The First Polish Coronations of 1025: A Reconsideration

We often assume that historical knowledge grows ever clearer with time—that each new discovery sheds more light on the past. But what if the opposite were true? What if, paradoxically, we “knew” more about the first Polish coronations in the past than we do today?

This paper reopens the long-studied yet increasingly uncertain case of the first Polish royal anointings of 1025. Recent scholarship on the liturgical traditions of medieval Europe in general, and the extant worship books from Poland in particular, allows us to question the long-established consensus. Yet what follows is not merely a deconstruction of the traditional view, but also a tentative reconstruction—an exploration of alternative liturgical possibilities and their broader significance for understanding the early Piasts and the formation of their dynasty.

Drawing on digital tools and previously overlooked manuscripts, I propose to reframe how we think about early Piast royal ritual and its implications. Rather than a coronation ceremony scripted according to a precisely known model, we may be looking at a creative bricolage of rites – an improvisation shaped by available networks of knowledge, political ideology, and personal belief.