TEKSTY HIERONIMA, SEDULIUSZA SZKOTA I BEDY CZCIGODNEGO W BIBLIJNYCH KODEKSACH PŁOCKICH I NADMOZAŃSKICH Z XII W. PRÓBA PORÓWNANIA
Authors: Misiarczyk Leszek 
Published: September 2018

This article is on the comparison of two biblical manuscripts of the twelfth century from Plock, namely the so-called Bible of Plock and Evangeliar of Princess Anastasia with two Mosan biblical manuscripts: Evangeliar of Averbode and the Biblia Universa transcribed in the same period. The first three texts: Beatissimo Papae Damaso (Novum opus), Prologus quatuor evangeliorum (Plures fuisse) and Iheronimus Damaso Pape (Sciendum etiam) – the last one is not in the Bible of Plock - and Evangeliar of Princess Anastasia are of St. Jerome. In contrast, the introduction to the Synoptic Gospels: Argumentum secundum Matheum, Prologus in Marco and Prologus sancti Evangelii secundum Lucam are not the texts of St. Jerome, as is sometimes mistakenly repeated by different scholars, but belong to Sedulius Scottus, an Irish monk and poet who lived and worked in a school in Leodium in the ninth century, and the introduction to the Gospel of John: Prephatio in Evangelium secundum Iohannem was written by Bede the Venerable. While the texts of Jerome were quite commonly used in biblical medieval manuscripts, the fact that the introductions to the Synoptic Gospels are written by Sedulius Scottus and are present in both the Bible of Plock as well as partially in Evangeliar of Princess Anastasia is a very strong argument for the Mosan origin of the biblical manuscripts of Plock from the twelfth century. Comparative analysis of the texts themselves clearly leads to several important conclusions. First, the Bible of Plock and Evangeliar of Princess Anastasia are closer to the version of the text preserved in the Biblia Universa, a codex written in the monastery of Sancti Trudonis, than to Evangeliar of Averbode. It follows that the sources for the biblical manuscripts of Plock from the twelfth century should be searched at Mosan Benedictine monasteries, perhaps in the very monastery Sancti Trudonis near Liège. Second, the Gospel of Mark generally follows the version of the text preserved in the Biblia Universa and the Bible of Plock but not all the time. It should therefore be hoped that further comparative studies, especially the version of the biblical text, would confirm this relationship and will help determine whether the codex was written in the Mosan region or is a copy of the Bible of Plock made on the spot. Thirdly, and this is an extremely interesting proposal, Evangeliar of Princess Anastasia, not counting minor copyist changes like the conversion of - tium to - cium, is very much dependent on the Bible of Plock. If, as it is confirmed by records of the miracles, the Bible was already in Plock in 1148 or before that date, it is very likely that Evangeliar of Princess Anastasia, would be a copy of the text made on the spot in a local Plock scriptorium as a foundation of Boleslaw Kedzierzawy and a votive offering for the salvation of his deceased wife Anastasia. The codex would therefore arise after her death, dating back to the year 1158 in Plock in the time of Bishop Werner and would not have been brought by him following his trip to Aachen.These conclusions, for obvious reasons, are only preliminary, as comparsion of the texts are not fully detailed and fuller conclusions will be presented only after benchmarking a version of the biblical text of the four Gospels.