Nad Wisłą, nad Nilem--

by Leszek Zinkow

The subject and the scope of this work is determined by its title: Legacy of the Ancient Egypt in Polish Literature (until 1914). The Introduction specifies the understanding of this issue and presents the state of research (also in the context of the European literature). The first part presents the collection of texts until the end of the eighteenth century and the sources of inspiration: biblical and apocryphal circle, intermediary role of Greek and Roman writing, the influence of “pseudo-Egyptian” tradition on the borderline of literature and iconology (“emblems”), traveling and museum-piece collecting. The supplement to it is the outline of the presence of Ancient Egypt in other aspects of the Old Polish culture (art and architecture) and its reception in the scientific and encyclopedic works. In the second part, spanning the nineteenth-century literature the starting point is the review of characteristic phenomena which at the beginning of the century contributed to the substanti