author: Teofil Lenartowicz (1822–1893) [poet, sculptor, and ethnographer; a “Mazovian minstrel” and one of the most outstanding poets of the folk movement within Polish Romanticism].
Publisher: Poznań, Published by Jan Konstanty Żupański’s Bookstore; typeset by M. Zoern.
Year of publication: 1855.
Format: 18 cm.
Number of pages: 232.
Binding: Publisher’s half-cloth binding.
The first editions of two collections by Teofil Lenartowicz, published in 1855 in Poznań by Jan Konstanty Żupański’s publishing house and combined into a single volume. Żupański was one of the most important publishers of Polish literature in the Prussian Partition and eagerly published works by émigré authors. “Lirenka” is the poet’s most famous collection, based on the stylization of a folk song from the Mazovia region. It includes “Złoty kubek” (“The Golden Cup”), in which a child asks a goldsmith for a cup decorated with images of the Polish countryside—one of the most famous poems in 19th-century Polish lyric poetry. “Zachwycenie” and “Błogosławiona” are two religious poems that combine folk piety with a mystical vision. Both collections were written in exile and earned Lenartowicz the reputation of a poet who, with unprecedented purity, transposed the tone of Mazovian folk songs into artistic poetry.
Teofil Lenartowicz was born on February 27, 1822, in Warsaw. His travels through Mazovia and his collaboration with the ethnographer Oskar Kolberg provided him with themes that became the central motif of his work. In 1848, facing arrest for his involvement in a conspiracy, he fled to Kraków and then went into exile. He lived in Dresden, Brussels, and Paris, and in 1856 he settled in Italy, first in Rome and, from 1860, in Florence. He was also a sculptor, having studied under Henryk Stattler in Rome and Enrico Pazzi in Florence. From 1879 to 1886, he taught Slavic literature at the University of Bologna. His publications included *Polish Lands in Pictures* (1848) and *The New Lyre* (1859). He died on February 3, 1893, in Florence, and his ashes were interred in the Crypt of the Distinguished at Skałka in Kraków.
Provenance: on the title page, a stamp reading “Zbiór Książek HR. Łosiów” (Count Łosiów’s Book Collection), certifying that the volume belonged to the book collection of the Counts of Łosiów. On the endpaper, an inscription in German (translation: “Where the rose blooms, there your happiness also blooms; and when you pick roses, then think of me”), accompanied by the signature “Helene Straszewska 20/9 1881.”
These are first editions of the most famous collections by the “Mazovian bard,” with aristocratic provenance, in their original publisher’s bindings. A must-have for collectors of Polish Romantic poetry, Żupański’s publications, and pieces with documented landed gentry provenance.
The text blocks of both works are complete, compact, and stable; the original stitching firmly holds the covers in place, and the edges are even. The paper is stiff, light in color, free of watermarks, waviness, and creases, with natural, scattered specks, discoloration, and minor soiling. The inscriptions and stamp are legible. The original publisher’s half-cloth binding is clean, without cracks, scuffs, or losses; the corners and edges are straight.
Catalog ID: 6895-18-A-Z
