Among the various mementos of the Słowacki family mentioned in the article is the tombstone of Juliusz Słowacki, who was originally buried in the Montmartre cemetery in Paris. (Source: Tygodnik Illustrowany, Warsaw 1861, T:3, pp. 40-41., after: Digital Library of the University of Łódź)

A modernised reading of the text

Pamiątki malownicze po rodzin Słowackich.

The few details about Juliusz Słowacki's life, scattered over the temporal writings, have not yet been properly completed and assembled into a single whole. The materials provided in recent times by Mrs Słowacki, widow of the late Władysław Słowacki, and placed r. 1859 in the Gazeta Codzienna daily, shed much light on the poet's home life and character. Intending here to dwell only on a few picturesque mementoes connected with the memory of the Słowacki family, we shall confine ourselves to repeating just a few dates and facts from Juliusz's life, already known from elsewhere.

Juliusz Słowacki, born on 28 August 1809 in Krzemieniec, was the son of Eusebius Słowacki (whose picture we enclose here), a professor of literature, first at the former Krzemieniec secondary school and then at the former university in Vilnius. His orphanhood from his father, which affected him as a child, was endeavoured to reward him by his mother, Salomea née Januszewska, who, despite her remarriage to Dr August Bécu, was thoughtfully guided by the following quatrain:

"The one who knew this canvas in Cupid's understanding,
Alban's Rival - his brush has ornaments.
Having met him, we know not, that is, to value more
The exquisiteness of his art, or the sweetness of his person.".

The incessant solicitude of his mother was repaid by our poet with no less exorbitant feelings of filial love. In almost every unpublished poem, in every letter written to his relatives, he recalls her with unspeakable reverence and affection, and every circumstance brings to his mind her image. Instead of the Beatrix or Laura of his dreams, strong in his love and sorrow, our illustrious poet chose Alexandra as the symbolic ideal of undying longing - his mother.

Juliusz Słowacki received his initial education at the lyceum in Krzemieniec, and after completing a course at Vilnius university, he took a position at the Treasury Ministry in Warsaw. We know from private sources that from childhood he was not blackly endowed with health and that in 1826 he made a trip to Odesa, seeking healing remedies in sea baths; but on his return to Vilnius, his chest sufferings increased again.

Being at that time (1827) at the end of his academic course, he held back his travels abroad, and in a letter of that date to a relative, his youthful dreams either carried him to some beautiful retreat in Italy or awakened a desire to buy a village near Krzemieniec, in order not to distance himself from his scholarly hearth. Our poet died after a long illness in Paris, on 15 April 1849.

A letter by Father Feliński, printed in 1859 in the "Gazeta Codzienna", has left us a detailed memory of his last moments. He was buried on 17 April in the Montmartre cemetery, and here is the tomb under which his corpse rests. In addition, his mother, Mrs Salomea Bécu, commemorated her son with a monument in Cracow, in the university church.

Finally, it is impossible not to mention the medallion of Słowacki, made in bronze, in only two copies, by Mr Władysław Oleszczyński, one of which adorns the monument to the deceased and the other is kept by his family. I am also indebted to the kindness of Mrs Aleksandra Słowacka for a pencil sketch, in my own hand, of our poet's family tombstone for Jan, Julia and Melania Januszewski, which I am sending to the 'Tygodnik Ilustrowana'. For the easier use of the artist, I am communicating this respectable monument in the original, publicly requesting the editors to return it, to be given to the family.