The text describes St Mark's Church in Florence, which contains, among other things, the tomb of Duke Stanisław Poniatowski, Treasurer of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The chapel in which this tomb is located is described in detail, and the history of Poniatowski is recalled (Source: Tygodnik Illustrowany, Warsaw 1877, Series 3, T:4, pp. 392-393, 400, after: Digital Library of the University of Łódź).

A modernised reading of the text.

Tomb of Prince Stanislaw Poniatowski, Treasurer of the Grand Duke of Lithuania, in the Church of St. Mark in Florence.

In a remote part of the city, rarely visited by tourists, stands the vast church of St Mark, with its Dominican convent. Both the church and the monastery are famous for the fact that in the 15th century many Italians, different in kind, body and soul, lived and died in the same place, two different souls under the same white Dominican habit. The first of these was that great master in the history of painting, angelic in his life, angelic in his conception of art and his works, which, as ghosts, transparent spirits, have nothing earthly about them - Beato Fra Giovanni Angelico da Fiesole, who died in this monastery in 1455. His marvellous frescoes in the corridors and in the cell he inhabited, which were saved from the monastery that had been abandoned for a long time and used as military barracks, are still shown to visitors amazed by their beauty. The second outstanding figure was the famous monk Savonarola, that prophet-preacher, passionate republican, enemy of the Medici, who, attracted by his words, for some time reigned supreme over the minds of the Florentines, until, learning of his free-thinking, they condemned him to death by fire as a blasphemer and apostate in the square in front of the Palazzo Vecchio on 23 May 1498. His cell and some of his belongings are shown here. They show travellers the curious tomb of Pico da Mirandola in the church adjoining the monastery, so justly famous. When I was looking at all this, and by accident I betrayed my nationality, a Polish souvenir was also mentioned: "the tomb chapel of the Poniatowskis". Of course, I eagerly went to see it. This chapel, quite large, contains in fact only one tomb of Prince Stanislaus, the Lithuanian treasurer, the king's son, father of Prince Karol, a music-lover still residing in Florence, who retains nothing of his nationality except his surname. Before we consider the monument itself, a few words about this prince should be mentioned. Prince Stanislaus, son of Kazimierz, chamberlain to the Crown, the King's elder brother, and Apolonia Ustrzycka, Castellan of Przemyśl, was born on 23 November 1754. When his father was running riot, unleashing his most daring antics, shooting with Voivode Tarla, courting the beauties of Warsaw, and building his bizarre buildings and gardens in Solec - Stanisław, under the watchful eye of his virtuous and quiet mother, brought up with his sisters, grew up to be a very stable, though not very talented young man. Thus, although the son of a dignitary and the King's son, he slipped almost imperceptibly through the stormy public eye of the time. Very young, he was given the rank of general in the Crown army, but showed neither desire nor great ability for military service. Later elevated to the Grand Treasury of Lithuania, he held office without attracting too much attention to himself. He was one of the princes of the blood, of the members of the family least heard of. He built a palace in Warsaw, not far from the Ujazdowski Castle, and established extensive gardens and vineyards, all of which, although less bizarre than his father's on the famous Górka Hill, were neither aesthetically pleasing nor beautiful, especially as the Varsovians were spoilt by the king's delightful buildings in Łazienki. During the king's famous trip to Nesvizh in 1784, he accompanied him with his father, the Prince ex-Commander-in-Chief, and other dignitaries, and when later Stanislaus Augustus directed his journey to visit the Bia這wie瘸 Forest, Stanislaus, as Lithuanian Treasurer, and therefore a minister and steward of the forests owned by the Crown, did his uncle honours here, treated him and entertained him magnificently. Great feasts, festivities, illuminations in the forests and similar surprises followed one after another; finally, he presented the departing monarch with a beautifully designed map of his journey in these parts. From there, the treasurer went to the Sejm in Grodno, where he found himself for the first time in the Senate. During the King's Kanya trip, the Treasurer received him magnificently at his Korsunsk estate in Ukraine, an approach which cost a great deal. However, he was able to afford everything, as in addition to several rich starosties, his Ukrainian fortune, the key of Korsuński, could rank with many principalities, and he also had extensive property in Volhynia, the key of Horochów near Lutsk. After the collapse of the country and the death of his uncle-king, Stanisław, who had already held the office of treasurer, could not settle down in Prussian Warsaw, as his father had done until his death. Having sold all his properties in Volhynia and Ukraine, he moved to Tuscany, where he remained for the rest of his life. He died in Florence, in his own palace, on 13 February 1833. He married an Italian woman, no longer a young man, and to this marriage he probably owed the title of Dukes of Tuscany di Monte Rotondo, which he left to his two Italian sons, Stanislaus and Charles. He was, as we have already said, an unremarkable figure in history, but he loved his country and never failed to honour its traditions. The most outstanding deed in his life was the emancipation and taxation of peasants in his extensive Ukrainian estate, an idea which he was the first to take up and put into practice in this country. Already in Italy, he fell in love with the fine arts, especially music, and was its active protector to the end of his life. Of the sons, the elder, Stanisław, moved to Paris, where he ended his life the previous year. Seriously fond of music, he was the author of many operas and other musical works, highly regarded by connoisseurs. The younger Charles, unmarried like his brother, lives to this day in Florence in his father's palace, in which only a remnant of the former Poniatowski family remains on a stone shield on display. He does not know his mother tongue at all, but an instinct brings him closer to his countrymen. I visited him several years ago, during my stay in Florence, and owed him the courtesy of an image of my father's monument. "It's cold there with you," he said to me in farewell, "it's far, far away; but I'd be glad to see the country before I die." And his eyes, when he said this, betrayed the sincerity of his confession. We return to the monument, though little can be said about it. It was sculpted by a mediocre artist, Villa, who evidently had little idea of what he wanted and was asked to depict, and supposedly knew nothing about the country and nationality of the deceased. The Gothic chapel is heavy and squat; it is bowed down by ornaments and decorations. The angel of death seems to be threatening with a trumpet the Duke, who is being lifted from his tomb to eternal heights; but the Duke's face is full of expression, similar to the portrait we saw of his son, similar also to Stanisław August. On the sides there are two mythological deities, with emblematic agricultural tools, and underneath a group of peasants, grateful for their liberation, hanging a wreath to the prince. The idea is beautiful, but the execution is rather unfortunate. At the foot of this monument, a stone slab with a long inscription in the floor marks the eternal resting place of the young deceased daughter of the duke's treasurer.