The aim of the article is to present controversies related to one of the two remaining manuscripts of Cyprian Norwid work: "Do Nikodema Biernackiego". The story of its origin and what has happened to the two sources served as a background for considerations. The significant differences between the manuscripts and published versions were also discussed. In order to clearly display it, a transliteration of line according to the autograph was added.
The article presents the use of illusion and vision in the literature and culture of the Enlightenment on the example of the play "Umarły żyjący, czyli Diabeł Włoski" by Stanisław Kostka Potocki, and the first volume of the "Diary" by Anna Potocka from Tyszkiewicz family. It analyses special effects used in the theatre and described in these texts, as well as their motives present in the character of an astrologer and illuminatus inspired by the person of Alessandro Cagliostro. The phenomena of the masquerade and mystification shown here were a popular entertainment of the eighteenth-century aristocracy, and a tool serving fraudsters to reach the target, as well as a weapon used by muckrakes.
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