„Liber Consiliorum” of Dominican Convent in Poznan

The purpose of this study has been to introduce the hitherto absent documentary proof – Liber Consiliorum of the Dominican Convent in Poznań – into the scientific workflow and to preliminarily analyse the internal structure and content of this historic writing. The author has touched upon this subject, believing that Dominican „Soviet Books” are of greatest significance for understanding internal mechanisms of operations of the Friars Preachers Monastery in the contemporary world, and indirectly the operations of the Polish Dominican Province as a whole in that time interval. The Book of Poznan came to existence in January 1724 and was maintained until 1822. It is plausible to state that it is the documentary proof for the operations of Saint Dominic’s Convent in the period – more or less – of the last hundred years of its existence. The content of the Book has its primary significance for the research on the head-count of the Convent in 18th Century and at the beginning of 19th Century. It is also difficult to overestimate the importance of its content from the point of view of the studies on the modern administration of the Convent in Poznan. The comprehensive study on the content of other books of councils of Saint Dominic’s Convents in the post-Tridentine Era, as preserved in archive collections, would certainly facilitate to understand the mechanisms of the Convents’ operations and would expand the knowledge on their human resources to a great extent.