PASEK Jan Chryzostom - Memoirs ... From the reigns of Jan Kazimierz, Michal Korybut and Jan III. Published from manuscript ...

PASEK Jan Chryzostom - Memoirs ... From the reigns of Jan Kazimierz, Michal Korybut and Jan III. Published from manuscript by Edward Raczynski. Edycya druga. Poznan 1837. nakł. J. J. Heine. 8, s. [4], 302, [1]. Bound in slightly late fawn.
Maliszewski 358. Abrasions of spine edges, clear browning of paper in places, traces of moisture, amateurishly repaired small tears - copy in not very good condition. Own stamp. Foreign dedication on the front pastedown. Second complete edition of the memoirs.
J. C. Pasek (1636-1701) - participant in Czarniecki's war expeditions, soldier seeking not so much fame as earning money in war, later landowner, quarrelsome (18 times appeared before the court), participant in many brawls and disputes, sentenced to banishment. Written down towards the end of his life, "Memoirs" is less a historical source (the author's exuberant imagination bears him too much), but a testimony to the consciousness of the nobility of the time, a model of Baroque Polish language, it also contains valuable literary picturesque storytelling based on the author's soldier adventures. Pasek himself said of his work that it is not a chronicle, but only "the duct of my life", he made himself the main character, his own adventures, merits magnifying, hiding the darker sides of his biography. The memoirs lay in manuscript until the 19th century. They were first published in 1836 and immediately became a sensation for researchers of the era, Słowacki took an interest in them (echoes of this can be found in "Mazepa") and Mickiewicz (in "Parisian Prelections"), and they were also a valuable source for Sienkiewicz during the period of writing "Trilogy".