examination of the heart 116 pictorial language, often employing allegory. Most often, he cites passages from the Holy Scriptures along with — although less frequently — quotes from the Fathers and Doctors of the Church (Augustine, Ambrose, Athanasius, Basil, Bernard, Bonaventure, Gregory the Great, Catherine of Siena, and Teresa of Jesus), as well as from writers and teachers of Christian perfection and the religious life (such as Venerable Bede, J. Drexelius, Philip Neri, and Thomas à Kempis). Sometimes he illustrates his meditations with liturgical texts from the Missal and the Breviary, or with real life examples. The manuscript’s front page displays a note stating that the meditations have been “assembled hurriedly,” which was certainly done by the author in cooperation with his former listeners. Another note therein says the text was corrected at the Piarists’ house by the author himself, who also “introduced other corrections,” which could mean that the document is nearly authentic. However, the word “nearly” must be emphasized, because despite the good will of the copyists, omissions of individual words and other failings occurred due to inattention or other human errors. For this reason, the editor of the critical edition endeavored to capture these omissions and introduce appropriate corrections and additions to the text. The present edition of Inspectio Cordis contains page numbering of the manuscript pages (also called folia),5 which were bolded and inserted in brackets. The “f.” that goes along with, and precedes, the numbers of the manuscript pages, stands for folium, whereas, the “r” and the “v” that occur after the page numbers, refer to the recto (“front”) or verso (“back”) side of these folia that he wrote on.6 As to the footnotes, they provide information that may be useful to the reader. Wacław Makoś, MIC 5 Folium (pl. form: folia); the Latin word for a “leaf,” a general term used in printing for a sheet, leaf, or page in manuscripts and old books. 6 This sentence, regarding the abbreviations for folium, recto, and verso, was not in the Polish Introduction to Inspectio Cordis but was added here to give further clarification.
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