The ''Book of Henryków'' (, ) is a

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

chronicle of the Cistercian abbey in Henryków in Lower Silesia,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. Originally created as a registry of belongings looted during the

first Mongol invasion of Poland The Mongol invasion of Poland from late 1240 to 1241 culminated in the Battle of Legnica, where the Mongols defeated an alliance which included forces from Testament of Bolesław III Wrymouth, fragmented Poland and their allies, led by Henry ...

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 what can be interpreted as an

Old Polish language The Old Polish language () was a period in the history of the Polish language between the 10th and the 16th centuries. It was followed by the Middle Polish language. The sources for the study of the Old Polish language are the data of the co ...

.Barbara i Adam Podgórscy: Słownik gwar śląskich. Katowice: Wydawnictwo KOS, 2008, page 12. . Currently the book is on exhibition in the Archdiocesan Museum in

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

. On October 9, 2015 the ''Book of Henryków'' was entered in the list of

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's "

Memory of the World UNESCO's Memory of the World (MoW) Programme is an international initiative to safeguard the documentary heritage of humanity against collective amnesia, neglect, decay over time and climatic conditions, as well as deliberate destruction. It ca ...

." 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 settler from the nearby village is reported to have said to his wife "Day, ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai." 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 German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

abbot. The man who reportedly uttered the sentence almost one hundred years earlier was Bogwal, a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

(''Bogwalus Boemus''), a local settler, and subject of Bolesław the Tall, as he felt compassion for his local wife, who "very often stood grinding by the

quern-stone A quern-stone is a stone tool for hand-grinding a wide variety of materials, especially for various types of grains. They are used in pairs. The lower stationary stone of early examples is called a ''saddle quern'', while the upper mobile st ...

." The local village, Brukalice, came to be named after him.

The Old Polish sentence

The medieval recorder of this phrase, the Cistercian monk Peter of the Henryków monastery, noted "Hoc est in polonico" ("This is in Polish") before quoting it.

"Unde dicti B gwaliBoemi uxor stab sepissime ad mola molendo. Cui vir suus idem B gwalus compassus dixit: Sine, ut ego etiam molam. Hoc est i polonico: ''Day, ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai''." - ''Book of Henryków'' (Liber fundationis claustri Sanctae Mariae Virginis in Henrichow), 1270Digital version ''Book of Henryków''
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References

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External links

Digitalised ''Book of Henryków''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Book Of Henrykow History of Silesia 13th-century history books Chronicles about Poland Polish language Earliest known manuscripts by language 13th century in Poland 13th-century books in Latin Polish non-fiction books

The Old Polish sentence

See also

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