On the Statutes and the Beginnings of the Teutonic Order

The origins of the Teutonic Order are poorly illuminated by sources. These sources are late and unreliable. The history of the order was reconstructed by tracing the evolution of its statutes and comparing the results of these studies with papal, imperial and royal documents. The title of the book: On the statutes and the beginnings of the Teutonic Order indicates the subject and method of research and the method of presenting its results. The book consists of three parts and appendices. The first part discusses the state of research on statutes as a type of sources and the statutes of knightly orders. The second part was devoted to the statutes of the Teutonic Order. Their history was discussed there, with particular emphasis on the so-called historical prologues and so-called Narratio de primordiis ordinis Theutonici. Due to the memorative nature of these sources, papal, imperial and royal documents became the basis for the interpretation of source messages. There is no doubt about the origins of the Knights of St. John of the Teutonic Order. The dependence of the Teutonic Order on the Hospitallers was still the subject of a dispute in 1258. The third part compiles the manuscripts of the statutes of the Teutonic Order (Latin, French, Dutch and Low German). This is the next step towards the future edition of the statutes.

Jaroslaw Wenta, Nikolaus Kopernik University Toruń, Toruń, Poland.