Archeography departament

A review for book: Urszula Świderska-Włodarczyk, Homo nobilis. Wzorzec szlachcica w Rzeczypospolitej XVI i XVII wieku, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN SA, 2017. In this text various aspects (idea, structure and content) of the aforementioned study on early modern ideas of what and who a Polish noble should be are being discussed: pointing out its successes as well as shortcomings.

This is the publication of a grant issued in 1519 by Palatine of Vilnius and Chancellor of the State Mikalojus Radvila (Mikołaj Radziwiłł) in favour of landowner Jan Sławski. It is a parchment document written by a famous humanist poet Mikołaj Hussowczyk in a manner akin to the humanist minuscule. The parchment has a red wax seal of Mikalojus Radvila attached to it. The published document is accompanied by a text aimed at disclosing and relating the history of the issuance and existence of this document.

A translation of a Latin fragment from a 16th century Franciscan chronicle Memoriale Ordinis Fratrum Minorum by fr. Ioannes de Komorowo (published in Monumenta Poloniae Historica, t. V, Lwów). The segment is concerned with the fate of late Grand Duchess of Lithuania Helena (1476-1513), daughter of Ivan III of Russia and consort of Alexander Jagiellonian, Grand Duke of Lithuania and subsequently King of Poland. The chronicler narrates Helena's struggles trying to flee to Moscow after the death of her Catholic husband, Alexander, her alleged poisoning arranged by Lithuanian lords, intrigued by her treasures deposited in the Franciscan convent of Vilnius. This translation of the chronicle is accompanied by a brief introduction and commentaries.

A text in Lithuanian, dealing with both the legacy and history of the last Jagiellonian - Sigismund August (1520-1572), King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania and creator of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Probably the main emphasis here is laid on all the hopes and enormous expectations related with the long-awaited birth of Sigismund August, and how eventually they were only to become an obstacle in both his rule and historical legacy. This text is an overview of sorts, commemorating 500 years since the birth of the last of Jagiellonians.

The category of the body is the main object of this study. The paper hopes to further examine the “corporal” theme in the research of the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania while simultaneously aiming to outline the contours of the concept. Being a legal codex, The First Statute of Lithuania (1529) was chosen as a foundational text for this study since it pertains to various aspects of both public and private life. Albeit not exhausting all possible interpretations, three bodies were examined more closely: that of a nobleman, of the grand duke, and of the state (the Grand Duchy) – each more abstract than the former. First of these can be associated with terms of status and honour, the second functions as if by extensions of ducal officers and medias, while the third is characterized by the matters of indivisibility, inalienation and membership. Moreover, three different properties (or faculties) were attributed to the body: epistemological (via senses and body marking), agential (as a mean to exercise one’s will and freedoms), and individualizing (as in the problem of belonging).

The aim of this text is two-fold. Firstly, a general view of terminological difficulties arising when attempting to name nobility as a whole is presented with the main issue to be faced is the fact that terms such as ‘bajorija’ (a Lithuanian term) or ‘szlachta’ (a Polish one) simultaneously denote a specific and smaller subclass of nobility. Therefore, the Lithuanian neologism ‘kilnuomenė’ has been presented and introduced. It is justified as etymologically bearing two significant notions which were core to the nobility – that of lineage plus nobleness (by nobility, we mean here a ‘noble’ quality of personality character, a virtue). Secondly, departing from this proposed concept of nobility, a historical enquiry and analysis have been carried out whose main purpose was that of demonstrating how both lineage and nobleness (via virtue) functioned in defining membership in the group and acting as an important element of self-representation.

[The paper is in Lithuanian, for English summary see p. 97–98. Original title: Pasikliauti Stanislovu Górskiu ar… Stanislovu Górskiu? Alberto Goštauto ir Jono Chojeńskio diskusijos dėl teismų tvarkos Lietuvos Didžiojoje Kunigaikštystėje (1535–1536) teksto evoliucijos ir datavimų ryšys] // With this text, two main tasks are being approached. On the one hand, a critical publication of the discussion between Olbracht Gasztołd and Jan Chojeński regarding the judicial system in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is presented. It is based on a collection of documents compiled by the canon of Kraków Stanisław Górski, known as the “Górski Archive” (Pol. Teki Górskiego), which contained the earliest manuscripts of this discussion and its later copies. On the other hand, the author delves into an analysis of a rather specific source research problem associated with these texts, namely, how do the various corrections made to the manuscript content and the metatext by Stanisław Górski himself relate to the emergence of the two main dating traditions of these sources (1529 or 1536). Apart from this and a few other questions, this publication contains a new critical edition of both sources as well as several appendices concerning watermarks and some aspects of the original structure of the Górski Archives. // NB errata: 1) p. 73: "Publikacija: AT, t. 11, nr. 165, nr. 214, p. 163–165" (read as "AT, t. 11, nr. 214, p. 163–165"); 2) p. 78: "Publikacija: AT, t. 11, nr. 166, nr. 214, p. 163–167" (read as "AT, t. 11, nr. 215, p. 165–167").

The article analyses customs acts of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania written in the Lithuanian metrics. The author gives major attention to the ruler and the documents. The first part of the article discusses documents related to customs found in the Lithuanian metrics dating back to the fifteenth century. These are customs papers of rent, various lists, registers, or papers in which custom’s rent was accounted to the Treasury. These and other documents show that there existed a centralised book accounting in the Grand Duke’s Chancellery, aimed at registering and controlling the Duke’s income from the rent to customs. The second part of the article characterises the Lithuanian metrics as a source which analyses the activities of customs of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Lithuanian metrics comprises the activities of the central governing, the duke’s chancellery, and the Treasury. It helps reveal the increasing centralised powers of the Chancellery and the significance of the written documents in the Lithuanian customs administration in the beginning of the sixteenth century. The analysed acts show that they first of all served as means to coordinate customs administration in a centralised manner, with the greatest attention being given to the creation of an institution for customs rent and its accountability for the Treasury’s income.

The article analyses a falsified memo in Kaunas customs office register, which is found in book six of the Lithuanian Metrica. The falsification of the memo of Kaunas customs office register is directly related to the long-lasting conflict between Kaunas municipality and the merchants of Danzig (a city of the Hanseatic League) representative office in Kaunas. The main reason for the disagreements was the restriction on the sale of salt by the guest merchants, when double customs duties were imposed on their salt in 1497-1506 in Kaunas customs office, which belonged to the sovereign. The existence and application of the illegal customs duty was proved on the basis of official documents, such as the books chancellery books of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Lithuanian Metrica. The fact of falsification was revealed at the court of Polish Kind and Grand Duke of Lithuania Aleksandras in 1506, when one of the makers of the register, former official of Kaunas customs office Danilovičius confirmed that the double tax is illegal and that he had never entered it into any document. From this it follows that Sliacher, a new official of Kaunas customs office, had falsified the register of Kaunas customs office and introduced an illegal double taxation of salt. The memo of Kaunas customs office register was falsified in two stages. First, the illegal customs duty was inserted into existing documents, and then records were made into the books of the Lithuanian Metrica. According to the method of falsification, the memo of Kaunas customs office register should be categorised under the group of the so-called chancellery falsifications (German – Kanzleifalschungen, French – faux de chancellerie and actes subreptices ou furtifs, Polish – dokumenty wyłudzony).

What was the Grant Book (dovanojimų knyga) of Casimir Jogailaitis needed for in the chancellery of Alexander Jogailaitis? This question has more the character of a programme while the primary aim and object of this work is much more modest: to investigate the historical circumstances of one unique instance of the use of the mid-fifteenth-century Grant Book of Casimir Jogailaitis in the chancellery of Alexander Jogailaitis. The result of the research is as follows: the writers of Alexander Jogailaitis performed a search and audit of the ruler's grant letters in the books of Casimir Jogailaitis in connection with one concrete case of an inheritance left by a woman without any heirs, which was decided by the ruler and Council of Lords in 1496. The uniqueness of the historical circumstances of the analysed case does not allow wider generalisations to be made but the formation of the practice of searching the letters in the chancellery's books was established in the chancellery of Alexander Jogailaitis.

This article analyses problems in the historical forestry terminology of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the sixteenth – eighteenth centuries. It focuses primarily on the following terms for kinds of wood products exported from the GDL, terms which are usually erroneously defined in historiography: ванъчес, клепка, василки, and фашольц. Using mostly handyman literature describing the forestry of Poland and the GDL region in the nineteenth century, it attempts to more precisely define the kinds of processed timber signified by these terms, their forms and sizes, and the technology for their preparation and at the same time proposing variants of the appropriate Lithuanian terms. The result of this work is the following defined terms for kinds of timber prepared for export: 1) vančosas ‘a rectangular three-sided split oak timber with one unsquared side that had not been debarked’ Ruth. ванчос, ваншос, ванчус, ванчукъ, вончасъ, вагеншосс, Ger. Wagenschoss, Eng. Wainscot logs, Dutch: Wagenschott; 2) klepkos ‘rectangular split oak blanks for barrel staves’ Ruth. клепки, Pol. klepki, Ger. Klappholz; 3) fasholcas ‘rectangular split oak blanks for manufacturing a certain kind of barrel (Lat. vas)’ Ruth. фасгольц, фашольц, Ger. Fassholz, Dutch: Vaat Hout, Pol. faszolc; 4) olandiškos klepkos ‘rectangular split oak blanks exported to the Netherlands to manufacture barrels’ Pol. klepka holenderska, Ger. Holansch Holz, Dutch: Hollands Hout, Rus. голландский дуб; 5) dvigubos prancūziškos klepkos ‘bigger rectangular split oak blanks exported to France to manufacture barrels’ Pol. klepka francuska, Ger. dopelt, grosse fransch Holz, Dutch: Frans Hout dubbeld, Rus. двойной француский дуб and viengubos, „mažos”, prancūziškos klepkos ‘smaller rectangular split oak blanks exported to France to manufacture barrels’ Pol. mala francuska klepka, Ger: einfache, schwache fransch Holz, Dutch: Frans Hout enkelde, Rus. одинокий француский дуб; and 4) vasilkas ‘small split timbers of oak or another wood for manufacturing barrel staves or boards’ Pol. wasilki. This is only a preliminary list of terms since it is necessary to consider the great difficulties arising in defining multilingual and approximate historical terms from historical sources for this long period during the sixteenth – eighteenth centuries.
The end of the article discusses the erroneous association of the klepočiai Ruth: клепачи of one peasant service of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with the production of klepkos.