A Medieval Catalogue of the Bishops of Poznań Concealed within the Annals of Lubin

Abstract

A preserved fragment of the Annals from the Benedictine abbey in Lubin (southern Greater Poland), and written probably at the turn of the twelfth century, contains five added notes in handwriting from the middle of the thirteenth century. All the notes pertain to the bishops of Poznań arranged into a complete sequence from 1146–1172. Comparisons of information found in the Annals with other sources show that the notes about the bishops and the dates included therein are basically credible (with one exception when the author of the added information mistook the succession of the bishops). In all likelihood, they originate from a non-extant catalogue of the bishops apparently kept at Poznań cathedral, similarly as in the case of a majority of other Polish dioceses. This was a so-called simple catalogue, recording only the names of the consecutive ordinaries as well as the dates of their ordinations and death. The Lubin Annals notes enable us to recreate a fragment from the midtwelfth century but the catalogue as such was probably written from the time of the restoration of the Poznań diocese (ca. 1075) and existed in the thirteenth century (when data were copied from it in Lubin); its loss can be associated with a destruction of Poznań cathedral, confirmed in 1313–1314.