Święty Krzyż or Tyniec?

Abstract

Neither linguistic nor palaeographic evidence permits precise dating of the Holy Cross Sermons. The same can be said about the region wherefrom they originated. Nevertheless, the scarcity of data does not dissuade researchers from forwarding new conjectures. M. Derwich calls for a more sober approach and remaining with the few firmly established facts. He points out that in 1445 the codex, in the binding of which the parchment cuttings with the Sermons were found, was located in Leżajsk. A daughter convent of the Benedictine Abbey of the Święty Krzyż is attested in Leżajsk at the same time. Derwich argues further that this book couldn’t have been bound before 1430, and that the act of binding this book had to take place at the Święty Krzyż Abbey. Hence, prior to that moment, the Sermons functioned in the Abbey, which was an important intellectual centre already during the last quarter of the 14 century. Derwich is in favour of the mid-fourteenth century dating of the Sermons, possibly at the Święty Krzyż Abbey, but he does not rule out the hypothesis that they came into being in the Tyniec Abbey, which was older, located near the capital city of Cracow, and until 1380 organisationally superior to Święty Krzyż.