Hidden in the binding. On a finding of a medieval document of Pope Innocent VII from 1404 and the Cistercian abbey in Nepomuk

• Main Author: Alicja Szulc
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan 2016-12-01
• Series: Biblioteka
• Subjects: dokumenty papieskie; cystersi w średniowieczu; Innocenty VII; Pomuk; Nepomuk; Czechy XV wieku
• Online Access: https://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/b/article/view/7084

A rare document from 1404 issued by Pope Innocent VII was found in the manuscript collection of Poznań University Library in 2008. The document, written on parchment, is addressed to Archbishop of Prague and refers to some ecclesiastical privileges for the Cistercian abbey at Nepomuk in Bohemia. Strictly speaking this is the oldest document that is currently held in the collections of the library. The state of its preservation shows that the document has been reused by an unknown bindery as a wrapping for the wooden binding of a codex, possibly of Cistercian provenance. The manuscript of the type littera exsecutoria (i.e. one that includes a papal instruction – mandatum) has a particular source value as one of the few preserved documents from the archives of the monastery at Nepomuk that was almost entirely destroyed and then dispersed at the time of the Hussite wars in Bohemia. The present article is supplemented with a Latin edition of the document.