Testamenty wójtów krakowskich z ksiąg miejskich Krakowa drugiej połowy XV i początku XVI wieku

• Authors: Tomasz Radomski

Title variants

EN

LAST WILLS OF CRACOW VOGTS FROM THE CRACOW URBAN RECORDS OF THE SECOND HALF OF THE 15TH AND THE BEGINNING OF THE 16TH CENTURY

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The hereditary vogtship was abolished in Cracow at the beginning of the 14th century after the vogt Albert mutiny. Since that time a judicial vogt was appointed by a monarch or a vogtship lease-holder. In that period the office was often held by members of urban elites – patricians, councillors, aldermen – as it was a lucrative investment. In 1475 control over the vogtship was gained by the Cracow council. After that date the office was restricted for members of communitas and councillors were forbidden to hold it. Between 1446 and 1507 ten different persons acted as judicial vogts in Cracow. Wills of only two of them were found in Cracow urban records. The will of Hartlib Parchiwcz (died 1466) dated August 19, 1466, and the will of Grzegorz Myślemicky (died 1507) dated 1507. Analysis of the documents showed specific similarities of those testaments. Noticeably, there were no devotional clauses and pious bequests. The wills were of strictly financial character. Moreover, they were rather lists of debts and unfinished transactions than divisions of property. It might be argued that vogts as law practitioners acknowledged that there was no necessity to give specific dispositions as urban law regulated inheritance rules. The wills were also a basis for prosopography studies on Cracow vogts. Lists of debtors and creditors mentioned in the documents allowed to explore the business and social circle of those officials. The investigation showed that the vogts were members of governing and social elite; however, they did not belong to financial elite. Although the source material is very limited, a hypothesis that appointment to Cracow vogtship (before as well as after the control over the institution was gained by Cracow council) helped in social advancement might be made; future studies are necessary to answer this question.

Keywords

EN

TESTAMENTS; VOGTS; CRACOW

• Publisher: Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 60
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 312-318

Contributors

author

Tomasz Radomski

• Instytut Historyczny Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28, 00-927 Warszawa