A medieval manuscript that vanished in the upheaval of the Second World War has surfaced on the shelves of an American university, and is now heading home. A ceremony was held last month at Yale University where the 12th-century liturgical book was handed over to the Republic of Poland.
Known as the Collectarium Lądzkie (Beinecke MS 883), it was a Cistercian manuscript was long associated with the library of the Łąd Abbey. Over the centuries it also belonged to the Seminary Library in Poznań and was, at one point, on loan to the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. From 1926 until at least 1937, it was held by the Archdiocesan Archives in Poznań.
After German forces annexed Poznań in 1939, the Archdiocesan Archives were looted and their holdings dispersed—part of a wider pattern of confiscation and displacement of cultural materials in occupied territories. The manuscript was later listed as a war loss in 1966 before resurfacing on the London rare book market in the 1990s. It ultimately entered Yale’s holdings under the shelfmark Beinecke MS 883.
The manuscript is a Cistercian collectar—a working liturgical book that brings together a calendar, tables for calculating feast days, and collects for a range of occasions. Its contents include the Temporale, Sanctorale, Common of the Saints, and the feast of the dedication of a church, along with a litany for the Rogation Days. It also preserves prayers for the sick and dying and the burial ceremonial, as well as the rites for the tonsure of a novice and for profession.
Photo courtesy Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage
The true provenance of the manuscript was uncovered by a team led by Paweł Figurski of the Polish Academy of Sciences. After the Polish government submitted a formal restitution request in 2024, provenance research at Yale confirmed the manuscript’s wartime removal, leading to its handover last month.
Marta Cienkowska, Poland’s Minister of Culture and National Heritage, was present for the handover. “Today, we witness the return to Poland of another historically valuable artifact,” she said. “Therefore, I am immensely grateful to the authorities of Yale University, and above all to the Yale Library, led by Barbara Rockenbach, Director Michelle Light, and all the dedicated researchers from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, for their understanding and professionalism. Both the research conducted by the Ministry of Culture and Yale University researchers confirmed that the Collectarium was looted and illegally removed from occupied Poland.”
Historia, która wraca do domu.
Po 80 latach do Polski wraca bezcenny, XII-wieczny rękopis „Collectarium lądzkie”- jedna z tych strat wojennych, które miały już nigdy się nie odnaleźć. To finał trzyletniej drogi, rozpoczętej odkryciem dr. Pawła Figurskiego i konsekwentnie… pic.twitter.com/W5A0zErn4I
Michelle Light, director of the Beinecke Library and associate university librarian for Special Collections, added, “We are honored to return this manuscript to Poland. I hope this act will strengthen our shared commitment to ethical stewardship, and deepen scholarly and cultural collaboration.”
A medieval manuscript that vanished in the upheaval of the Second World War has surfaced on the shelves of an American university, and is now heading home. A ceremony was held last month at Yale University where the 12th-century liturgical book was handed over to the Republic of Poland.
Known as the Collectarium Lądzkie (Beinecke MS 883), it was a Cistercian manuscript was long associated with the library of the Łąd Abbey. Over the centuries it also belonged to the Seminary Library in Poznań and was, at one point, on loan to the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. From 1926 until at least 1937, it was held by the Archdiocesan Archives in Poznań.
After German forces annexed Poznań in 1939, the Archdiocesan Archives were looted and their holdings dispersed—part of a wider pattern of confiscation and displacement of cultural materials in occupied territories. The manuscript was later listed as a war loss in 1966 before resurfacing on the London rare book market in the 1990s. It ultimately entered Yale’s holdings under the shelfmark Beinecke MS 883.
The manuscript is a Cistercian collectar—a working liturgical book that brings together a calendar, tables for calculating feast days, and collects for a range of occasions. Its contents include the Temporale, Sanctorale, Common of the Saints, and the feast of the dedication of a church, along with a litany for the Rogation Days. It also preserves prayers for the sick and dying and the burial ceremonial, as well as the rites for the tonsure of a novice and for profession.
The true provenance of the manuscript was uncovered by a team led by Paweł Figurski of the Polish Academy of Sciences. After the Polish government submitted a formal restitution request in 2024, provenance research at Yale confirmed the manuscript’s wartime removal, leading to its handover last month.
Marta Cienkowska, Poland’s Minister of Culture and National Heritage, was present for the handover. “Today, we witness the return to Poland of another historically valuable artifact,” she said. “Therefore, I am immensely grateful to the authorities of Yale University, and above all to the Yale Library, led by Barbara Rockenbach, Director Michelle Light, and all the dedicated researchers from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, for their understanding and professionalism. Both the research conducted by the Ministry of Culture and Yale University researchers confirmed that the Collectarium was looted and illegally removed from occupied Poland.”
Michelle Light, director of the Beinecke Library and associate university librarian for Special Collections, added, “We are honored to return this manuscript to Poland. I hope this act will strengthen our shared commitment to ethical stewardship, and deepen scholarly and cultural collaboration.”
Scholars and the public can still access the online digitised version of the manuscript through the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library website.
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