Przyczynek do datowania nagrobka Władysława Jagiełły w katedrze Wawelskiej

The text of the colophon in a codex from the Prague Library of the Metropolitan Chapter (AN M. 103) seems to constitute a meaningful source for dating the tomb of King Vladislaus Jagiełło at the Wawel Cathedral. The copyist of the manuscript and the colophon author Matthias Bohemus of Tyn (near Prague) is not an anonymous individual. Starting from at least the autumn of 1492, he was staying in Cracow and entered his name in the Cracow University Register. In the latter part of June (22 yet before 29) 1430, he completed copying a work of John of Erfurt, having worked at the Lectorium Theologorum in the Collegium Maius building in St. Anna Street, in its architectural shape of the time. In the colophon text, Matthias Bohemus mentioned the tomb of King Vladislaus Jagiełło. It is the first and earliest source confirming the fact that the royal tomb did exist. The text unequivocally testifies to the fact that the copyist was working at the location where the King’s sarcophagus had been deposited, possibly in pieces. It cannot be ruled out that the colophon mention was of mnemotechnical character and commemorates the fact of placing the tomb at Collegium Maius or importing it to Cracow. The piece of information contained in the colophon seems to end the debate on the dating of the royal tomb after the King’s death and unequivocally points to its founder. As the tomb was created during the King’s lifetime, Vladislaus Jagiełło himself must have been its founder.