„Pogląd w niektórych przedmiotach” [The views on some topics] by Jan Cieszkiewicz - memories or a moralistical treatise?

Abstract

The article presents the phenomenon of the book copied manually (rewritten) in the 19th century, referring to the example of "Pogląd w niektórych przedmiotach, czyli Dziennik J.C. Paupera" [The views on some topics, i.e. the J.C. Pauper's Diary"]. The text was written in 1886 by Józef Cieszkiewicz (born approx. 1850), an organist from a small village – parish nearby Mława, and rewritten by the author in a few copies. Only one of them survived until nowadays, consisting of 264 pages. The author discusses a multi-faceted value of such historical, autobiographical sources, analyzing its content – - "a diary" written for entertainment, perceived as an intellectual play and a useful pursuit, including relations "not only […] about himself", but also "a common [description] of many people and institutions" from a.o. the Russian Annexation (the Kingdom of Poland). From the one hand, they are recordings of personal biographies and mentality of their authors, like the one of "the local thinker and moralist" Cieszkiewicz - an ordinary, poor man with no chances for individual development nor career, and from the other - they enrich our knowledge of the past.