Materiały źródłowe do dziejów Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego. Cz. 7. Z problematyki miejskiej w XVII w.

Abstract

Source Materials for the History of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Part 7. on Municipal Issues in the 17th Century The source materials contained in this volume encompass a number of 17th-century documents that describe the introduction of political and tax regulations in towns of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The edition of the first two letters written in 1615 and 1636 and regarding the establishment of local municipal government in Słonim (a county town in the Nowogródek [Navahrudak] province) provides valuable information about the legal and political characteristics of towns of this region. The third source is a copy of the regional privilege of the Połock land from 1511 that was issued by Sigismund I in 1623. The following thematically related documents are a decree of the administrator of the treasury of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Adam Maciej Sakowicz issued in 1659 and his letter concerning the exemption of townspeople and Jews from the Pińsk town from tax payments. The last document – an excerpt from the municipal records of Vitebsk dated 1674 – illustrates the process of acquisition of real property by townsman Semion Siwiec. Its analysis is an interesting example of the Polish-Belarusian language borderland specific to eastern territories of the Commonwealth.