The text deals with Princess Sophia, introducing her history, her charitable activities and finally her family life (she was the mother of seven sons and three daughters). The question of a tombstone is also described - Zamojska expressed her wish to be buried in Florence, in the church of Santa Croce. According to the article, Zamojska's tombstone was carved by Bartolini and placed in a woodcut (Source: Tygodnik Illustrowany, Warsaw 1860, T:2, no. 42, p. 495., after: University of Łódź Digital Library).

A modernised reading of the text

Tombstone of Zofia née Czartoryska Zamojska in the church of Santa Croce in Florence.

Princess Zofia was born on 25 September 1780, to a father who was a prince-general of the Podolia lands and Izabella Flemming, Voivode of Pomerania, in Warsaw, in the palace known as the 'Blue Palace', a few months after her daughter Teressa, first and beloved of both parents, had been burnt in that palace. The father, who commemorated the loss of the child dear to his heart to such an extent that no one was later able to mention Teressa's name in his presence, soothed his grief in part by seeing the charms and qualities of the one whom God had evidently given him as a consolation after his heavy grief.

In 1798 the Princess Zofia was wed to Count Stanisław Zamoyski, the younger son of Duke Andrzej, Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and Constance Zamoyska, née Czartoryska, who shortly after the heirless death of his brother Aleksander took over the entail estate. The young Mrs Zamojska, barely in her twenties, saw herself the mistress of one of the largest domestic estates. This did not, however, return her from the path she had taken for herself, but, in fact, only gave her the means to do well. At the time, the country needed a lot, wars and disorder had thrown it into inert indifference; only good intentions and strong measures could give a different direction.

Mr and Mrs Zamoyski spared nothing that could only lead to their chosen goal. While her husband was setting up factories, awakening industry, and encouraging science by example, Mrs Zamojska put forward the idea of founding a Charitable Society, and directed all her efforts towards bringing it to fruition. There was no sacrifice she would not have made; monetary gifts, toil and work were nothing to her compared with the consolidation of an institution whose charitable effects we still assess today. These works, however, did not prevent her from fulfilling her duties as the tender guardian of numerous estates, filled with hard-working but poor people, and as the kindly hostess of one of the first houses of her time. Kajetan Koźmian writes:

"The house of Mr and Mrs Zamojski held the first place for its sumptuousness, for inviting and receiving people known either for their domestic services or for their literature. At soirées at this house, in the presence of ladies, the finest poetry appealing to dispositions was read, theatrical plays, ephemeral poems by writers already of some reputation or freshly emerging, with shy but undoubted talent.".

Alongside all these activities and duties, Mrs Zamojska's first and most sacred duties were those of wife and mother. She bore and brought up seven sons and three daughters: Konstanty, the present Ordynat (b. 1799), Andrzej, the present president of the Agricultural Society (b. 1800), and Andrzej, the present president of the Agricultural Society (b. 1800). (b. 1800), Jan (b. 1802), Zdzisław (b. 1810, † 1855), August (b. 1811), Władysław (b. 1813), Stanisław (b. 1820), Celestyna, the present Countess of Typhus Działyński (b. 1831), and Janina (b. 1831). Tyfusowa Działyńska (b. 1804), Jadwiga, the present Duchess Leon Sapieżna (b. 1805), Eliza, later Zenon Brzowska (b. 1818, † 1857).

She was reaching the age of fifty when sorrows and disappointments shook her health. Mrs Klementyna Iloffmanowa, in one of her works, states: "In her last days she aspired so evidently to heaven that those who loved her most did not dare to wish her life prolonged, not wishing to delay her happiness." She died in Florence on 27 February 1837, and as proof of what she was to her country and family, it will suffice to quote the words of the author of Seglas's Memoirs, pronounced immediately after receiving the news of her death in Warsaw:

"Her life was an uninterrupted string of domestic and social virtues. People saw her as a role model for wives and mothers, adored her civic virtues and knew that she was the founder of a benevolent association that provided shelter and support for the unfortunate for ever. Her countrymen, once the object of her hospitable kindness or charity, will long pass with painful memories in front of this house, where she knew how to receive numerous people with unspeakable kindness, with a feeling of gratitude and adoration in front of this edifice, in which, thanks to her efforts, undeserved misery finds shelter. The memory of Zofia Zamojska will live on as long as there are souls capable of appreciating the value of refined social life and hearts sensitive to the misery of fellow human beings.

In accordance with the deceased's wishes, which were revealed several times before her death, her corpse was buried in Florence, in the church of Santa Croce, where her tombstone, shown here in woodcut and carved in stone by Bartolini, was erected. In Warsaw, a memorial service for her soul was held at the Metropolitan Church of St John on 18 March 1837. The entire spacious church, and even the adjoining streets, were filled with people rushing to pay tribute to the virtues of the deceased founder of the Charitable Society.

The Mass was celebrated by the Archbishop of Warsaw, and the deceased's merits were exquisitely expressed in her eulogy by Father Szwejkowski, prelate and custodian of the Plock Cathedral. Twenty-three years have passed since the death of the late Zofia Zamoyska, and yet she is still remembered with adoration among the people of the Lady of the Blue Palace, and no Pole passing through Florence ever fails to pass the church of Santa Croce to sigh at her tomb.