Liber constitutionum of the Cracow Dominicans from 1273–1318. The Latin edition

Abstract

The article discusses the history and presents the Latin edition of the manuscript of Liber constitutionum Ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum in the collections of the Archive of the Polish Dominican Province in Cracow (call no. ADK XIII.21). Familiarity with this monument is essential for at least three reasons. First, it is the only known manuscript belonging to the thirteenth-century resources of the Dominican library in Cracow. Secondly, it is part of a group of six thirteenth-century Dominican Constitution Books in the world; finally, in the thirteenth century and the first quarter of the fourteenth century the manuscript was frequently corrected and supplemented by a number of Dominican scribes. The author demonstrated that the titular manuscript served the brethren from the Cracow community for at least 44 years – after it was recorded in the wake of the general chapter in Buda in 1273 to the introduction of the last regular records following the general chapter in Lyon in 1318. This particular edition of Liber constitutionum is considered a simple edition, meaning that it has been prepared on the basis of an only known manuscript and its main purpose is to familiarise the reader with the preserved document. In this edition, I have used medieval style of writing characterised by the following: instead of double vowels ae or oe, a single e is used; the division into the lower-case vowel u and the consonant v is reduced to a single vowel u, whereas the distinction between the above two is respected in capital letters. For the sake of clarity of the critical apparatus, we include only those cases which are important from the point of view of text criticism and a few interventions on the part of the publisher, such as corrections, complementary remarks, etc.