A Nineteenth-Century Processional from the Archive of the Bonifratres in Cracow (Kraków). A Contribution to Research into Latin Monody

Abstract

The Archive of the Bonifratres’ Monastery in Cracow holds a handwritten processional from 1811. The present author has conducted source criticism and compared its contents to Andrzej Piotrkowczyk’s Processionale from 1621—which furnished a basis for the performance of processional chants in Poland for around 200 years—and selected nineteenth-century cancionals. The Cracow item, probably one of the last books of this type in this period, is proof of the high musical culture that was cultivated in the milieu for which it was destined, and a testimony of the cherished, living tradition of organizing processions. In this respect, it confirms the clear advantage of Polish books over Roman ones, with an increasing participation of the people chanting in Polish. The reprint of a greater part of the processional in subsequently published cancionals confirms, as a matter of evidence, the value and utility of this book.