Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Historical Songs [1876]

Title: Historical Songs with Music and Engravings by Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, S.S.

Author: Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz (1758–1841) [Polish writer, playwright, poet, and political activist of the Enlightenment and the Great Sejm]

Publisher: Published by Bolesław Maurycy Wolff, St. Petersburg, Moscow

Year of publication: 1876.

Format: 28 cm.

Volume: XV, [1], 296 pp., 35 ill. (woodcuts); 40 music sheets (lithography).

Binding: Period half-leather.

"Historical Songs" was composed between 1808 and 1810 at the request of the Society of Friends of Science as a cycle of thirty-two works dedicated to major figures and events in Polish history — it opens with “Bogurodzica” and closes with a song about the funeral of Prince Józef Poniatowski. In the preface, the author repeatedly emphasized the didactic intent and addressed the work primarily to young people. The first edition was published in Warsaw in 1816 with a print run of 1,500 pieces, which sold out within a few months, necessitating subsequent editions in 1818 and 1819; four editions were published during Niemcewicz’s lifetime, and throughout the 19th century—according to researchers’ findings—at least sixteen editions appeared between 1816 and 1899, which clearly illustrates the significance of this collection in the patriotic education of Poles under foreign rule. The presented St. Petersburg–Moscow edition from 1876, published by Bolesław Maurycy Wolff, is among the most impressive: in addition to a full-page frontispiece, it contains thirty-five woodcuts based on drawings by Juliusz Kossak and Henryk Pillati, as well as a lithographed musical appendix featuring melodies composed by, among others, Franciszek Lessel, Karol Kurpiński, and Maria Szymanowska.

The creator of the series, born on June 16, 1758, in Skoki in the Brest region to a noble family, received his education at the Warsaw Cadet Corps, and subsequently served as an aide-de-camp to Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski and as a deputy from Livonia; he was also a co-author of the draft of the Constitution of May 3 and secretary to Tadeusz Kościuszko during the uprising. After the Battle of Maciejowice, he was taken prisoner by the Russians and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, from where Tsar Paul I released him in 1796 —it is worth noting that it was in this very city, eighty years later, that this edition of his most popular work was published. In addition to *Historical Songs*, he left behind the comedy *The Return of the Envoy*, the novel *The Two Sieciech Brothers*, and *Memoirs of My Times*. He was a member of the Commission of National Education, a member of the Society of Friends of Science from 1802, its president from 1826–1827, and a co-founder of the Polish Library in Paris. He died on May 21, 1841, in Paris and was buried at the Montmorency Cemetery.

Provenance: on the half-title page, an ink stamp reading “S. Arct’s Bookstore, Sheet Music and Engraving Store in Lublin,” documenting the early period of operation of Stanisław Arct’s (1811–1897) Lublin-based firm, located on Krakowskie Przedmieście, before the business was relocated to Warsaw. The circulation of this edition among collectors is also attested to by other pieces, including one from the library of Prof. Kazimierz Nitsch (1874–1958) that has appeared at auctions.

This item is of interest to collectors of Polish Romantic literature, admirers of Juliusz Kossak’s illustrations, researchers of historical music prints, and collectors of items with a Lublin provenance.

The volume is complete in terms of text, illustrations, and music. The album block is compact and mechanically sound; the original stitching firmly holds the cover in place, with no loose pages. The paper is heavyweight, mostly light in color, with a natural patina of age and minimal foxing spots; a dozen or so of the final pages within the musical appendix bear older, more pronounced water stains and yellowing, without impairing legibility and with no mechanical damage. The Arcta bookstore stamp is sharp and crisp. The half-leather binding is stiff and clean, with slight wear on the spine and covers.

Catalog ID: 9850-28-B-Z