Jan Łodzia (EN)

Jan Łodzia, Johannes Loza, Lodza, Lodzya, sometimes incorrectly referred to after Jan Długosz as Jan of Kępa (Johannes de Kampa) *ca. 1280, †14 April (?) 1346 Poznań (?), Polish author of sequences, bishop. He was the son of the knight Sędziwoj from Łódź, Greater Poland. He was probably educated at the cathedral school in Poznań, and although he did not receive a university education, he was distinguished by extraordinary erudition. In 1296, he was ordained a minor priest. Presumably, he soon became a canon of the collegiate church of St. James in Głuszyn near Poznań, while gaining a canonical prebend in Marlewo. In 1319, he was a cantor, and in 1320, he became chancellor of the chapter in Poznań. At the turn of 1320/21, he became an archdeacon, but he received a higher priestly ordination later. In 1335, he was elected bishop of the Poznań diocese. From his early youth, he moved among the political and church elites of Greater Poland. He repeatedly took an active part as a witness in trials with the Teutonic Knights. According to the Kalendarz włocławski, he was famous for his love of music and played the zither himself. Three sequences have been preserved from his works: In laudem sancti sacro praesuli (in honour of Saint Adalbert, with the acrostic “Iohannes presul Poznanie,” the original text of In laudem sacro praesuli was distorted in the only surviving 16^th-century source), Salve, salutis ianua (for the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary) and Paule, doctor egregie (for the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, authorship of Jan Łódź is uncertain) and the Marian antiphon Lux clarescit in via (text preserved in the Poznań and Gniezno breviaries). Two sequences mentioned in the Kalendarz włocławski and Jan Długosz’s chronicle: Benedicta (for the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary) and Tu es Petrus (about St. Peter) have not yet been found. Currently, the musical arrangements of the first two pieces are known. In laudem sancti sacro praesuli is based on a melody from the Franciscan sequence Gaude, Sion, quod egressus. In Salve, salutis ianua, the melody from Adam de Saint-Victor’s sequence Salve, mater Salvatoris was adapted to the first verses, while the rest is rather an original composition (possibly authored by Jan Łódź). The popularity of this sequence is evidenced by 10 preserved manuscripts, including 6 with musical notation, and the presence of its text in printed Poznań and Krakow missals from 1505–1532.

Literatura: M. Zwiercan Jan Łodzia, w: Polski słownik biograficzny, vol. 10, Wrocław 1962–1964; Bibliografia literatury polskiej „Nowy Korbut”, vol. 2, published by K. Budzyk, Warsaw 1964 (contains a list of earlier literature); H. Kowalewicz Polska twórczość sekwencyjna wieków średnich, in: Średniowiecze. Studia o kulturze, vol. 2, Wrocław 1965; H. Kowalewicz Zasób, zasięg terytorialny i chronologia polsko-łacińskiej liryki średniowiecznej, Poznań 1967 (includes the text Lux clarescit in via); J. Pikulik Sekwencje polskie, «Musica Medii Aevi» IV, ed. J. Morawski, Kraków 1973; J. Pikulik Indeks sekwencji w polskich rękopisach muzycznych. Sekwencje zespołu rękopisów tarnowskich, Warsaw 1974; J. Wiesiołowski Kariera Jana z Łodzi, kanonika z Marlewa, “Kronika Miasta Poznania” LXXVII no. 1, 2009.