The text describing Padua mentions the Polish relics that have been preserved in that city, including the common tomb of the Poles and the altar of St Stanislaus erected in the Basilica of St Anthony. The altar was placed in the left nave and Poles who died in sickness or during the "university tumults" were buried there. This chapel also houses an image of Our Lady of Czestochowa. In the second part of the article, published in the next issue, the monuments of Stefan Batory and Jan III Sobieski are mentioned (Source: "Ziemia. Tygodnik Krajoznawczy Ilustrowany', Warsaw 1911, no. 36, pp. 6-10; no. 37, pp. 3-6, after: the Wielkopolska Biblioteka Cyfrowa).

A modernised reading of the text.

Polish Memorabilia in Padua.

When two nations approach each other and establish closer relations, the basis for this rapprochement is usually dynastic, political or economic interests. Rarer still are rapprochements based not on material interests, but on brotherhood of spirit, similarity of psyche and cultural influence through science and art. Being completely disinterested, such rapprochements are deeper and more lasting. The history of peoples gives few examples of such disinterested, spiritually conceived rapprochement, so much more interesting is the brotherhood of the Polish and Italian peoples, distant from each other territorially, but close in spirit. Poland, standing on the borderlands of Slavdom, could not rely on its closest neighbours: Kyiv's Ruthenia, fashioned in the Byzantine fashion, did not grow up in culture to match the exquisite Poland; the Great-Russian tribe, crushed in the Tartar steamroller captivity, differed in psyche from the Polish soul as much as the gloomy history of the Kremlin from the bright and cheerful history of Wawel; To the west, the hated and hated Germanic peoples pushed forward with a wall of steel; so Poland, alone, had to seek spiritual brotherhood with the Romance peoples, with whom, moreover, it was united by the commonality of the Latin rite. Foreigners often refer to us as the "French of the North", a compliment we gladly heed. Others, stricter ones, call us "Spaniards of the North", which touches and offends us vividly; but perhaps it would be most correct to call us "Italians of the North", which is also no small compliment. To this day, all of our social polish, our reverence for women, the refinement of the salon, and most of our legal and philosophical concepts are grounded in Italian models, brought to Poland by the pupils of Bologna and Padua, those exquisite "Cortegiani" for whom Górnicki translated Castiglion's work. "The Poles clinked so much with their Italian colleagues," writes Guarini, "and despite the difference in origin they felt kindred in spirit. The age-old aversion to the greedy German element, as strong in the Romance peoples as in the Slavs, united the newcomers from the Vistula and the Niemen in brotherly ties with the tribesmen of the peninsula against various boasters, such as Werner v. Schulenburg or Teobald Witl Reineck, who were as much a nuisance to the Poles as to the Italians. The roots of Polish-Italian relations are lost in the obscurity of those times, when caravans of Mediterranean merchants pulled through the Moravian Gate and down the Vistula to the grey Baltic shore for precious lumps of amber, but they stretch all the way back to the era when we introduced the lyrics to our song: "March, march Dabrowski, from Italian soil to Polish soil", when the Garibalds fought in the batches of 63. The adoption of the Latin rite quickly established links in the chain of rapprochement: Italian monks would appear on Polish soil, and sometimes a legate of the Holy See would arrive with a retinue, making his way through the forests as far as Płock or Vilnius. The route between Italy and Poland was becoming busy, and Polish youths began to travel beyond the Alps. Gedko the Griffin, founder of the Cistercians in Wąchock in the age of division, that is in the 12th century, was educated in Italy. Iwo Odrowąż, who laid the cornerstone of St Mary's Church and founded St James's in Sandomierz, became acquainted with Dominican monasteries under the azure skies of Italy; his relatives and Polish saints, Jacek and Czesław Odrowąż, were widely known as the 'saints of the North'. Italian monastery chronicles tell wonders about the journey of Elisabeth's daughter Lokietko to Naples. And when the aurora of the Renaissance blossomed over the lands of Italy, when Florence was called the "arch-salon inhabited by arch-humans", when the glow of humanism flared up, it was to its glow that the Cracovian students went for light and refinement, for cultural development, heedless of the toils and inconveniences of the tedious journey. "I am Bolko, of the Poles, scepter of Jagiellon, I came to Italy to meet Plato". And whole crowds of such Bolko-soothsayers followed. It was not Bona Sforza's bridal retinue that created the Polish Renaissance at Wawel, but those very students who, having returned from their studies, were preparing the ground for a lush sowing of the slogans of the great men of the quattro and cinquecenta. How they understood each other, how they felt the brotherhood of those bright, clever, capable minds, what cordial knots they formed! "The friendship was entwined in knots unbending. Two tops: cypress and northern fir". Is it possible to find anywhere similar serenity of soul and creativity to that of a typical Italian from the Lesser Poland - Jan of Czarnolas? His exquisite canzonas have no equal, perhaps only in Italian literature: "It's nice to go wild when the time is right, And so, brothers, pin each to his own; Let no one liven up here with you Nor use seriousness with us. Let us hang our privileges on a peg And you, by your lordship, sit down, you lackey". In this exhortation there is an echo of those folk games, when Isabella d'Este with her doncels descended from the palace among the people, without fear of anyone roughing up her court ladies. This exquisite reverence of women, carried over from Italian relations, is also often present in Kochanowski's work: "Show me Magdalene, show me thy face, A face that almost expresses a rose oboja, Show me golden airy hair, show me thy eyes equal to the stars that the swift circle of heaven rolls. Show thy graceful lips, rosebud lips full of pearls, Show thy breasts spent; And the alabaster hand in which my Heart is closed. O foolish, O mad thoughts! What do I desire, what do I wretchedly stand for? Looking at thee, all my power I have lost, Speech I have not, the flame after me goes mysterious In the ears the sound, and the night the duality of the eyes sets'. Only the Italy of the sixteenth century could have indulged in such a cult of exquisite beauty. John's Fricades are typical Italian burlesques. The Threnodies are the twin sisters of Petrarca's canzon "In morte di Madonna Laura". Poland's civilising mission radiates further eastwards the light drawn from divine Italy. It is not only the Polish youth that is attracted to the university: it is also the young people who are drawn to it by Messrs. Kiniaszko, Kopeć or Sopoćko, Mr Woruczeński or Czołhański, and six Polish Jews are enrolled in medicine in Padua. A powerful current carries the sons of magnates and village gentry to work and study; the burghers of Łowicz, Urzędów or Goniądz go, and there are also peasant sons sent by wealthy patrons. Despite the hardships and inconvenience of the journey, even maidens of wealthy families travel to the Italian skies: the Tęczyńskis, and probably other magnates' daughters, study there. Prominent patrons such as Tomicki, Padniewski and Kmita took it as their duty to send Polish youths to Italy. 1800 Polish students passed through the University of Padua in the 16th century. There were years when the Polish colony numbered several hundred in Padua, including students and fellow countrymen staying there for treatment, recreation or devotion. Although almost the whole of northern and central Italy was teeming with Poles, the vast majority of Polish arrivals leaned against the walls of Padua and stayed there. In the halls of this ancient university, magnate sons studied law: Firlejs, Kostkas, Łaskas, Ossolińskis, Sapiehs. Medicine was attended by poor sons of the bourgeoisie: Walenty from Lublin, Szymon from Łowicz, Marcin from Urzędów. Philological studies were conducted by Lubrański, Kromer, Karnkowski, Nidecki, Stryjkowski. Padua's legal studies gave Poland outstanding diplomats, statisticians, chancellors, marshals and judges for the tribunals created by King Stephen. The chancellery of Sigismund Augustus was made up of Paduan students alone. From Padua came 49 bishops and 38 voivodes and castellans, i.e. almost the entire Polish senate. "The juridical influence of Padua has become deeply embedded in the blood and arteries of our nation," writes A. Windakiewicz in his studies "Padua" and "The Polish Nation in Padua" ("Przegląd Polski" 1891, 1887). And the Zamojska Academy in particular was an inseparable daughter of Padua. Medicine did not shine so brilliantly. Its students, poor and insignificant sons of the bourgeoisie, did not have the opportunity or the means to develop their skills as powerfully as the lawyers did. On the other hand, philologists have left a large scholarly output, which includes such interesting works as Jan Łasicki's 1560 dissertation on Samogitian mythology and wedding customs among the eastern Slavs, or Jan Mielecki, who in 1592 wrote down the mythology of the now extinct Prussians.When a Masurian soul passes through x-i- 75 Alpine tunnels and emerges on the plains of Lombardy! a deep aa... of relief and contentment bursts from her breast: the enchanting mountain vistas, however, closed on all sides by walls of rock, imprison the eye accustomed to the plains, bore and oppress it. The green fields of Lombardy, in spite of their southern vegetation, are very reminiscent of the Polish lowlands far to the north, and that is why it somehow feels so familiar. The Venice area in particular, and perhaps most of all the road from Venice to Padua, have a landscape strangely similar to ours, giving the Polish heart a great deal of pleasure. This is where you can enjoy a "Polish afternoon". On the Riva Schiayont, next to the statue of Emanuel, where the winged lion of St. Mark breaks the Austrian shackles with a flourish, the inscription on the small harbour indicates: Tramvia Elettrica Venezia Padova. A small vaporeto takes travellers to Mestre, the tram station. The vaporeto passes 5 kilometres through the port of Venice, where large ships unload their contents and numerous steamers, Greek, Dalmatian, Turkish, state the ancient traditions of Venetian trade in the Levant. On the vaporetto they sell tickets. A ticket to Padua 90 centimes, but they only give 5 centimes change from the lira. To my opposition they inform me that it was the governo (government) that imposed the tax on tickets. As a native Varsovian, I immediately became calm and acknowledged I was right, as all governo's are always right, and such various overcharges don't only happen in Italy. The two carriages, clean, bright and pleasant, are waiting in Mestre, and having picked up the vaporeta passengers, they speed south across the green plain of pastures and cornfields towards Padua, 35 km away. From the small station of Malcontenta begins a series of beautiful summer residences of the former patriciate of Venice. The cramped, not necessarily smelly city was depopulated for the duration of the summer heat by wealthy lords and ladies who used to enjoy delightful summer holidays in the villages along the road to Padua. The row of these mansions stretches for 35 km up to the Padua walls, and bears a striking resemblance to the row of Polish manor houses: a gate from the road, a lawn for detours, and a palace sometimes one-storey, often one-storey with a porch on columns, roofed with tiles, decorated with vases or busts; beside the palace is a park with American pines, larches, spruces and Italian poplars; there are no pines, cypresses, palms or cacti. Behind the palace there are outbuildings: stables, coach houses, servants' dwellings, brogue, stacks, granaries; in a word, any such orchard could be moved in its entirety to Płock or Łomża and it would be as much at home there as here by this road. For there was also much analogy between the fates and relations of these two Republics. Poland - the northern and Venice - the southern link of the defensive wall of Europe against the Turkish deluge, both have a history filled with struggle against the Ottoman power. The names of the Loredans, Dandols, Contarinis, Morosins and Mocenigs were as much a threat to Istanbul on the sea as the Chodkiewicz, Żółkiewski, Sobieski, Potocki, Sapieha and Tarnowski families were on land. Both Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealths elected a ruler for life, who, although elected by the will of the people, was nevertheless "Dei gratia". Both Republics were in fact oligarchic communities, with the Venetian patriciate drawing their lifeblood from trade, and the Polish optimates from the land; both finally losing their political independence at the end of the 18th century. Such were my thoughts as the tram passed by these residences, adorned with escutcheons, and these green plains, where willows grow thickly and long avenues of chestnut trees stretch out, where fields of corn vividly resemble our horse's teeth, where wine grows on the trees like hops at home, where the road runs along the Brenta Canal and flocks of geese and ducks float peacefully along it; all this reminded me vividly of my Mazovian plains. Out of the trackway houses came the trackway ladies with their green flags - just like in our country - in such a position that they were anxious about each other. Because I don't know why, such a lady with a signal always looks worrying and one always wants to say to her "my Vojtěcha (or here - signora Franceska or Rólia) go home and take care of yourself, after all you need peace and quiet". Halfway there came a controller who had as much majesty as our controllers: he did not speak a word.Moreover, Padua philology produced astonishingly able speakers and commentators on Cicero. The considerable influx of Poles into this city, which was called 'the flower and the eye of Italian cities', led to the formation of Polish associations, as is still the case today in the university cities of the West, where the 'Unity' society is always at odds with the 'Fraternity' society. The "Academy between Poles" was founded in Kryski's house, where, according to Górnicki, "respectable noblemen, polishing their minds, found useful games at the feasts, in which there was unequally more pleasure and benefit than in cards". A Polish hotel was also established, but Gratianus warned 1568 Tomicki "not to live there, because the students there live merrily and constantly converse in Polish, so he would not be quick to learn Italian". Just like in the "Brotherhood" or "Unity". Finally, in 1592, a confraternity and common fund were founded, and it was decided to purchase a common tomb for the Poles, and to erect an altar of St Stanislaus in the basilica. In June 1607, the altar in the left nave was raised, the Resurrection of Peter painted by Malombra was placed in it, and under the altar the dead Poles who had been struck down by illness or who had died in university tumults and especially in fights with the Germans were buried. The Polish brotherhood survived until 1745, and the altar until recent times. It was not until the restoration of the basilica in 1894 that it was decided to recognise one of the chapels behind the great altar as a Polish chapel, and it was there that Father Jan Warchał collected Polish memorabilia. This is the last link of Polish relations with this city, whose influence paved the way for the Europeanisation of our society. "The influence of this distant scholarly establishment was unique in Poland and rises to the importance of a prime fact in the history of our civilisation!" writes Windakiewicz. This diligent researcher of the Padua archives also found two interesting names among the thousands of Polish students, although they were not yet famous: Dionysius Kościuszko enrolled as a student in 1641, and Dawid Mickiewicz natione Polonus ex Magna Duraku Lithuania in 1694. The genealogical tables of both these students are unknown, but who knows whether this Polonus, conscientiously marking his Lithuanian ancestry, is not the progenitor of the one who wrote in the loveliest Polish, "Lithuania, my homeland, you are like health".His face was stony and he made holes with such dignity, as if the fate of water and land communications throughout the country depended on his hole. All these conditions stirred in me more and more the memory of the motherland, and I looked forward to the moment when one of the passengers would turn to complain: "Kanduktor, how are you laughing at me insults and so on". Yes, indeed, the only thing missing was native speech, until at a small station I heard it too: from a neighbouring window they called out: "Halb kilo plum tre po ten, bene?". A compatriot! No, these were two compatriots "from Lviv". While eating the plums, the older compatriot began to explain to the younger one the reasons why she had to leave her husband, and as the confessions entered extremely confidential territory, I was forced to point out that someone understood their chatter, and at the stronger thrust of the carriage I cursed: dog's blood! After this all-Polish call, the compatriots "from Lviv" began to talk at length about the weather and the heat. The tram quickly ran its course, and here we were in Padua, that first great and famous university that our young men had encountered beyond the Alps. How many Polish names on the walls of the ancient university! A kindly custode amidst the chaos of shields of arms and inscriptions points me to memories of Poles. Here are "Kristoforus Sobiekurski", "Ignatius Komorowski a Komorów", "Georgius Szornel de Popkowice", "Andreas Naruszewicz", "Johannes ab Ozorków Szczaninski", "Aleksander Nicolaus Comes de Tenczyn Ossoliński".Joannes Grapowski", here is "Josario Zamościo" with a long Latin inscription and the coat of arms of Jelita, a whole series of great names, which for several centuries strove for knowledge under the blue skies of Italy, where free science spread its broad wings. These Krakow students stood here in front of Galileo Galilei's poor wooden cathedral, which still exists today, and listened to the lectures of Copernicus, who exchanged the student gowns of the Jagiellonian University for the dignified toga of a Paduan professor. It was here that the luminaries of the Sigismund era were educated, and to this day a guide to Padua proudly notes that the university's alumni were "due re di Polonia". In the great Prato della Valle square in front of the basilica of S. Giustina a number of statues of Padua's eminent alumni have been erected. Among this pantheon also stand the "due re": "Stefano Batoreo" and "Joanni Sobieskio" - the crumpled statues of John Ferrari, erected in 1784 and 1789 by Stanislaus Augustus. So Polish culture owes a great deal to the ancient university, and rightly so, on the Galileo Cathedral, among the wreaths of jubilee tribute, there is also a wreath of white-pons ribbons with the inscription: Polonia. Many Poles graduated here, but many ended their lives here and these were buried in a single grave under the altar in the basilica. Ginach is huge, surrounded by a wreath of chapels and altars. One moves here from the sculptures of Sansovina and Tulia Lombardo to the bronzes of Donatello and the frescoes of Mantegni and Giotto. Viewing the various chapels and altars, reading the inscriptions, unsurprisingly and without believing yourself, one reads: "Before Thy altars we make supplication". One's throat tightened, tears curled in one's eyes. An artistically wrought-iron grating with white eagles on it, and the coats of arms of Warsaw, Lviv, Krakow and Vilnius underneath. At the top runs the inscription:
Accept the sacrifices of the sons of the Polish land
Shine the light on the brothers who died.
On the walls, the martyrdom of St Stanislaus was painted by Tadeusz Popiel. In the altar, St. Stanislaus, and on the vault, the entire communion of Polish saints.Below, some tomb plaques: "Erazm Kretkowski, Voivode of Brzeg, Castellum of Gniezno in 1558, traveller to Egypt and India", "Aleksander, Kazimierz and Krzysztof Sapiehowie", on the left side of the altar a very nice sculpture in white marble on a plaque of Karolina of Countess Woyns of Jablonowska. Woynów by Rev. Jabłonowska, "who found her rest and homeland under this altar". Finally, on the side of the altar, a shadowed and too modestly placed bust of King John with the inscription: "In honour and memory of King John III, this monument was made by Antoni Madeyski in the year 1905 from the contributions of his compatriots through the efforts of Fr. Szymon Łasia Franciscan."
Polish mementoes are to be found not only within the Polish chapel; also on the walls of the cloisters surrounding the monastery cloisters, well-known coats of arms and famous names are conspicuous. Here a large plaque extolling the virtues of Andrzej Kanski, there, under the Swan coat of arms, a commemorated memory: "Julio ... Jos. F. Dunin Wąsowicz Polono Comiti inveni, ingenii, celeris, indolis..."
Such a wonderful Polish afternoon can be made in the Brenta valley, about which one has heard since childhood... "Over the Brenta valley flows, over it flows the shadow of the gondola, with the noise of the oar the wave carried the longing note of the barcarolle".
The sun is already setting as the vaporeto returns to the statue of Victor Emanuel. The beautiful Polish afternoon has come to an end. St Mark's Square is swarming, bustling, cheerful, and polite. A beautiful tenor sings a southern song with bravura and feeling: "Senza amor non possono vivere!" - so strangely cheerful, cheerful, friendly here. An obese lady loudly laments to her companion about the "no-porn" that prevails here. Indeed, it is all so far from "poriadki" that it makes the heart glad.
But in order to feel and understand it, ma'am, one has to have the Roman culture, one has to have gone through a wonderful period of humanism, one has to have had one's compatriots drinking from the divine sources of knowledge of Padua or Bologna since the 12th century, i.e. the 900s, and one has to have 'Jerusalem Liberated' translated as soon as the original came out. It is necessary to get into the soul of this people, who are cheerful and joyful without the excitement of alcohol, who are polite because they have 3,000 years of culture behind them, and above all it is necessary, ma'am, to have joy and cheerfulness in one's own soul, which would know how to enjoy life and cheerfulness instead of boundless melancholy and "unynja".
Only such a soul can feel this people cheerful and able to intoxicate themselves with the invocation of Bolko from Grabowski's "Sokol".
"Through the Alpine peaks
Let us shake hands with the arm of remembrance.
May the alliance of youth be immortal.
Apollo's wreath of roses and laurels wrought
Wreathes our temples....

Quivering eagles born of chaos
Wolf's wild milk fed
Forge of sorcery, the greatest bolide
What splashed on the star track.
A rain of dyament in every colour
Italy wonderful, holy land
Dank to thee I carry and memento!".