Łowienie rzeczywistości. O „Flores sermonum” Mikołaja z Wilkowiecka

Abstract

PAWEŁ STĘPIEŃ University of Warsaw ORCID: 0000-0001-7451-6219 CATCHING THE REALITY ON “FLORES SERMONUM” BY MIKOŁAJ OF WILKOWIECKO The article takes up the issue of reflecting the historical realia in the collection Flores sermonum (1579) by Mikołaj of Wilkowiecko. Source analysis proves that the descriptions, viewed by to date researchers as commentaries to social reality, were taken from the texts composed oftentimes a few centuries earlier. The individual sermons evolved in effect of intermingling excerpts from many sermons in a concise and apparently uniform manner. The metaphors of the sermon’s flowers, of the preacher as a bee, and sermons as fisherman’s fishing net confirm that Mikołaj of Wilkowiecko’s obvious purpose is conversion of sinners and calling them from worldliness to paradise. It is for that reason that historical references are for the writer of minor importance, though he considers them while selecting the sources. Recognition of how Mikołaj of Wilkowiecko in his sermons reflects the realia of his times calls for considering the complex process of their composing and further detailed source research. 51 O problemach związanych z badaniem kazań jako świadectw „rzeczywistości historycznej” zob. m.in. F. M o r m a n d o, Bernardino of Siena, Popular Preacher and Witch-Hunter: A 1426 Witch Trial in Rome. „Fifteenth Century Studies” 24 (1998). – C. M u e s s i g, Sermon, Preacher and Society in the Middle Ages. „Journal of Medieval History” 28 (2002). – H. H o r v á t h, B. K e r t é s z, The Traces of Historical Interest in the Sermon Literature of the Late Middle Ages in Hungary. „Medieval Sermon Studies” 51 (2007), s. 91–94. – Ch. L. N i g h m a n, Citations of „Noster” John Pecham in Richard Fleming’s Sermon for Trinity Sunday: Evidence for the Political Use of Liturgical Music at the Council of Constance. „Medieval Sermon Studies” 52 (2008).