Juliusz KOSSAK (1824-1899), Kazimierz BRODZIŃSKI (1791-1835), Wieslaw

Warsaw, 1886.
Publisher's hardcover; 37 x 28 cm;
Red cloth, richly decorated face stamped in gold in striking borders, gilt on all edges of pages, original protective tissue guards in front of each engraving.
A critical introduction and biography of the author was written by Maryan Gawalewicz.
Idyll in five chapters, text in decorative frame, before each chapter of the poem an engraving with a genre scene and a decorative initial, and at the end of the chapters a finalic, also with a small scene. To each chapter a full-page composition by Juliusz Kossak made in tintype, signed on the plate. On the first plate a statue of Kazimierz Brodzinski from the church of PP. Wizytki church in Warsaw made in woodcut.
Preservation: rubbing of binding corners, minor tears in spine cloth, soiling of page corners (from browsing through the book) and minor soiling of back cover, a few pages loose, otherwise very good condition.
Lit. by Andrzej Banach, "Polska książka ilustrowana 1800-1900," Krakow - Wydawnictwo Literackie - 1959, p. 454, item 810; Waldemar Łysiak, "Empireum," Warsaw - Wydawnictwo Nobilis - 2004, T. 1, p. 70.
Wiesław, is the most important poem by Kazimierz Brodziński - poet, historian, soldier of the Warsaw Duchy. An idyllic idyll of the life of Polish wealthy landowners, the first edition of which, full of reflections on existence and death, was published in 1820.