XVII a. antrosios pusės – XVIII a. pomirtiniai turto inventoriai – Vilniaus miestiečių moterų kasdienybės istorijos šaltinis

Abstract

Posthumous Property Inventories of the Second Half of the Seventeenth and the Eighteenth Century: A Historical Source on the Daily Life of the Women of Vilnius The article presents an analysis of the inventories of property that belonged to the women residing in Vilnius from 1658 to 1798: the reasons for their compilation, their patterns, the prevailing categories of property, and the issue of the reliability of these inventories. It also dwells upon on the participation of urban women in the economic life of the city: their engagement in small trade, possession of shops and craft workshops, and their involvement in the realisation of the manufactured commodities. Research found that inventories were most often compiled upon the death of the property owner (69%). However, there are inventories that were drawn up before death in order to avoid future disagreements among the heirs or to resolve an ongoing conflict. Two inventories were compiled due to illness or malaise, and one due to an unexpected departure from the city of Vilnius. In the second half of the seventeenth and in the eighteenth centuries, the so-called ‘German’ model of compiling inventories prevailed in Vilnius, when the inheritance left by the deceased was drawn by separate categories of items. Items of similar uses were grouped together with a focus on their qualities. As a rule, an inventory would start with records of the most valuable possessions of the deceased: money, jewellery, and silver and gold articles. These were followed by less valuable possessions: crockery, clothes, bedding, books, paintings, and the like. Descriptions of items are concise: they specified the raw materials, shapes, colours, the weight, indications of the level of wear and tear, and their monetary value. The accuracy of the inventory depended on numerous factors: the prevailing inventory-taking model and traditions, the circumstances of the compilation, the criteria for the selection of the items, the honesty of the relatives and the guardians of the estate, and the honesty of the inventory compilers – the clerks and elected assessors. The inventories of the women residing in the city of Vilnius are dominated by clothing (90%), linen, crockery, and furniture (73%), jewellery (60.4%), silver and gold articles (56.3%), money (46%), household appliances (44%), paintings, portraits, and mirrors (42%), collections of books (39.5%), documents (27.1%), immovable property (21%), clocks (21%), foodstuffs (21%), livestock (19%), and vehicles (14.6%). It was noted that the inventories of urban women often included descriptions of containers for sugar, tea, and coffee (33.3%), yarn and spinning wheels (21%), rosaries, prayer books, and crosses (21%). Shoes (23%), children’s clothing and cots (19%) were less frequently recorded. Soap, combs, butter churns, bread ovens, fans, etc. are very rare. The items listed in the inventories provide at least a partial picture of the daily round of the women of Vilnius and their way of life in the second half of the seventeenth and the eighteenth century. The study shows that women residing in Vilnius used to take care not only of their homes, households, and children. They were quite active in the economic life of the city. Sixteen (33.3%) of the inventories mention grocery, cloth, iron, haberdashery, and salt shops in their possession, while five contain information about the craft workshops they owned (bookbinding, goldsmithery, and tanning). Six inventories mention equipment for beer and vodka production, such as breweries, vats, and other vessels for brewing beer and distilling vodka, and describe the different types of beverages: beer, mead, vodka, and wine. Three women residing in Vilnius kept taverns where they sold the beverages they produced. Keywords: daily life, posthumous property inventories, townswomen of Vilnius, women, shops, craft workshops.