Some Remarks on a Medieval Guide to Indulgences Granted to the Holy Spirit Hospital in Kraków

The article studies an early 16th-century manuscript No. 7044 I, kept in the Jagiellonian Library, containing a list of indulgences granted to the Order of the Holy Spirit. Originally conferred on the Order’s Holy Spirit Hospital in Rome, they were extended by pope Sixtus IV on Nov. 7, 1483, to apply to the Kraków hospital operated by the same order. Mention is also made of indulgences bestowed on confraternities run by Holy Spirit monks. The arrangement of the manuscript’s contents is reminiscent of similar pilgrim’s guides to indulgences available elsewhere, such as in Rome or Wrocław. It seems to be Kraków’s oldest guide to indulgences, predating by decades a 1603 compendium of loca sacra in the city. 

The article studies an early 16th-century manuscript No. 7044 I, kept in the Jagiellonian Library, containing a list of indulgences granted to the Order of the Holy Spirit. Originally conferred on the Order’s Holy Spirit Hospital in Rome, they were extended by pope Sixtus IV on Nov. 7, 1483, to apply to the Kraków hospital operated by the same order. Mention is also made of indulgences bestowed on confraternities run by Holy Spirit monks. The arrangement of the manuscript’s contents is reminiscent of similar pilgrim’s guides to indulgences available elsewhere, such as in Rome or Wrocław. It seems to be Kraków’s oldest guide to indulgences, predating by decades a 1603 compendium of loca sacra in the city.