Manuscripta.pl: Medieval Manuscripts in Polish Collections
Online Lecture | Dr Paulina Pludra-Żuk (Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, L. & A. Birkenmajer Institute for the History of Science, Old and Rare Book Studies Unit)
Since the beginning of the 20th century, there have been several attempts to bring together information concerning medieval manuscripts from Polish collections. Although some of them were successful (to name e.g. guidebooks on manuscript collections in Poland, new editions of which have been published by National Library in 2014), the information they provide is very general, often based on indirect evidence and does not cover all collections. The lack of systematized information on codices hindered Polish scholars from the full insight on Polish medieval sources and made the sources even less accessible for foreign researchers. By consequence, a number of Polish manuscripts remain understudied and often excluded from international discourse.
In 2016, a team of Polish medievalists decided to remedy this shortage and launched a database which was aimed at providing information concerning manuscripts preserved in Polish collections, as well as manuscripts displaced (so called provenance Polonica in libraries abroad), lost or dismantled. The project has been based at the Institute for the History of Science, Polish Academy of Sciences and since 2017 is financed under the National Program for the Development of Humanities. In the presentation, I will introduce the foundations, and results of the first phase of the project which will be concluded in September 2023.