My Fairy Tales

In 1792 Emperor Leopold I donated a School of Philosophy, and Catholic Theology in Breslau (Wroclaw) called Leopoldina after him. As a Catholic institute run by the Jesuits in Protestant Breslau, the new university was an essential instrument of the Counter-Reformation in Silesia. A symbol of the Jesuit influence is the Auditorium (Aula), decorated in the late Baroque style. Although I am not an aficionado of that genre, I was impressed when our group visited the hall.

The Aula Leopoldina

The flowers are in Poland's red and white.
The motto Quod (bonum,) faustum, felix fortunatumque sit

is taken from Cicero's 'De Divinatione' (1, 45, 102):
May the outcome be good, propitious, lucky, and successful

Strolling through the university quarter afterward, I looked into the window of a second-hand bookshop and saw a battered edition of Märchen der Brüder Grimm.

This rang a bell deep inside. Didn't I love the fairy tale book with those colored pictures my mother used to read from? 

Later I devoured the stories of Schneewittchen und die sieben Zwerge (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), Frau Holle (Mother Hulda), Aschenputtel (Cinderella), Der Froschkönig oder der eiserne Heinrich (The Frog Prince), Schneeweißchen und Rosenrot (Snow-White and Rose-Red), you name them! Somehow my book got lost during the war.

I entered the Antykwariat of Andrzej Jaworski and examined the book. It was indeed the same edition I once had owned, and the price in Reichsmark was still written on the back in pencil: 2.85! The bookseller had pre-priced it for 48 Słoty, where I would have given him easily double the price. I didn't trade, and as the old man apparently hadn't noticed the greedy glint in my eyes, he offered me the treasure for only 40. My fairy tale!

Indeed the pictures are impressive. Here are two examples:

I liked the piece of Lebkuchen (a mild gingerbread) Hänsel had broken off
from one corner of the roof

Rumpelstilzchen

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