The oldest manuscript of a Polish religious hymn in honour of the patron of Poland St. Stanislaus was found in the Berlin city library archive by Dr Paweł Figurski. The manuscript bears the seals of the Catholic seminary library of Płock, but now the restitution process will begin. Poland will have to prove the rights for the manuscript that most likely was robbed during the World War 2.
The manuscript consists of the lyrics of a Polish medieval religious hymn “Gaude Mater Polonia” or Rejoice, oh Mother Poland.
The hymn, composed by Wincenty of Kielcza, was written in honour of St. Stanislaus of Szczepanów, the patron saint of Poland. It is considered one of the oldest religious pieces of Polish-Latin lyric poetry.
The discovery of probably the oldest manuscript of the hymn ‘Gaude, mater Polonia’ was made at the end of 2023 in the State Library in Berlin.
According to the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland, a library and archive search is underway to collect full documentation on a piece of a late medieval manuscript to allow restitution procedures.
According to the international law concerning the robbed art and culture artifacts Poland will now have to prove the rights of ownership to the manuscripts from the pre-war times. Although the object consists of seals from the Catholic seminary library in Płock it may not be as easy.
Many cultural archives that stored the documents confirming the ownership were deliberately burned by the Germans during the World War 2.
Source: DW Polski
Tomasz Modrzejewski
Photo: @EJagiellonians
