‘The Matilda Codex’ and its history

The Matilda Codex is an 11th-century book, measuring 21.5 x 16.5 cm, containing 82 folios in a 19th-century leather binding. As with many other early medieval manuscripts, the story of this one contains a number of gaps. Researchers attempting to reconstruct its history must accept that answers to many questions will most likely never be found. For we do not know whether the ‘Codex’ ever reached Poland at all (if so, then only briefly, probably between around 1025 and 1028). Nor are the circumstances known under which it was taken out of the country; this was probably in the mid-1030s.

The place of origin of the manuscript is a matter of debate; attempts have been made to determine it on the basis of the style of handwriting, the spelling of words or the form of the sole decorative initial (S). Suggestions have included France, Italy (a scriptorium associated with the monastery at Monte Cassino?) and the territories of the Holy Roman Empire (a scriptorium associated with Trier?, written by an Italian scribe?). The view most widely accepted is that of Prof. Brygida Kürbis: The ‘Codex’ was produced in what is now Switzerland (in the abbeys of St Gallen or Einsiedeln), in its entirety as a single commission, with the intention of presenting it to Mieszko II. It is reasonable to assume that its creation was preceded by a survey to ascertain which texts were most needed at the court in Gniezno.

Since the mid-19th century, the ‘Codex’ has been held by the City of Düsseldorf at the local University and State Library.

‘Matilda’s Codex’ – Christian texts

The book contains a dedicatory letter from Duchess Matilda (known as the ‘Epistola Mathildis Suevae’), addressed to Mieszko II, as well as a sequence of prayers and a liturgical book (the so-called ‘Liber officorum’). Why not chronicles, annals or works of pagan antiquity? In early medieval monarchies, alongside military might, religious orthodoxy served as a guarantee of obedience amongst the subjects. Royal authority derived its ideological justification from Christian doctrine. Reflections on the origin of power, its meaning and purposes, and the monarch’s duties and prerogatives were therefore set within a religious context. A Christian ruler reigned by the grace of God (‘Dei gratia’); at his court, care was taken, amongst other things, to ensure a correct and standardised liturgy. This meant, for example, tailoring sermons to specific days of the liturgical year, administering the sacraments in accordance with orthodoxy, and drawing on authoritative texts to resolve theological doubts.

It is therefore highly likely (though there is no hard evidence) that books appeared in Poland with the arrival at Mieszko I’s court of his wife Dobrawa, a Bohemian princess (c. 965), and Jordan, who was consecrated as Bishop of Poznań (968; the first diocese in Poland, directly subordinate to the Pope from the outset). The ‘Matilda Codex’ is also regarded as one of the earliest books in Poland, as it has survived to this day.

The ‘Matilda 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 cęlice’), a kind of hymn intended to be performed on the feast day of the Archangel Michael. It contains numerous references to angelology (the study of angels; it mentions the nine angelic choirs and the virtues of the archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael) and allusions 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 dating from the 10th century, but its version in the ‘Codex’ (written in a different script to the rest of the text) is unique, as the text is accompanied in the left-hand margin by neumes (a form of early musical notation used in the Middle Ages). This is the oldest known text-and-music notation in Poland and is likely the oldest attested liturgical chant sung in our country. Its author undoubtedly drew upon the writings of the founder of angelology, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, an anonymous, Greek-speaking early Christian writer from the turn of the 5th and 6th centuries), 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 regarded as authoritative and orthodox.

A dedicatory letter, a lost miniature and a book of rites

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

On the next folio was a miniature (illustration), now lost, depicting Matilda presenting the Codex to Mieszko (the appearance of the original binding is noteworthy) and a two-line dedication written in hexameter (a poetic metre whose roots go back to ancient Greece). This page 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 make a copy of this page (1842), as the book was then housed in the library at St Hedwig’s Church in Berlin. The scholar visited the library again in 1857, but the “Codex” was no longer there. It was found in the second half of the 19th century at the Royal State Library in Düsseldorf (now the University and State Library), but the page containing the miniature was no longer present (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 the researcher Teresa Michałowska, the author was probably Remigius of Auxerre, c. 841–c. 908), divided into 34 chapters.

For the last time – and quite possibly for the first time since it was taken out of the country – the ‘Matilda Codex’ was on display in Poland in 2016, at the Museum of the Origins of the Polish State in Gniezno, as part of the exhibition “The Baptism - of St Wojciech - Poland. The Legacy of Medieval Gniezno”. In 2000, the ‘Codex’ was published for the first time in accordance with the requirements of modern historiography, a task undertaken by a team led by Brygida Kürbis (“The Codex of Matilda: a book of rites with dedication leaves = Codex Mathildis: liber officiorum cum foliis dedicationis”).