Franciszek Karpiński w Krakowie .......... 165

FRANCISZEK KARPIŃSKI IN KRAKOW

Franciszek Karpiński visited Krakow only two or three times: on his way from Lviv to Vienna in 1770, during a journey undertaken with the young Roman Sanguszko and described in Excursion to Krakow and its surroundings in 1788, and possibly during the Polish- Russian war in 1792. The first visit was described in The stories of my age and the people I lived with, where he was already full of admiration for the former Jagiellonian capital. Then he wrote about Krakow in connection with the anniversary of the Vienna relief and the victory of Jan III Sobieski. In 1788, he travelled from Warsaw to Krakow, and in its description he emphasized the greatness of the city, its ancient character and importance for Polish culture. He also signed in the memorial book of the Jagiellonian University. It was the time when the legend of the royal city of Krakow was created, and the poet, in his account of his travels, primarily emphasized his own emotional reactions. Karpiński’s last stay in Krakow may have taken place in August 1792 – the poet then tried to hide from the Russian army in Partyń near Tarnów. It is not known, however, whether he reached Krakow. From the memory of his stay in the city in 1788, he created the most important chord closing all his poetry – The Sarmatian’s lamentations over the tomb of Zygmunt August, the last Polish king from the house of Jagiełło, which, in the collective edition of the poet’s poems from 1806, was placed as the last one.