Dobroczynne i religijne legaty lwowskich mieszczan w świetle ich testamentów z lat 1550-1700

• Authors: Andrzej Karpiński

Title variants

EN

CHARITABLE AND RELIGIOUS BEQUESTS OF LVOV BURGHERS IN THE LIGHT OF TESTAMENTS FROM THE YEARS 1550-1700

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The article is based on 630 testaments from Lvov from the second half of the 16th c. and the 17th c., which indicate that Lvov burghers often made donations to churches, monasteries, religious fraternities and hospitals. The analysis concerned 952 legacies of money, or movable and immovable properties, which were less frequently bequeathed. It was found that 63.7% of money bequests were left to churches and monasteries, while 15% to poorhouses. With time poorhouses were donated to less frequently, which was connected with the waning of the mediaeval attitude to the poor, as well as with the popularisation of the new forms of religious devotion after the Council of Trent. In contrast, since the first half of the 17th c. more and more bequests were left to religious fraternities and particular chapels and altars. In the years 1551-1700 Lvov burghers bequeathed money to almost 100 religious or charitable institutions, including 6 hospitals, 43 Catholic churches, Orthodox churches and monasteries, 20 fraternities and 30 particular chapels and altars. The largest number of legacies, 85, was left to the Bernardine friars (Observants); among the most popular beneficiaries were also the Dominicans (55 legacies) and the Franciscans (53 legacies). Throughout the period in question many legacies were also left to the Metropolitan Cathedral, the parish church of Our Lady of the Snows, and the St Stanisław and the Holy Spirit hospitals. An analysis of almost a thousand money bequests showed that over 1/3 of them were of small value, equivalent to less than 200 grams of silver. More valuable legacies, equivalent to more than 1 kg of silver, constituted only 19.8% of the total value of money bequests; their number increased in the 17th c. This might have been connected with the policy of the Church, which called for substantial, not only symbolic support for concrete institutions. Table 3, which summarises the legacies left to the most popular churches, monasteries and hospitals, shows that in the period considered those institutions received means equivalent to almost 700 kg of silver. The largest proportion of this value, over 203 and a half kg of silver, went to the Lvov Metropolitan Cathedral; over 50 kg of silver was bequeathed to the Holy Spirit Hospital, and to several monasteries, fraternities, altars and chapels. A comparison of Lvov burgher testaments with data on other major Polish cities (Cracow, Poznań, Lublin) reveals many analogies, which result from a general change of the model of religiousness in Polish society induced by the Council of Trent.

Keywords

EN

TESTAMENTS; WRITTEN SOURCES; CHARITY

• Publisher: Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej
• Year: 2011
• Volume: 59
• Issue: 3-4
• Pages: 363-378

Contributors

author

Andrzej Karpiński

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