After 80 years, a 12th-century manuscript known as the “Collectarium Lądzkie” has returned to Poland. It is one of the most valuable monuments of liturgical writing lost during World War II. The recovery of the codex is the culmination of many years of research and efforts to return the medieval work to the country, carried out with the participation of Polish and American institutions.
The Ląd Manuscript
The “Collectarium lądzkie” was created in the 12th century as a manuscript (codex) containing a calendar and liturgical texts. For centuries, it was used in the Cistercian abbey in Ląd nad Wartą. Later, the codex found its way to the Archdiocesan Archives in Poznań, where it was recorded in the inventories as late as 1937. Two years later, after the German army occupied the city, the manuscript disappeared from the church’s collection and was lost without a trace. The artefact remained out of reach of researchers for decades, and in 1966, Polish medievalists entered it on the list of war losses.
The “Collectarium lądzkie” in the Yale collection
A breakthrough in the case of the codex came after it was found in foreign university collections. The manuscript had previously appeared on the London antiquarian market and was then purchased by Yale University in the USA and catalogued in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library as MS 883. The process of establishing the history of the manuscript’s origin and ownership was led by Dr Paweł Figurski in collaboration with experts from Poland and the United States. It was he who made it possible to unequivocally link the object to the former collections in Poznań and to identify the circumstances of its removal during the occupation.
Return of war losses to Poland
After gathering all the documentation, a formal request for the return of the artefact was submitted in May 2024. Analysis of the evidence confirmed that the manuscript had been unlawfully taken from occupied Poland and transported abroad. Yale University therefore decided to return the object to its rightful owners. State institutions from both countries and an American FBI team dealing with crimes against cultural property were also involved in the entire process. The manuscript was ceremoniously returned in New Haven to the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Marta Cienkowska.
The “Collectarium lądzkie” was not the only one
Until recently, the “Collectarium lądzkie” shared the fate of other looted works of art and monuments that were taken from Poland between 1939 and 1945. At that time, the Germans carried out a systematic confiscation of paintings, sculptures, archives, book collections and temple furnishings, treating them as valuable spoils of war. It is estimated that Poland lost hundreds of thousands of objects of high historical and artistic value. To date, some of these artefacts have been recovered, and further cases are pending in many countries around the world.
Source: Marta Cienkowska/x.com
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