The scriptural monastery and medieval Cistercian legislation on the book

The oldest book which was on the territory of the early Piast in the second half of the tenth century derived, comes from the Benedictine scriptoria from the area of Bavaria, Saxony, Rhineland and Lorraine and contained the biblical texts and established liturgical canon necessary for the celebration of the Mass. Preserved from the twelfth century regulations of Cistercian chapters which decided that in each monastery there should be: missal, epistolary, Gospel Book, gradual, antiphonary, liber hymnarius, psaltery, lectionary and calendar. These regulations made the copywriter’s work particularly important. The importance attributed to their work is attested to, for example, by their release by the General Chapter of the Order from other duties in favor of the monastery, and by the permission in some cases to work at night. In Cistercian scriptoria apart from copying of the liturgical texts, the memorials so-called libri virorum et mortuorum, there were preparing documents for the current administrative and economic work of the monastery; in addition there were writing yearbooks, obituaries, monastery chronicles or epitaphs poem. There were recording notes of daily life outside the walls of the enclosure, names and functions of friars particularly events that took place away from the monastery or notes about elementary disasters happening in the proximate areas, the damages of monastery caused by floods, fires or epidemics. The preserved manuscript codes are an priceless source for learning the minds, interpersonal relationships prevailing in the small communities, their relations with their nearest surrounding and medieval way of seeing the world