Cyprian Norwid, Collected Works. Volume F [1911]

Title: Cyprian Norwid’s Collected Works. Volume F. Cyprian Norwid’s Prose Writings, Part Two: On Art and Literature.

Author: Cyprian Norwid (1821–1883) [poet, playwright, prose writer, painter, sculptor, and thinker; one of the most outstanding figures in 19th-century Polish literature].

Edited by: Zenon Przesmycki (Miriam, 1861–1944).

Publisher: Warsaw–Kraków, published by Jakób Mortkowicz.

Year of publication: 1911.

Format: 18 cm.

Volume: VII, V, [1], 496, V pp., [29] plates.

Binding: Cloth-bound with original paperback cover.

This is Volume F of the monumental edition of Norwid’s “Collected Writings,” prepared by Zenon Przesmycki (Miriam) and published by Jakób Mortkowicz. It contains the second section of Norwid’s prose writings, devoted to art and literature. It includes, among other works, his early writings, “The First Cycle of Reflections on Art,” “Memories and Reflections,” “The Second Cycle of Observations on Art and Literature,” the lectures “On Juliusz Słowacki,” a treatise on the song “God the Parent,” and “Silence.” The title page is dated 1911, but the volume’s fate took a different turn. Printing was interrupted by World War I, and work on it was not resumed afterward. The volume was not published until after World War II, thanks to the efforts of the heirs of the Mortkowicz company, long after Przesmycki’s death (d. 1944). It was prefaced by Wacław Borowy. Only a portion of the planned edition was published, and Volume F was the last of them. The edition was published in a numbered run of 1,725 pieces, each bearing facsimiles of the signatures of Przesmycki and Mortkowicz. The title pages, initials, headings, and interludes were designed by Adam Półtawski. All artistic elements come exclusively from Norwid’s own legacy of drawings, paintings, sculptures, and engravings, and the volume opens with a portrait of the poet.

Cyprian Kamil Norwid was born in 1821 in Lasków-Głuchy. He studied in Warsaw in the painting studios of Aleksander Kokular and Jan Klemens Minasowicz. He then studied painting and sculpture in Munich and Italy. He lived in Rome, Berlin, Brussels, and Paris, and spent the years 1852–1854 in America. His life was marked by poverty and hardship. His innovative, nonconformist style was not understood by his contemporaries, and the poet died in obscurity in Paris in 1883. It was not until Zenon Przesmycki brought him out of obscurity—publishing his works in his journal *Chimera* (1901–1907) and subsequently preparing the first major collected edition—that Norwid was rediscovered. Today, Norwid is considered one of the most important Polish poets, and scholars view him as both a late Romantic and a precursor of modern poetry.

Provenance: a piece without institutional stamps or more recent underlinings in the text. Piece number: 485 of 1,725, with facsimiles of the signatures of Zenon Przesmycki and Jakób Mortkowicz.

This is the final volume of the historic “Miriam” edition, published only after half a century, and it is in exceptionally good condition. A must-have for collectors of Norwid’s works and Mortkowicz’s publications, scholars of Przesmycki’s editorial legacy, and lovers of beautiful Polish books.

The block is perfectly compact and stable, with strong original stitching and straight, even folds. The paper is of good weight, clean and bright, with no foxing, water stains, waviness, or edge creases; the frontispiece portrait and all illustrations are intact. The original publisher’s cloth cover is clean and stiff, with no discoloration of the fabric, stains, or losses, and features straight, sharp corners and edges. An original paper paperback cover has been mounted inside the binding.

Catalog ID: 8522x6-18-A-X