Cracow, the Royal Capital of Ancient Poland: Its History and Antiquities (Classic Reprint)

Poland skings, is amply entitled, by its numerous monuments of ancient civilization and art, to take the rank among famous historical towns which it is the purpose of this work to establish for it in the opinion of the international public. The bulk of the book is based, and most of the illustrations are taken from a collective monograph on the towns glorious past, published in 1904, by the Cracow Society of Antiquaries (T owarzystwo mifosnikow his toryi i zabytkow Krakow a) a result of the cooperative labours of Prof. S. Krzyzanowski (on the general history of the town). Dr. S. Tomkowicz (on Cracow sintellectual life), Dr. A. Chmiel (on the municipal organization and the craft-guilds). Prof. F. Kopera and Prof. K. Gorski (on architecture). Dr. J. Muczkowski (on sculpture), and L. Lepszy (on painting, applied art, and commerce). For details of architectural history, the standard work of A. Essenwein has been Consulted. In order to make the book acceptable to the foreign reader the matter of the collective work first mentioned has been condensed into what claims to be, to some extent, an independent treatment of the subject. L. L. The present English translation was made fromM r. Lepszy sG erman work as published in the series Beriihmte KunststdtteU yL eipsic (E. A. Seemann), 1906, the translator himself being responsible for some explanatory additions which seemed necessary for the sake of theE nglish reader e.g. the accounts of Matejko shistorical pictures, and of Wyspianski spaintings and poetry as well as for the description of such recent works of art as the Grunwald memorial (unveiled in 1910). The Cracow Society of Antiquaries are indebted to the Austrian Ministry of Public Works for the grant of a subsidy towards the publication of the book in its English form. The translator is under obligation to his friend, Mr. L. C. Wharton, B.A., of theB ritish M
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)