Gesta principum Polonorum: The Deeds of the Princes of the Poles

Editor's Introduction (In Cooperation with Wojciech Polak)

[xix] 1 A good summary of this scholarship with extensive bibliography, including titles in languages other than Polish, is in Norbert Kersken, Geschichtsschreibung im Europa der “nationes”: Nationalgeschichtliche Gesamtdarstellungen im Mittelalter, Münstersche Historische Forschungen, 8 (Cologne: Böhlau, 1995), esp. pp. 491–9. Of the older handbooks, see, e.g., Heinrich Zeissberg, Die polnische Geschichtsschreibung des Mittelalters (Leipzig: Hirzel, 1873; reprint : Cologne: Böhlau, 1968), pp. 26–9; Pierre David, Les sources de l’histoire de Pologne à l’epoque des Piasts (963–1386) (Paris: Les belles lettres, 1934), pp. 35–55; Max Manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters (Munich: Beck, 1931), 3:407–11; LexMA 4:1099; Repertorium fontium historiae Medii Aevi primum ab Augusto Potthast digestum, nunc cura collegii historicorum e pluribus nationibus emendatum et auctum 3:416–7 (Rome: Istituto storico italiano per il Medio Evo, 1964) s.v. “Chronicon et gesta etc.” EDITORS’ INTRODUCTION IN COOPERATION WITH WOJCIECH POLAK The anonymous work we have chosen to title Gesta principum Polonorum/The Deeds of the Princes of the Poles (henceforth: GpP) has been studied by scholars for some two centuries, yet many issues regarding it are still subject to debate. These include the person of the author and his context, the precise date of the work’s composition, the author’s motives in writing, his sources of information (written or oral), his reception of heroic and mythical traditions, and his choice of style and discourse. In what follows we seek to summarize the prevailing hypotheses and present the scholarly consensus, if such exists, without going into the details of learned controversies. References to these are given in our notes sparingly, especially as far as the inclusion of Polish titles is concerned; for those who read the East European vernaculars, the relevant handbooks and bibliographies will give sufficient orientation.1 xx INTRODUCTION 2 The Łaski were aristocrats who supplied Poland with high officials and prelates, the best known being Jan Łaski, chancellor and primate of Poland in the early sixteenth century; see PSB 18:225–55. MANUSCRIPTS AND EDITIONS No original or near-contemporary copy of the GpP survives. Our knowledge of the text depends primarily on three latemedieval copies. The earliest is in the so-called Codex Zamoyscianus, formerly in the library of the counts of Zamosc, presently in the National Library in Warsaw (Ms. BOZ cim. 28, fols. 20v–54v). It is a parchment codex containing historical and hagiographical writings, written around 1380–92, most probably in Cracow (Fig. 1). Until the beginning of the fifteenth century this manuscript was in the library of the Łaski family,2 whence it came into the hands of the Gniezno canon, S¤dziwoj (Sandivogius ) of Czechło (died in 1476), a friend of the historian Jan Długosz, who himself made use of the GpP (perhaps from this very copy) in compiling his Annales. This text (Z) is considered to be the best and most complete version. A second copy, made for S¤dziwoj in 1434–39, is in the so-called S¤dziwoj Codex (S), a paper manuscript now in the Library of the Czartoryski Museum in Cracow (Ms. 1310, fols. 242 to 307) – hence also referred to as Codex Czartoryscianus – and containing in addition to the GpP other historical, hagiographical and legal texts. As this text was copied directly from the Zamoyski manuscript, its variant readings have no textual significance. There is as well a third and independent witness, in the so-called Heilsberg codex (H), named for the place where it was kept between the mid-sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries – Lidzbark Warmi¥ski, in German: Heilsberg – but today preserved in the National Library in Warsaw (Ms. 8006, fols. 119–247; see Fig. 2). This paper manuscript was written around 1469–71, based on a text from Cracow (of ca.1330), which reached Łekno INTRODUCTION xxi in 1378 and then to the canons regular in Trzemeszno;3 later it belonged to the historian Bishop Martin Kromer (1512–89).4 Here too the GpP is one item in a collection of historical writings. The text in the Heilsberg manuscript is incomplete, ending with chapter 15 of Book III and omitting chapters entirely or partially. Especially notable is the omission of chapters 27–8 of Book I, which refer to the decline of King Bolesław II and his conflict with Bishop (St.) Stanislas of Cracow, in place of which were inserted appropriate passages from...