Church book Iura Vicariorum

Early 2007 saw the return to Poland of a church book of document copies, known as Jura Vicarorium, compiled by the college of curates of the Poznań Cathedral, which had been robbed during the war from the collection of the Archdiocese Archive in Poznań. The significance of its recovery was not only connected with the high documentary and historical value of the tome, but also with the fact that the archive had suffered enormous losses in the years 1939-1945 (250 parchment documents and at least 25 thousand 16-18th century paper documents destroyed by fire).

In 2004, Professor Zdeňka Hledìková, a Czech scholar and expert in medieval documents and codes, was asked by the Jewish Museum to assess a Latin book discovered in its collection. She quickly determined that it was a manuscript that had originated in Poznań. A comparative analysis, with the use of documents obtained from Poland, left no doubt that the book had been robbed by Germans from the collection of the Poznań archive.

The book dates back to the 15th century, while some of the documents copied in it originated as early as the 13th century. The last inscriptions were made four centuries later. The book, composed of 500 leafs, comprises a collection of documents issued by numerous institutions, mainly local church authorities (bishops) and lay authorities (starosts and municipal authorities), as well as documents issued by Greater Poland gentry. Thus, it is of great importance to the Poznan college of curates, the Poznań Church and the history of this part of Poland.

Archbishop Stanisław Grądecki authorized the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to conduct negotiations with the possessor of the book. After their successful conclusion, a representative of the MFA handed over the book to the Poznań Metropolitan on January 30 2007.