Stellarium corone benedicte Marie Virginis by Pelbart of Temesvar as a Source for Baltazar Opec’s Life of Lord Jesus Christ

Abstract Baltazar Opec’s Life of Lord Jesus Christ (Żywot Pana Jezu Krysta) is one of the New Testament apocrypha written in Old Polish. Among the works identified as its sources are Meditationes vitae Christi, Speculum passionis, and Vita rhythmica. It has recently been established, however, that the basis for the translation of the final chapters of Opec’s work was a part of the compilation of sermons Stellarium corone benedicte Marie Virginis by Pelbart of Temesvar. In this article I verify and develop the initial theses of Roman Mazurkiewicz concerning the translator’s work with the source text. I indicate ways in which the Old Polish author worked with the Latin sermons, and discuss rhetorical elements present in ŻPJK that may be traced back to Pelbart’s text.