The memory of the living and the dead was part of the functioning of monastic and secular communities, dynasties and aristocratic families. The relationship of debitores and fundatores is key to understanding the mentality of the era of the formation of Imperium Christianum. The donations made pro remedio animae nostre et genitoris nostris indicate the memorial function of transferring the prayer duties of the power elites (or whole groups and communities) to the clergy and illustrate the belief of medieval people in the importance of intercessory prayer. This volume is a memoir of the Piasts and Boleslaw the Brave on the 1000th anniversary of his coronation. It symbolically closes the study of the millennium of the baptism of Poland (966-1966) and opens the study of the early Middle Ages in Poland and Central Europe.

Dr Piotr Pranke is an historian at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland. His research interests include history of trade in the Viking era and the history of the Carolingian and Ottonian Empire and their influence on the shaping of the areas of "younger Europe".

The contributors show the interdisciplinary aspects of commemoration and the power of memory in the Middle Ages. It is a journey into a world rooted in faith, magic, economy and belief in the social function of memory, medieval elites, saints and kings.