Book of Henryków
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The Book of Henryków (Polish: Księga henrykowska, Latin: Liber fundationis claustri Sancte Marie Virginis in Heinrichau) is a Latin chronicle of the Cistercian abbey in Henryków (German: Heinrichau) in Lower Silesia. Originally created as a registry of belongings looted by the Mongol raids of 1241, with time it was extended to include the history of the monastery. It is notable as the earliest document to include a sentence written entirely in the Polish language. As such it is one of the milestones in the history of Polish literature. Currently the book is on exhibition in the Diocesan Museum in Wrocław.
The first part of the 100-page-long book is devoted to the early history of the abbey, from its foundation by Henry the Bearded in 1227 until 1259. The second part includes the later history until 1310. In the record for 1270 a semi-anonymous peasant from the nearby village named Brukalice is reported to say to his wife "Day, ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai", an old Polish sentence which could be roughly translated as "Let me, I shall grind, and you take a rest".
The circumstances under which this sentence was written closely reflected the cultural and literary conditions in Poland in the first centuries of its national existence. It appeared in a Latin chronicle, written by a German abbot. The man who reportedly uttered the sentence almost one hundred years earlier was Bogwal, a Czech (Bogwalus Boemus), a local settler and subject of Bolesław the Tall, as he felt compassion for his wife, who "very often stood grinding by the quern-stone".
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- (Polish) (1999) Słownik Encyklopedyczny - Język polski. Europa. ISBN 8387977209. Retrieved on 2006-06-22.
- (English) (Polish) Michał Jacek Mikoś (1999). "Middle Ages: Literary background", Polish Literature from the Middle Ages to the End of the Eighteenth Century. A Bilingual Anthology. Warsaw: Constans, 683. ISBN 8390101432. Retrieved on 2006-06-22.
