Teofil Aleksander Lenartowicz (27 February 1822 in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

– 3 February 1893 in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

)Wirtualna Biblioteka Literatury Polskiej.
''

University of Gdańsk The University of Gdańsk () is a public university, public research university located in Gdańsk, Poland. It is one of the top 10 universities in Poland and an important centre for the studies of the Kashubian language. History The Universi ...

'' was a Polish

ethnographer Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

, sculptor, poet and Romantic conspirator. Linked to

Bohemians Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, originally practised by 19th–20th century European and American artists and writers. * Bohemian style, a f ...

among Warsaw intellectuals,

Czesław Miłosz Czesław Miłosz ( , , ; 30 June 1911 – 14 August 2004) was a Polish Americans, Polish-American poet, prose writer, translator, and diplomat. He primarily wrote his poetry in Polish language, Polish. Regarded as one of the great poets of the ...

''The history of Polish literature''. "Romanticism."
''

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

'', 1983; pp. 259/267. . Lenartowicz was associated with Oskar Kolberg and Roman Zmorski in the anti-Tsarist independence movement, and participated in the Greater Poland Uprising of 1848 during his stay in

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

. While in exile he taught Slavic literature at the University of Bologna, composed patriotic and religious poems, as well as lyrical and historical

epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film defined by the spectacular presentation of human drama on a grandiose scale Epic(s) ...

s based on the folklore of his beloved region of

Mazowsze Mazovia or Masovia ( ) is a historical region in mid-north-eastern Poland. It spans the North European Plain, roughly between Łódź and Białystok, with Warsaw being the largest city and Płock being the capital of the region . Throughout the ...

. He did portrait-sculptures, and designed tombstones.Dr Marek Adamiec
Virtual Library of Polish Literature: Teofil Lenartowicz
. Retrieved October 4, 2011.

Early life and family

Teofil Aleksander came from the master mason family of Lenartowicz '' Pobóg

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

''. He was the son of Karol and Maria ''

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

'' Kwasieborska ''Cholewa'' coat of arms. While in Florence, Italy in 1861, he married painter Zofia Szymanowska, with whom he had one son.''Wielka Genealogia Minakowskiego'' (''Minakowski Great Book of Genealogy'').
Requires subscription. Also a
free sample.
Their son John (Jan) died shortly after his birth in 1867, and was buried in Attigliano, Italy.

Literature

Owing to his fascination with the folklore of the Polish Masovia (which Lenartowicz used as the chief motif of his poetry), he used to call himself ''Mazurzyna'', a ''versifier'' of Masovia region. He was friends with Elżbieta Bośniacka, a playwright, poet and journalist associated with ''Dziennik Literacki''.Bośniacka w indeksie autorów portalu polonistyka.edu.pl
The best-known of his poems is "The Golden Cup" ("Złoty kubek", 1853), based on a traditional Polish Christmas carol, in which an orphaned girl asks the heavenly

goldsmith A goldsmith is a Metalworking, metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Modern goldsmiths mainly specialize in jewelry-making but historically, they have also made cutlery, silverware, platter (dishware), plat ...

to make her a golden cup from golden apples and leaves fallen from the golden . The cup is to be decorated with engravings depicting the idealized Polish countryside. Because of its symbolism of transcendent light, the poem can be interpreted in different ways, including as advice on art-making. It was favorably received by

Norwid Norwid is a Polish last name. Notable people with this last name include: *Cyprian Norwid (1821–1883), Polish poet, dramatist, painter, and sculptor *Mieczysław Norwid-Neugebauer Mieczysław Norwid-Neugebauer (15 February 1884 in Rzejowic ...

, as well as by

Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska, ''née'' Kossak (24 November 1891 – 9 July 1945), was a Polish poet. She was known as the "Polish Sappho" and "queen of lyrical poetry" during Poland's interwar period.

, who wrote a poem, "Lenartowicz," about the concept of his "Golden Cup". Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska, "Lenartowicz".
''Antologia poezji.'' Retrieved October 5, 2011.Alina Witkowska, Ryszard Przybylski
''Wielka historia literatury polskiej.'' Romantyzm.
''

PWN Leet (or "1337"), also known as eleet or leetspeak, or simply hacker speech, is a system of modified spellings used primarily on the Internet. It often uses character replacements in ways that play on the similarity of their glyphs via refle ...

'', 1997. . He published two collections of poetry: ''Lirenka'' and ''Zachwycenie'' (Rapture, 1855). Among his many notable poems, Teofil Lenartowicz wrote also: "Dwaj Towiańczycy" (The two followers of Towiański), in which he describes the death of his former co-conspirators Michał Szweycer (Ludwik Szwejcer) and Adolf Rozwadowski; "Moje strony" (My homeland), "Rosła kalina" (Hearty

viburnum ''Viburnum'' is a genus of about 150–175 species of flowering plants in the moschatel family, Adoxaceae. Its current classification is based on molecular phylogeny. It was previously included in the honeysuckle family Caprifoliaceae. The memb ...

), "Tęsknota" (Longing), "Wiersz do poezji" (Poem to poetry), "Duch sieroty" (Spirit of an orphan), "

Jan Kochanowski Jan Kochanowski (; 1530 – 22 August 1584) was a Polish Renaissance poet who wrote in Latin and Polish and established poetic patterns that would become integral to Polish literary language. He has been called the greatest Polish poet before ...

", "Lirnik. Baśń" (A

minstrel A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. The term originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist enter ...

. Tale), "Łzy" (Tears), "Czajka", "Pustota" (Emptiness), "O powrocie do kraju" (On the return to the country), "Zaproszenie" (Invitation), and "Staruszek" (Old Man). Teofil Lenartowicz, ''POEZJE.'' Wybór.
Wybrał i opracował J. Nowakowski, Warszawa 1967. Poland's eminent poet

described Lenartowicz longer poems "Zachwycenie" ("Rapture") and "Błogosławiona" ("The Blessed One"), both published in 1855, as having a "curious treatment of religious themes." The

heaven Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...

encountered by a departing soul is expected to look just like a village in Poland. ''The history of Polish literature'' By Czesław Miłosz. ''Ibidem'', page 267.
Retrieved October 5, 2011. Between 1888 and 1893, Lenartowicz was an honorary member of the ''Poznań Society of the Friends of Science'', according to Bolesław Erzepki in 1896.Bolesław Erzepki
''Spis członków Towarzystwa Przyjaciół Nauk w Poznaniu''

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

, 1896, p. 3. ''See:'' Content presentation. 'Built in browser.'

Death

Lenartowicz died on 3 February 1893 in Florence, and his remains were brought from Italy to Poland and interred in the Crypt of the Distinguished in the St. Stanislaus Church at

Skałka Basilica of Saints Michael the Archangel and Stanislaus the Bishop, also known as Skałka, which means "a small rock" in Polish, is a church situated on a small outcrop in Kraków atop of which a Pauline monastery is also located. The crypt ...

Notes and references

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lenartowicz, Teofil 1822 births 1893 deaths Cultural history of Poland Polish ethnographers Polish male writers Polish publicists Romantic nationalism

Early life and family

Literature

Death

See also

Notes and references

External links