Travel journal by Antoni Edward Odyniec. A few remarks on the first print and the need for a new edition

Abstract

A journal by Antoni Edward Odyniec, written during voyages around Europe in the years 1830–1832, is an important source for the history of literature, from which both past and present researchers have gained knowledge on the lives of the journey’s participants. Readers are provided with fragments of text published in journals during the 80’s of the 19th century (Notes from a journey to Paris and London by Antoni Edward Odyniec, „Kłosy” 1889, no. 1246, 1247) and in the 30’s of the 20th century (S. Baliński, “See you in Lithuania”. From Odyniec’s travel journal, „Wiadomości Literackie” 1934, no. 1), as well as the first print of the whole in the form of a book, published along with other manuscripts of a collector Tomasz Niewodniczański in 1989 (Mickiewicziana in the collection of Tomasz Niewodniczański in Bitburg, vol. 1: Letters of Adam Mickiewicz to Antoni Edward Odyniec and other addressees 1828–1852. “Travel journal” by Antoni Edward Odyniec 1830–1832. Letters and poems by Celina of Szymanowski Mickiewicz 1834–1848, foreword by T. Niewodniczański, introduction and edition by M. Danilewicz Zielińska, Warsaw 1989). For interested scholars there is also a manuscript, which is well-preserved and currently stored in the Royal Castle Museum Archives in Warsaw. This paper is aimed, on the one hand, at familiarizing readers with the history of the journal itself and its complicated history, and, on the other hand, at taking a closer look at its 20th century edition and making an outline of a new one. The article also attempts to answer the question of whether the available edition meets the expectations of a contemporary reader. Is it necessary to make a separate edition, which will also verify and supplement the literary commentary in the light of the present state of knowledge?