More than 300 manuscripts of Henryk Sienkiewicz were sent to Ossolineum

As explained the director of Ossolineum at the press conference, Dr. Adolf Juzwenko, with the offer to buy archives, he was turned to Ossolineum, Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, the great-grandson of the writer. "We did not have a lot of time to get the money in time, which the heir appointed us, but we got it quickly, and it was not a lot of money, 300,000 zlotys, which we obtained through the co-financing of the city Henryk Sienkiewicz "- said Juzwenko.

According to the director of Ossolineum, it is impossible to overestimate the role of Henryk Sienkiewicz in shaping the trends of independence. "Hope that Poland would not be transformed into reality in 1918 without the participation of artists such as Henryk Sienkiewicz." Polish politicians played a big role in the reconquest of independence, but these politicians formed a great Polish literature, excellent pens, Sienkiewicz said. Juzwenko

The first manuscript of Henryk Sienkiewicz appeared in the collection of the National Institute. Ossolińskich already in 1912, it was a big part of the "Flood". "In the interwar period, Ossolineum entered into an exclusive publishing contract with the writer's family." Ossolineum recalled the director Ossolineum

After the war, Ossolineum reconnected with Henryk Józef, the son of the Nobel Prize. found, among other manuscript of "Pan Wołodyjowski", excerpts from "Ogniem i mieczem", "In the desert and in the desert", as well as family correspondence. The "Trilogy" is inscribed on the National Register of the UNESCO Memory of the World Program.

"The Sienkiewicz family has always considered the Ossolineum as a unique institution, as the Ossolineum was the only institution operating in the Polish territories under Austrian annexation. From the second half of the nineteenth century, when Austria-Hungary was transformed into a constitutional monarchy, the nations that operated under Habsburg rule developed their own culture and language. Ossolineum thus took an important place in Polish history and Polish culture, "says Juzwenko.

In the collection that Ossolineum bought from the great-grandson Sienkiewicz, there are m. in. manuscripts of literary works, including an unknown map of the novel "In the desert and the desert", decorated with animal drawings made by the writer, as well as a collection Henryk Sienkiewicz's correspondence of 1881-1915, numbering 149 letters, for example letters to the family, including Maria's wife and children.

"This information includes Sienkiewicz in Switzerland, for example . Polish materials, these materials are a treasure trove of information and probably still contain a lot of secrets, "said Ossolineum manuscripts department chief Elżbieta Ostromęcka, adding that among the artefacts purchased There are also small family memories, including pages from the writer's journal, business cards and printed invitations

Ossolineum currently owns the largest Sienkiewicz archive in the world. presented at the Ossolineum on 8 September at the European Heritage Days.