Methods of organising monastic records. The example of the ‘Benedyktyni Lubiń’ collection stored in the State Archives in Poznań

This paper presents the history of the archival collection Benedyktyni Lubiń [Benedictines Lubiń], stored in the State Archives in Poznań, from the moment the records were created until they were taken over by the archival service. The article looks at how the monastery records were organised in order to control their growing amount.

The founding of the oldest Benedictine monasteries in Bohemia in the light of written sources (from the 960s to the 1060s)

The article is devoted to the establishment of the oldest monastic institutions in the Czech lands in the 10th and 11th century and the scriptural sources dealing with the circumstances of their establishment. It deals with the founding of the female monastery of St. George at Prague Castle and the male monasteries of Břevnov, Ostrov, and Sázava.

Three three-apse transept-less basilicas in early Piast Poland. Searching for the source of the inspiration

When deciding on an architectural design for his project, the founder of a church could refer to quite a repertoire of models developed within Christianity over the centuries. Among them were more prestigious models and ones that enjoyed less recognition; those dating back to antiquity and those that developed quite recently. In the 2nd half of the 11th century, Casimir the Restorer and his son Bolesław founded the cathedral in Gniezno, and two Benedictine basilicas in Lubiń and Tyniec. They were built based on a plan of a transept-less three apse basilica. The builders of the Piast churches drew artistic models directly from the imperial architecture of the Rhineland, Lorraine and Saxony. The Benedictine monastic community played an important role in this process. Polish churches of that time are filled with quotations from their architecture. By combining an analysis of written sources with historical and artistic retrospection of the occurrence of this architectural model in Europe, the author attempts to determine where this type of architectural concept could have reached the Piast court around the mid-11th century and who could have been the intermediary in its transfer to Poland.