''Old Annals of the Holy Cross'' (
Polish: ''Rocznik świętokrzyski dawny'') is the oldest Polish written history, recording key events from the very beginnings of the
Polish state.
Annals dating from the first half of the
12th century (probably between 1122 and 1136), but its creator took the informations from an earlier yearbook ''Annales Regni Polonorum deperditi'' that has not survived. Its name is traditional, deriving from the place where it was stored – the Benedictine library at the Holy Cross Abbey on
Łysa Góra
Łysa Góra (''Bald Mountain''; also known as Łysiec or Święty Krzyż) is a well-known hill in Świętokrzyskie Mountains, Poland. With a height of 595 metres (1,952 ft), it is the second highest point in that range (after Łysica at 61 ...
. From at least the 13th century it belonged to the Krakow chapter, from the middle of the 15th century it belonged to the Holy Cross monastery, and in the middle of the 18th century it was acquired by the
Załuski Library. After the
Kościuszko Uprising
The Kościuszko Uprising, also known as the Polish Uprising of 1794 and the Second Polish War, was an uprising against the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia led by Tadeusz Kościuszko in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Pr ...
Russians seized the library's holdings and transported them to
Saint Petersburg. Recovered after the
Treaty of Riga (1921), it was transferred to the
National Library. It was evacuated to Canada in 1939 and returned in 1959. From May 2024, the manuscript is presented at a
permanent exhibition in the Palace of the Commonwealth
Permanent exhibition in the Palace of the Commonwealth is an exhibition of the most valuable objects from the collection of the National Library of Poland in the baroque interiors of the Krasiński Palace, Palace of the Commonwealth in Warsaw.
B ...
.
The ''Old Annals of the Holy Cross'' was written in one or two columns without ornamentation on the three last clean pages of an earlier codex, probably from northern France. The work consists of short, one-sentence notes in
Latin, assigned to individual years, for example ''Dubrovka venit ad Miskonem'', ''Mysko dux baptizatur''. The manuscript contains entries concerning events that took place between 948 and 1119, from the period between 1119 and 1122, information from 1136 and a few supplementary notes added in the
15th century
The 15th century was the century which spans the Julian dates from 1 January 1401 ( MCDI) to 31 December 1500 ( MD).
In Europe, the 15th century includes parts of the Late Middle Ages, the Early Renaissance, and the early modern period.
M ...
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References
Bibliography
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* {{cite web , first = Maria , last = Witt , url = https://www.fyifrance.com/f102005c.htm , title = The Zaluski Collection in Warsaw , work = The Strange Life of One of the Greatest European Libraries of the Eighteenth Century , publisher = FYI France , date = 2005 , access-date = 2024-06-11 , archive-date = 2021-03-01 , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210301040701/https://www.fyifrance.com/f102005c.htm , url-status = dead
Chronicles about Poland
12th-century manuscripts
Manuscripts of the National Library of Poland