„[...] W wielkim pośpiechu i na prędce w sam dzień wyjazdu do Anglii ostatnie słówko z Paryża przesyłam”. Codzienność i niecodzienność w wybranych listach córek Tytusa Działyńskiego (1796–1861) ze zbiorów Biblioteki Kórnickiej

Abstract

Private correspondence is an invaluable source in the process of reconstruction of the past. Selected letters written by five daughters of Tytus Działyński and Celestyna Gryzelda of the Zamoyski family are presented in this article. The letters may be found in the abundant collection of the Zamoyski family correspondence preserved in the Kórnik Library. Tytus Działyński is a well-known librophile and the creator of an invaluable library and museum that were founded by him in Kórnik castle in the 19th century. Kórnik castle, in his mind, was to become Biblioteca Patriae, gathering national souvenirs, but it was also to serve as a family home. Tytus Działyński was a librophile, a social, political and cultural activist, but mostly, the father of five daughters and a son. Elżbieta, Jadwiga, Maria, Cecylia and Anna had been writing letters to their parents for many years. The letters composed by young girls are different from the ones written by adult women. The personalities of the authors varied as well. Two of them, Anna and Jadwiga, had left their diaries. They were published and are well known in the primary sources. Cecylia, during her stay in France and England in the years 1858–1860, had been writing detailed letters to her parents, in the form of a diary. They serve as a particularly valuable documents that help to recreate the image of the reality faced by the Polish emigrants. We only know the manuscripts of these letters. The number of the letters composed by Elżbieta and Maria is, unfortunately, scarce and they depict so called normal reality of a village in Greater Poland from the second half of the 19th century but seen with the eyes of two aristocrats – Czartoryska and Grudzińska. There are letters that were composed during the journey home and the ones written to travelling parents from home. There is also a difference between the correspondence with the mother and the father. It is also important to consider the travel itself as is one of the conditions determining the process of composing letters. What was travel? It was a holiday and attraction as, in order to travel, one had to leave his or her everyday activities and in the case of an extended journey, it became everyday life and sometimes a necessary obligation.