The Matilda Codex is a medieval collection of several Latin liturgical and religious texts, accompanied by a dedicatory letter. It is a gift from the Duchess of Lorraine, Matilda of Swabia, to the King of Poland, Mieszko II Lambert. It is probably also one of the first books to be historically associated with the territory of the Polish state.

Matilda's Codex and its history

Matilda 's Codex is an 11th century book, measuring 21.5 x 16.5 cm and containing 82 pages in a 19th century leather binding. As with many other monuments of early medieval writing, the story of it contains a number of gaps. Researchers attempting to reconstruct its history must accept that many questions will probably never be answered. For we do not know whether the Codex reached Poland at all (if it did, it was for a short time, probably in the years around 1025-1028). The circumstances under which it was taken out of our country are also unknown; it was probably in the mid 1030s of the 11th century.

The place of origin of the monument is debatable; attempts have been made to establish it on the basis of the style of writing, the spelling of words or the form of the only ornamental initial (S). There have been indications of France, Italy (a scriptorium associated with the Monte Cassino monastery?) and the lands of the Empire (a scriptorium associated with Trier?, written in the hand of an Italian scribe?). Prof. Brigid Kürbis' position is most commonly accepted: The Codex was written on the territory of present-day Switzerland (in the abbeys of Sankt-Gallen or Einsiedeln), entirely as a single order, with a view to giving it to Mieszko II. One can suspect that its creation was preceded by a survey of what texts were most needed at the court in Gniezno.

Since the mid-19th century Codex has been a deposit of the city of Düsseldorf in the local University and State Library.

Matilda Codex - Christian texts

The book contains a dedicatory letter from Princess Mathilda (known as Epistola Mathildis Suevae ), addressed to Mieszko II, as well as a prayer sequence and a liturgical book (the so-called Liber officorum ). Why not chronicles, yearbooks or works of pagan antiquity? In addition to armed force, the guarantee of obedience from the subjects was in the early medieval monarchy its religious orthodoxy. Royal authority derived its ideological justification from Christian doctrine. Reflections on the origin of power, its meaning and purposes, the duties and powers of the monarch therefore had a religious context. The Christian ruler reigned by God's grace ( Dei gratia ), and at his court, among other things, care was taken to ensure a correct and unified liturgy. This meant, for example, adapting sermons to the specific day of the liturgical year, the legitimate administration of the sacraments and the use of authoritative texts to resolve theological doubts.

It is therefore highly probable (although hard evidence is lacking) that books in Poland appeared with the arrival at the court of Mieszko I of his Dobrawa, princess of Bohemia (c. 965) and Jordan, ordained bishop of Poznan (968; the first diocese in Poland, directly subordinate to the pope from the beginning). The Matilda Codex is also considered one of the first books in Poland, as it has survived to the present day.

Matilda's Codex and the oldest musical notation in Poland

The first pages of the Matilda Codex contain a prayer in honour of Christ (the so-called Ad celebres rex c ę lice ), a kind of hymn intended to be performed on the feast of Archangel Michael. It contains numerous references to angelology (the science of angels; it mentions the nine angelic choirs and the virtues of the archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael) and references to God the Father and the Holy Trinity. It consists of 32 verses of irregular structure.

The prayer is known from earlier manuscripts from various parts of Europe from the 10th century onwards, but its notation in the Codex (done in a different handwriting from the rest) is unique in that the text is accompanied in the left margin by neumes (a form of primary musical notation used in the Middle Ages). It is the oldest known text-and-note notation in Poland and probably the oldest attested liturgical song sung in our country. Its composer undoubtedly relied on the writings of the founder of angelology, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, an anonymous Greek-speaking early Christian writer from the turn of the fifth/first century), who claimed to be a disciple of St Paul. The writings of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, translated into Latin in the mid-9th century, enjoyed great popularity in early medieval Western Europe and were considered authoritative and legitimate.

A letter of dedication, a lost miniature and a book of rituals

Matilda's dedicatory letter to Mieszko II is another part of the Matilda Codex . What is most interesting here, however, is not so much the traditional form (image of an ideal Christian ruler; conventional praise of the monarch's ecclesiastical foundations; plea to God for a long and successful reign for the king, who is characterised by the virtues of justice, prudence and valour), but the presentation of the Polish ruler as an educated man (emphasis on his knowledge of Latin and Greek, enabling him to pray with understanding in these languages) and, finally, the contrasting methods of converting pagans: cruel Boleslaw Chrobry (father) versus gentle Mieszko (son).

The next sheet contained a miniature (illustration), now lost, depicting Matilda handing the Codex to Mieszko (note the appearance of the original binding) and a two-line dedication written in hexameter (a verse measure whose roots go back to ancient Greece). The card was seen by the German philologist and archaeologist Philipp Anton Dethier (1803-1881). When the Matilda Codex was accidentally discovered, Dethier had the opportunity to redraw (1842) this card, for at the time the book was in the library at St Hedwig's Church in Berlin. The researcher visited the library again in 1857, but the Codex was no longer there. It was found in the second half of the 19th century in the Royal State Library in Düsseldorf (today the University and State Library), but the card with the miniature was no longer there (it had been cut out).

The most extensive part of the Matilda Codex is the liturgical book Liber officium (the so-called Ordo Romanus , or 'Roman Order') by Pseudo-Alcuin (according to researcher Teresa Michalowska, the author was probably Remigius of Auxerre, ca. 841-ca. 908), divided into 34 chapters.

For the last time - and possibly for the first time since it was taken out of the country - the Matilda Codex was hosted in Poland in 2016, at the Museum of the Origins of the Polish State in Gniezno for the exhibition Baptism - St Adalbert - Poland. The heritage of medieval Gniezno . In 2000. Codex was published for the first time according to the requirements of modern historiography, which was done by a team led by Brigid Kürbis ( Codex Mathildis : book of ceremonies with dedication cards = Codex Mathildis: liber officiorum cum foliis dedicationis ).