Latin records issued by Ioannes Dantiscus – introduction
The 36 Latin records signed by Ioannes Dantiscus and known to us were issued by him in his official capacity as bishop. He issued 20 of them as bishop of Kulm in 1533-1537, and 16 as bishop of Ermland in 1538-1547. They include mainly mandates, privileges, confirmation and cancellation thereof, appointments and dismissals from various posts, receipts, and also a legal instruction, a deed of gift, a court ruling, a resignation from a parish, confirmation of a will, power of attorney and confirmation of holy orders.
Only 8 records have survived as originals. The primary sources for the rest are rough drafts (16) and copies (9, including 6 office copies). These sources were registered during the search for Dantiscus’ correspondence, so it cannot be ruled out that an additional search could yield further records.
Because the text of the records is highly formal, the question arises as to the rationale for including them in the corpus of original texts. However, there is a lot to suggest that Dantiscus wrote the texts himself at least in the case of some of the records he issued. Whereas the originals are usually written in the secretary’s hand and sometimes only signed by Dantiscus in person, most of the discovered rough drafts of records are Dantiscus’ autographs. There are also some rough drafts in the secretary’s hand. However, these were probably dictated by the issuer, as suggested by Katarzyna Jasińska-Zdun’s recent research on how the office of Dantiscus the bishop worked. One of the secretary’s rough drafts also includes corrections in the bishop’s own hand.
Anna Skolimowska
Translated from Polish by Joanna Dutkiewicz