Acknowledgements
Several scholars and academic institutions have contributed to this work. The institution to which I owe the entire volume is the National Science Centre in Poland, which granted me a postdoctoral position at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow and an internship at Angelicum. I thank Prof. Michał Paluch OP for inviting me to Angelicum and the Director of the Philosophy Faculty at the Jagiellonian University, Prof. Jerzy Gołosz, for granting me a sabbatical from teaching to spend a year in Rome. I would also like to express my gratitude to the Angelicum library staff, especially Ms Joanna Kryjak and Mr Claudio Fratini, and to the library’s director, Dr Paweł Trzopek OP, for accommodating my requests to research critical editions during the holiday break. I owe thanks also to my colleagues from Angelicum: Dr Benedykt Pluta OSPPE, for his liturgical expertise, and Dr Kazimir Zieliński OSPPE, for his library assistance.
I want to express my gratitude to the first reader of this work, Prof. Bazyli Degórski OSPPE, who enabled me to reshape my understanding of the Patristic Period, and I would also like to thank Prof. Jan Kiełbasa from the Jagiellonian University—my research into the history of human dignity in the medieval period originated in his long-standing seminar on patristic and medieval anthropology. I am likewise grateful to Prof. Josef Seifert, whose conceptualization of human dignity established a foundation for my thinking years ago. I am also thankful to Prof. Francisco Bastitta from the University of Buenos Aires for his helpful comments, guidance and enthusiasm. I am thankful to Prof. Jacintha Veigas OP for her feedback on my commentary to the Hebrew text of Genesis and to Maria Szarek for her linguistic expertise. I thank Rev. Prof. John Behr for his bibliographic suggestions and for sending me some of his research. I managed to uncover some information about the life of Leo the Great thanks to Prof. Paul Lowlly OP from St. Clement’s in Rome. For a critical debate of my ideas, I relied on my colleagues from the Ontology Department at Jagiellonian University, especially Dr Paweł Rojek and Prof. Arkadiusz Chrudzimski. I received valuable linguistic feedback from Prof. Steffen Huber, Prof. Katarzyna Kijania-Placek and Prof. Elwira Buszewicz from the Jagiellonian University. Finally, I would like to thank all the Polish and Ukrainian participants in my class on the history of human dignity in Christian Antiquity and the Middle Ages: Jan Borowski, Magdalena Witkowska, Zuzanna Sima, Bartłomiej Dziurzyński, Edyta Janosz, Jakub Wingrowicz, Michał Gendek, and others.
The guidance and support I received from the editors of Brill’s series Contexts of Ancient and Medieval Anthropology, Anna Usacheva, Jörg Ulrich, and Siam Bhayro was outstanding. This volume owes much, specifically to Anna’s kindness.
The Jagiellonian University’s Excellence Initiative together with the Dean of the Philosophy Faculty, prof. Jacek Nowak, allowed the financing of open access to this publication. I am thus indebted to all working at the Jagiellonian for the sake of this initiative, specifically the Excellence Commission led by our Dean, Prof. Michał Wierzchoń with others, Prof. Krzysztof Posłajko, Prof. Szymon Wichary, Prof. Ewa Kopczyńska, Prof. Agata Świerzowska, and Mr Jarosław Bener. Finally, I would like to thank Ms Maria Obidzińska for her excellent administrative support.
Last but not least, I would like to dedicate this book to my brother, Adam—the conditio sine qua non of my interest in antiquity and Latin, a guide in comprehending the dignity of the excluded, and a prime figure behind my interest into history, including the history of Christmas.