The Complete Works vol. 76: The Kielce Region. The Supplement to volumes 18-19. Collected from the manuscripts and printed sources and edited by E. Antyborzec and H. Pawlak. Poznań 2011, pp. XXX+694, illustrations, a map.

Published under the scientific auspices of the Polish Academy of Sciences financed by the  Minister of Science and Higher Education and the Minister of Culture and National Heritage.

This volume is the supplement of the two-volume monograph ‘The Kielce Region’ published by Kolberg in the years 1885-86.

Similarly to the material from other monographs, Kolberg utilized for this publication only part of his regional archive. The manuscripts from the Kielce region embrace hundreds of songs, including ritual songs and texts which could not be published in the 19th century because of the censorship, as well as some melodies without text, fairy tales and folk riddles. The majority of this material was collected by Kolberg during his field research in the region in the 1950s. Texts of songs and fairy tales and melodies were written down by ear. All this material can be found in the supplementary part.

The second part of the volume contains the commentaries to volumes 18 and 19. The commentaries were prepared on the basis of the manuscripts and they include the authors, chronology and references of written sources and discussion on the differences between the original text and its printed version. The commentaries include also bibliographical references, which explain the scope and way of utilizing the reference publications, a great part of which are those of Władysław Siarkowski, whose works helped Kolberg to write this monograph.

Indexes and a list of publications quoted and listed by Kolberg complements the volume. They refer to both volumes published in the 19th century, this supplement and introduction, which discusses the research methods and preparation of material for publication by Kolberg, as well as the editorial work undertaken in preparation of this supplement.

The present volume presents the unique method of folklore documentation, which was based on writing on spot; all the melodies were written by ear. The commentaries in the second part of the volume allow proper interpretation of the material published by Kolberg in the 19th century.