today much morę rigorous thcn they used to be. It is to be remembered that in those times, not so
very distant after alt from the epoch of Gothic art, our present understanding of plagiarism as something
dishonest and contrary to the artistic morał codę did not exist at aH.
The engravings and drawings of German artists were imitated and copied not only in Centra!
Europę, but what is morę surprising aiso in Italy by artists of various, not necessariiy inferior ranks.
The engravings of the artists betonging to generation coming after Durer fomented the artistic circies
of Cracow under the reign of Sigismund I; in the very typicai instance of Brother Stanislas this process
could be examined step by step and bscame a fruitfui subject of anatysis.
Let us now consider what were the resutts of the present anaiysis of the manuscripts madę by
Brother Stanisias? This question refers both to the theme, i.e. to the iconographic aspect of the problem,
and to the form. A part of the miniatures showed scenes derived from the gospels and the Book of
Psalms or referring to the saints of the litany with a preference to local patron saints and the «he!per
saints», the particular scenes being attached to the various parts of the prayer-book. The traditionally
establishcd set of miniatures was at that time supplemented with mystical scenes, such as Christ suf-
fering, covered with wounds, giving holy communion to the king, in the prayer-book of Sigismund I
(fig. 2), Christ given gali in Szydlowiecki's prayer-book (fig. 13), and Christ in the grave in Gasztołd's
prayer-book (fig. 38). Another new trait are the miniatures associated with problems widely discussed
at that time such as the representation of the Purgatory in Queen Bona's prayer-book, the «Beauti-
ful Mary of Regensburga in the one madę for the Great Chancellor Szydlowiecki, and the many
faithful portraits of historical personages.
There was no peace or stability in Poiand and in the rest of Central Europę during the first
quarter of the 16th century. Though at that time great works of art and science of a world-wide
significance arose in Poiand, the immortal treatise of Copernicus and the building of the splendid,
Renaissance Wawel Castle were not the only events marking to reign of Sigismund I. This was also
the period of Martin Luther, of the breach in the Western Church, of the direct threat to Europę by
the Turcs, and of many violent social upheavals of which the most important were the revolts of the
oppressed peasants, in particular the most violent peasant revolt of 1525 in Germany. The four ma-
nuscripts described here and some other related works of art, which appeared during that dramatic
period between 1524 and 1528 when unusual events resounding through Europę were of frequent
occurrence, reflected very accurately the feelings then prevailing in Poiand. The fear of the Turkish
invasion was expressed in the introduction addressed to the king and repeated in two of the other
three prayer-books in the text of the «Clypeus Spiritualis». In those disturbed years many feared
a breach in the Church in Poiand, all the morę so as Germans formed a substantial proportion of the
town population. The fear of the reformation was evidenced by the numerous royal decrees and sup-
pressive measures in particuiar after the violent riots and overt rebellion in Gdańsk, which Sigismund I
suppressed by force in 1523 punishing severely the leaders. The rebellion was not directed solely against
the Roman Church, but it also had a class character: Jakob Hegge the leader of the movement and
his supporters overthrew the town council composed of rich burghers and established in their place
the rule of the poor craftsmen living on what they earned by their own hands. The rebels of Gdańsk
were rcsponsible for acts of violence against the Church and following the example of Franconian and
Westphalian reformers committed iconoclasm. A very good account of the stituation in Poiand was
given in a treatise by Andrew Krzycki, a talented neo-latin poet and a representative of the «evan-
gelicah) current of reform, which was conciliatory in the spirit of Erasmus of Rotterdam and wanted
to be the «third force» acknowledging the need of reform but wanting to prevent at any cost a breach
in the Church. Krzycki's treatise was first published in Cracow in 1527 and in the same year it was
also printed in Romę with the title «De afflictione ecclesiae, commentarium in psalmum XXI)>.
Krzycki's comment to the psalm known as Messianic is throughout a lament. According to the
evidence of the gospels Christ dying on the cross cried out to God with the psalmist's words «My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?» In the same way the Church, the Body of Christ, sung
in sorrow this psalm of despair and pain at the time when, according to the words written in 1525

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