Alexander Brückner famously dismissed (see here and here) the Polish Pantheon of Długosz as made up of misinterpretations. Words such as Yassa or Lada were supposed to have come from peasant songs and were supposed to have meant expressions such as “let it be” and “my darling.” Brückner’s authority was so great that no one dared question him for over half a century.
Then in the 1970s Maria Kowalczyk noticed that the second Penthacostal postilla by Lucas of Great Koźmin (for the translation of the relevant passage see here) contained references to Gods mentioned by Jan Długosz, thereby confirming that chronicler’s statements. That postilla was dated 50 or so years before Długosz. The publication of the full text of the sermon did not take place till the 1980s (by Ryszard Tatarzyński) and Kowalczyk’s discovery was not really highlighted to a broader audience until the work of Leszek Kolankiewicz but the tide began to turn.
As a prominent Slavicist, Brückner was, of course, aware of the persona of Lucas of Great Koźmin (for example, he mentions him in Dzieje literatury polskiej w zarysie, vol 1) but people had assumed that he was simply unaware of the existence of the postilla or at least the passages therein that expressly mention Polish Gods along with some additional titillating cultural context.
But then there is this…
“Latin sermons, mostly from Polish authors, for example from Lucas de Magna Coszmin, Johannes de Slupcza, Wigandus von Przemysl, Nicolaus in Wilno (1501), Paulus de Zator and others, with Polish glosses, altogether about 50 manuscripts of this type; more important than the glosses themselves are the reports of customs and superstitions in Poland which are contained in these sermons which [reports] confirm and expand on Długosz’s striking reports about the [pre-Christian] Polish beliefs in Gods.”
“Lateinische Predigten, meist polnischer Verfasser, z. B. des Lucas de Magna Coszmin, Johannes de Slupcza, Wigandus von Przemysl, Nicolaus in Wilno (1501), Paulus de Zator u.a., mit polnischen Glossen, etwa 50 Handschriften der Art; bedeutsamer als die Glossen selbst sind die in den Predigten enthaltenen Angaben über Sitten und Aberglauben in Polen, welche u.a. die auffallenden Angaben des Dlugosz über polnischen Götterglauben bestätigen und erweitern.”
This comes from the Bericht des Prof. A. Brückner über seine von der Königlichen Akademie subventionierte Reise 1889/1890 (in Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Part 2). As part of this trip Brückner traveled to Saint Petersburg, Warsaw, Cracow, Lviv, Gdańsk and Königsberg (Kaliningrad). It was in those places that he inspected the various public libraries and private collections and the writings of:
- Lucas of Great Koźmin (Łukasz z Wielkiego Koźmina)
- John of Słupcza (Jan ze Słupczy)
- Nicolas of Przemyśl, son of Wygand (Mikołaj Wyganda syn z Przemyśla or Mikołaj Wigand z Przemyśla or Mikołaj Wigand z Krakowa (he actually came to Przemyśl from Cracow) or just Wigand)
- Nicolaus of Vilnius (Mikołaj z Wilna)
- Paul of Zator (Paweł z Zatora)
So maybe Lucas of Great Koźmin was not his only source for the above statement? But I am not aware of any mentions of Polish paganism in the writings of the others above. So several possibilities emerge.
For one thing, at best, Brückner later forgot what he previously wrote, and at worst he covered it up maybe because it conflicted with his new thesis (conspiracy!).
For another, either Lucas was the source of the above reference or, even more interestingly, he was not (or was not the only source).
In the latter case, it behooves current researchers to take a more detailed look at the sermons and other works of all of the above-mentioned preachers.
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