Skąd wziął się w Krakowie traktat Franciszka Eiximenisa Ars praedicandi populo? Trzy możliwe drogi

Abstract

This article aims to present three hypotheses about how the preaching treatise of the Catalan author, Francesc Eiximenis, entitled Ars praedicandi populo, ended up in Krakow in the library of Mikołaj Spycymir. For this purpose, three codices, which contain copies of the Eiximenis treatise, were compared to each other. The article also presented in more detail the biography of Nicolaus Spycymir, the owner of the oldest copy of the treatise. The first two hypotheses are related to the Franciscan Order and diplomatic travels and pilgrimages to Compostela. They seem not to be as well-grounded in the sources as the third hypothesis, which concerns the Polish delegations to the Council of Basel and Council delegations coming to Kraków. One of the delegates of the Council was Marc Bonfill, aCatalan theologian and well-known preacher, associated, like Eiximenis, with the University of Lerida and Girona. The article also pays special attention to Bonfill’s associate, Stanisław Sobniowski, who was aclose friend of Spycimir. It is possible that Spycymir obtained the treatise on the preaching arts through these connections (Bonfill or Sobniowski). This hypothesis, however, requires further research.