SAPIEHA Leon Duke - Memoirs (from 1803 to 1863) [1914].

Lviv [1914]. Altenberg Historical Library. 15.5x24.5 cm, pp. XLIII, 345, black and white illustrations on separate pages, publisher's cloth binding. Good condition (rubbing and soiling of the binding, small white stain near the edge at the back of the binding).

Memoirs of Rev. Leon Sapieha (1803-1878), owner of the Codenian estate and the castle in Krasiczyn, political and economic activist in Galicia, participant in the November Uprising, decorated with the Order of Virtuti Militari. Published, with an introduction and exceptions from correspondence, by Bronislaw Pawlowski. The foreword was written by Count Stanislaw Tarnowski.

"In his moments of leisure after his withdrawal from public life, at a late age, because not long before his death, these "Memoirs" are written. They fall into two unequal parts. And they are uneven not only externally, but also internally. The first part covers the years of his youth, that is, his first impressions, his upbringing at home and abroad, his farm on the land, his public service, and finally his participation in the War of 1831. However, although in terms of the number of years this era is much shorter than the next, the venerable Author devoted much more space to it, as much as two-thirds of the content of the "Memoirs," fondly digging up in his memory those times so full of hope and abounding in numerous accidents, mostly of a personal nature. The second part of the "Memoirs" is, unfortunately, only a very brief summary of his most beautiful and fruitful civic work, only minor mentions of his activities as president of the Land Loan Society and the Economic Society, and at the same time founder of the Dublin School, as a national marshal of several years, as the main initiator of the railroad network, the Savings Bank and a number of other institutions, rendering first-class services to today's generation." [excerpt from the introduction by B. Pawlowski].