…with many thanks to Henry Parkes who in 2017 raised my attention to this manuscript!
Once regarded as another Polish manuscript lost during World War 2, the twelfth-century Ms. 883 is still today an ample witness of the intense interconnection between the Holy Roman Empire and the Piast realms—the most eastern kingdom of the high medieval Latin West. Even though the collectar is not a luxury codex, its splendor shines through its text. The parchment folia provide an insight into the counterintuitive narrative about the power of patronage and the manuscript culture in Central Europe.
The book, presumably produced before the 1170s in the Cistercian Altenberg near Cologne, was soon after transported to the newly established Cistercian abbey of Ląd near Poznań, where the codex remained in use until the early modern period. The manuscript was enriched in Ląd not only with commemorations of local saints but also obituaries of various patrons, including the founder of the abbey, duke Mieszko III the Old (d. 1202). However, alongside this expected commemoration, the manuscript was also enriched with the obituary of Karl Bessart (d. 1324), the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order. Surprisingly enough, this was added to the codex during the military and legal conflict between the Prussian order and the Polish rulers. Moreover, Ms. 883 offers insight into an even broader dynamic of patronage between the abbey and the European elites (e.g., with nobles from Venice) and into the power of liturgical prayers (e.g., various exorcisms), the latter overlooked by hitherto scholars dealing with the codex.
Although Brian Noell examined the manuscript’s calendar (fol. 1r-6r), a more in-depth examination of the script, artistic decoration, liturgy, and historical context has never been appropriately conducted. Foremost, Ms. 883 begs its multi-faceted comparison with other manuscripts from the Piast realms. Notably, it would be beneficial to cross-reference the newly discovered Polish pontifical of the 12th century with the last quires of Ms. 883 (fol. 126r-151v) which both contain similar rites. Hence, this paper provides an in-depth monographic discussion of largely overlooked Ms. 883 from the Beinecke Library.
