Norwidowski przekład listu od Piusa IX, zagadka daru poety dla papieża i twierdza Bomarsund
Pope’s Letter Translated by Norwid, the Mystery of the Poet’s Gift to the Pope and the Fortress of Bomarsund

Summary/Abstract: The paper discusses a previously unknown first publication of the pope Pius IX’s letter to Norwid in a local weekly “Tygodnik Katolicki” in Grodzisk Wielkopolski near Poznań on June 21st, 1861. The author proves that both the Polish translation of this Latin letter and an introductory note were written by Norwid himself. The author also identifies Norwid’s two gifts to the pope as a 1683 Austrian medal of Our Lady of Mariazell (by Paul Seel) and a French medal commemorating the siege of Sebastopol (1855, work of Louis Desaide and Pierre Roquelay). In the final part of the paper the latter is opposed to a Latin ode, written by Mickiewicz on the occasion of the capture of Bomarsund, interpreted as signs of two contrary historiosophical visions: that of Poland versus the Ottoman Empire in the defense of Christianity in 1683 and that of France allied with the Ottoman Empire against Russia during the Crimean War (1853-56).

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