The Prayer Book of Nawojka. Study over the source

Abstract

The aim of this article is to perform a basic research of source, i.e. decision of time, circumstances and place of origin, authorship and milieu in which arose the Prayer Book of Nawojka – one of the oldest monuments of the Polish language. The Prayer Book include prayers addressed to Mary, with motifs of Eucharistic and to different occasions. Sources those prayers may sight in other widespread in the end of fifteenth century libri precum: Hortulus animae and Antidotarius animae. This observation is not permit to associate the Prayer Book with any milieu. Presumptions on this subject presented in historiography are unjustified. On the basis of performed study and Franciszek Krček’s and Aleksander Brückner’s research about textual criticism and analysis made by linguists who dated language of the Prayer Book at the end of fifteenth century, author claimed that the Prayer Book of Nawojka is copy of a older manuscript formed at the end of fifteenth century. The manuscript of the Prayer Book was prepared in the 1^st half of the sixteenth century and presumably it was used by nobility. It was drawn by a professional scribe. Probably the Prayer Book of Nawojka or the primary manuscript arose in Lesser Poland. It is estimated as a sophisticated literary.