Manuscript of the [Collection] of poems under the pictures of Antonina Niemirycz, 1753: A codicological analysis and identification of the collection’s epigrammatic composition

Abstract

[Collection] of poems under the pictures of Antonina Niemirycz (c. 1700 – after 1774) was hitherto known only from Wiktor Gomulicki’s 1896 copy (BOss. MS 5284/I) and his 1900 edition (reprinted in 1912). To date, reprints and discussions of the poetess’s works were based on these transmissions. It turns out, however, that Gomulicki corrected the original texts, and his copy takes into account only 85 of the original’s 97 epigrams. The author of this study restituted the original arrangement of the poems in the 1753 codex (BOss. MS 16055/I) and showed that it was written down not by the poetess, but by her secretary. Analysis of the mistakenly repeated entries has also made it possible to establish the nature and extent of the scribe’s stylistic interference with the copied text.