Raj duszny (Hortulus Animae polonice) — The Soul's Garden
Raj duszny / Hortulus Animae polonice
A verified public-domain excerpt for this text is still being set. The folio is catalogued and linked below; an original Sub Rosa rendering will follow.
What it is
Raj duszny ('Eden of the Soul') is a Polish adaptation of the Hortulus Animae prayer-book tradition, printed in Kraków in 1513 by Florian Ungler — among the very earliest prints entirely in the Polish language. Biernat of Lublin, a humanist physician and vernacular writer, adapted a Latin devotional compilation rooted in Nicholas Saliceto's Antidotarius animae, supplementing it with prayers already circulating in Polish. The book comprises the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, litanies, penitential psalms, and popular devotional prayers, and went through at least six editions by 1547, demonstrating strong lay demand. The last known complete copy was destroyed in World War II; eight pages survive in the Poznań Wielkopolska Digital Library, making it one of the most consequential lost monuments of Polish devotional literature.
Why it still matters
The contents — Little Office, penitential psalms, litanies — form the backbone of structured lay prayer and remain fully applicable today; the Raj duszny is best used as a historical reference point for understanding vernacular Polish devotion, with modern equivalents substituting for the lost full text.
Kept alongside
Prayer Book of King Sigismund I the Old (Modlitewnik Zygmunta I Starego)
Modlitewnik Zygmunta I Starego
This small-format parchment codex (222 folios) was produced in 1524 for Sigismund I the Old (r. 1506–1548), king of Poland and grand duke of Lithuania, and is the most sumptuous surviving Polish royal personal prayer book. It was illuminated by the Cistercian monk-painter Stanisław Samostrzelnik of Mogiła Abbey, Kraków, whose signed miniatures blend Italian Renaissance composition with Polish decorative motifs in a manner unique in Central European book painting. The devotional content consists of a Psalter of St Jerome followed by the Clipeus spiritualis — a structured compilation of suffrages, short prayers, and intercessory petitions — providing a complete personal liturgy of the Hours for private royal use. After Sigismund's death his widow Bona Sforza took the book to Bari around 1555–1556; it eventually passed to the British Library (Add. MS 15281), and a facsimile edition appeared in 2016 in the series Libri Precationum Illuminati Poloniae Veteris.
Prayer Book of Queen Bona Sforza (Hours of Queen Bona)
Modlitewnik Królowej Bony / Officium Beatae Mariae Virginis
This richly illuminated Book of Hours (271 parchment folios, 143 × 114 mm) was commissioned by Sigismund I the Old as a personal gift for his Italian-born consort Bona Sforza, queen of Poland. The manuscript includes a liturgical calendar, Gospel fragments, the Passion according to St John, the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, votive masses, the seven Penitential Psalms, litanies, the Office for the Dead, and intercessory prayers. Fifteen full-page miniatures were executed by Stanisław Samostrzelnik and signed S.C.f. (Stanislaus Claratumbensis fecit), while the border decoration incorporates the arms of Poland and the Visconti-Sforza dynasty throughout. Bona carried the volume to Italy after Sigismund's death in 1548; it was acquired by Francis Douce and bequeathed to the Bodleian Library in 1834 (MS Douce 40), where it remains one of the finest examples of Polish Renaissance illumination.
Prayer Book of Władysław Warneńczyk (Modlitewnik Władysława Warneńczyka)
Modlitewnik króla Władysława (Warneńczyka)
This illuminated Latin prayer codex held at the Bodleian Library (MS Rawl. liturg. d. 6, S.C. 15857) is associated by some Polish scholars with Władysław III Warneńczyk (r. 1434–1444), king of Poland and Hungary who died heroically at the Battle of Varna, though the Bodleian catalog and manuscripta.pl both raise the alternative attribution to Władysław II Jagiellończyk (king of Bohemia and Hungary, r. 1471–1516). The manuscript incorporates the name Władysław in its prayers alongside royal Polish heraldry, and its miniatures depict a crowned figure kneeling before holy figures in a posture of royal intercession. The contents follow standard 15th-century court devotion: suffrages to saints, Marian petitions, and prayers for protection in battle. The principal scholarly study remains the 1928 edition by Bernacki, Ganszyniec, and Podlacha (Lwów).