Marta Czyżak, assistant professor, curator at the Special Collections Department at the University Library in Toruń, graduate of the History Department at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, obtained her doctoral degree on the basis of the dissertation The cathedral chapter in Gniezno in the light of the chapter book from the years 1408–1448 (published in 2003). She has explored the same topic further in The vicars choral of Gniezno cathedral in the thirteenth to the mid-15th century against the background of other vicar colleges of medieval Poland and the German Reich (in preparation).
Since 2008, she has been associated with the Manuscript Section at the University Library in Toruń. Her research interests focus on the history of the Church and clergy in medieval Poland, and codicology. In collaboration with Monika Jakubek-Raczkowska and Arkadiusz Wagner she published The Catalogue of medieval manuscripts of the University Library in Toruń (2016). She is the author of articles and notes on the Gniezno cathedral clergy (e.g. ‘Archbishop Wojciech Jastrzębiec’s pastoral activity. Ordinance of 1426 for the clergy of the Gniezno cathedral’, in Wojciech Jastrzębiec. In the service of the monarchy and the Church, ed. B. Czwojdrak, F. Kiryk, J. Sperka, Katowice 2018, 171-188), and the resources from the Toruń collection (e.g. ‘Compendium Historiae in genealogia Christi by Piotr of Poitiers (Pictaviensis) in the manuscripts of the University Library in Toruń’, in Textus et pictura. Medieval handwritten code as a carrier of content, meanings and artistic values, ed. M. Jakubek-Raczkowska, M. Czyżak, Toruń 2019, 67-97). She has participated in conservation and digitization project of Pelplin L13 gradual.
She is currently taking part in another project – Medieval manuscript fragments of Teutonic Prussia in collections of the Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, the C. Norwid Library in Elbląg and the University Library in Toruń as the evidence in reconstructing the history of collections, coordinated by dr. Paulina Pludra-Żuk, and run in cooperation with the Laboratory for Medieval Manuscript Fragments, University of Friborg, (fragmentarium@unifr.ch; ).