Calendarium Parisiense (

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

: ''The Parisian Calendar'') is an illuminated manuscript from the 14th century, containing a calendar. The manuscript was produced in late 14th century, probably in one of the

scriptorium Scriptorium (), literally "a place for writing", is commonly used to refer to a room in medieval European monasteries devoted to the writing, copying and illuminating of manuscripts commonly handled by monastic scribes. However, lay scribes an ...

s in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

. It was brought to

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

from

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

by Józef Andrzej Załuski in the first half of the 18th century and placed in the

Załuski Library The Załuski Library ( pl, Biblioteka Załuskich, la, Bibliotheca Zalusciana) established in Warsaw in 1747 by Józef Andrzej Załuski and his brother, Andrzej Stanisław Załuski, both Roman Catholic bishops, was a public library nationalized a ...

, first Polish National Library. After the Kościuszko Insurrection the Russians took the manuscript to St Petersburg, together with the Załuski Library. It was recovered after the

Treaty of Riga The Peace of Riga, also known as the Treaty of Riga ( pl, Traktat Ryski), was signed in Riga on 18 March 1921, among Poland, Soviet Russia (acting also on behalf of Soviet Belarus) and Soviet Ukraine. The treaty ended the Polish–Soviet War ...

(1921) and transferred to the

National Library of Poland The National Library ( pl, Biblioteka Narodowa) is the central Polish library, subject directly to the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland. The library collects books, journals, electronic and audiovisual publica ...

. Evacuated to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

in 1939, it returned to Poland in 1959. From May 2024, the manuscript is presented at a

permanent exhibition in the Palace of the Commonwealth Permanent exhibition in the Palace of the Commonwealth is an exhibition of the most valuable objects from the collection of the National Library of Poland in the baroque interiors of the Krasiński Palace, Palace of the Commonwealth in Warsaw. B ...

. The manuscript is an example of French medieval illuminated manuscript. It contains a

liturgical calendar The liturgical year, also called the church year, Christian year or kalendar, consists of the cycle of liturgical seasons in Christian churches that determines when feast days, including celebrations of saints, are to be observed, and wh ...

with the days dedicated to specific saints clearly indicated. The manuscript consists of twelve pages, one for each month. At the bottom of each page are representations of labours appropriate to each of the months and

Zodiac signs In Western astrology, astrological signs are the twelve 30-degree sectors that make up Earth's 360-degree orbit around the Sun. The signs enumerate from the first day of spring, known as the First Point of Aries, which is the vernal equinox. ...

. This is followed by information in four columns: the days of the astronomical calendar according to the

lunar cycle Concerning the lunar month of ~29.53 days as viewed from Earth, the lunar phase or Moon phase is the shape of the Moon's directly sunlit portion, which can be expressed quantitatively using areas or angles, or described qualitatively using the t ...

, the days of the week according to the

Church calendar The liturgical year, also called the church year, Christian year or kalendar, consists of the cycle of liturgical seasons in Christian churches that determines when feast days, including celebrations of saints, are to be observed, and whi ...

, the

calends The calends or kalends ( la, kalendae) is the first day of every month in the Roman calendar. The English word " calendar" is derived from this word. Use The Romans called the first day of every month the ''calends'', signifying the start of a ...

, nones and ides of the

Julian calendar The Julian calendar, proposed by Roman consul Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect on , by edict. It was designed with the aid of Greek mathematics, Greek mathematicians and Ancient Greek astronomy, as ...

, church feasts and the names of saints. All the pages of the manuscript are bordered with fillets with branches of gold-leafed hawthorn shooting from them.

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

{{Commons *
Calendarium Parisiense
' at the Polona digital library 14th-century illuminated manuscripts Manuscripts of the National Library of Poland