Å»ydzi w dobrach prywatnych w świetle sądowniczej i administracyjnej praktyki dóbr magnackich w wiekach XVI-XVIII by Adam Kaźmierczyk (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 339 fabric of travel writing and its importance for Muscovite history. However, the book isunlikelyto move the historyof Muscovy fromitspresentperipheral position to mainstream historical research, because it does not provide sufficientground for an intense intellectualdebate either about Muscovy and its historyor about the Renaissance discoveriesof the World. Despite this, Orbisis an intensely scholarly work which recommends its author as a person of greateruditionand considerableapplication. HerfordCollege, Oxford MARIA UNKOVSKAYA Kazmierczyk,Adam. Zydziwdobrachpywatnych ws'wietle sidowniczej i administracyjnejpraktykidobr magnackich w wiekachXVI-XVIII. Studia Judaica Cracoviensia. Series Dissertationum, I. Ksiegarnia Akademicka, Krakow, 2002. 276 PP.Map. Bibliography.Notes. Summaryin English. Priceunknown. STUDIES such asMoshe Rosman's TheLord's Jews(Cambridge,MA, I990) and Gershon Hundert's 7The J7ews in a PolishPrivateTown(Baltimore, MD, I992) have illuminatedthe vital economic relationshipbetween magnates andJews in the eighteenth-century Polish-LithuanianCommonwealth. Nobles gained jurisdiction over Jews living in their lands and towns from the king in 1539. By the mid-eighteenth century, between a half and three-quarters of the Commonwealth's Jews lived under private jurisdiction. On the one hand, 'private'Jews' legal status became more dependent on their lords, a process parallelto the gradualwitheringof autonomousJewish institutionswithin the Commonwealth. They were left largely defenceless against chicanery and arbitraryviolence from nobles and estate managers. On the other hand, the economic ties between Jews and nobles (especially the magnates) deepened within this 'protection racket', aggravating hostility towards the Jews from both burghersand peasants, and the complaint that Poland-Lithuaniawas a Paradisus Judaeorum. Adam Kazmierczyk's doctoral research on the Commonwealth's parliamentary institutions(Sejmy i sejmiki szlacheckie wobec Zyddw w drugiejpolowie XVII wieku,I994) demonstrated the extent of noble protection for 'their'Jews and of course the defence of their own jurisdiction over them. He has now bridged an important gap in the historiographybetween 'private'Jews' legal status and their economic role by focusing on the ways in which their legal statuswas reflectedin theirtreatmentby theirlords'courtsand administrators. He has trawledthrough an impressivenumber of court records,supplications and estate correspondence from acrossPoland, and delved into the Radziwill and Czartoryskiarchivesto illuminatethe GrandDuchy of Lithuania.He has also made extensive use of published primarysources. Most of these records datefromtheperiod afterthe devastatingCossackrevoltand Swedishinvasion in the mid-seventeenth century. Six representativedocuments, mostly from the early eighteenth century, are printed as annexes. Nevertheless, the perspective is the longue duree. The book is divided into six chapters, covering: the Jews' legal status and conditions of settlement;the organization of noble estates and their role in exercisingjudicial power overJews; estate courtsand 340 SEER, 83, 2, 2005 their competences over Jews; the gradual extension of dominial interference in the affairsof kahals, such as the appointment of rabbis;Jews' treatmentby state, ecclesiastical and municipal courts; and the lords' attitudes to 'their' Jews as reflected in the judicial punishments imposed upon them. The latter seem to reflect a business-like approach more fines, but rather fewer floggings than were inflicted upon the Christianpopulation. Many magnates seem to have despisedtheJews personallywhile favouringthem economically. The same Pawel Sanguszkosentenced to deathJews accused of ritualmurder, while simultaneouslyabrogatingthe privilegesof existinginhabitantsin order to settleJews upon his estates (p. 86). Jews increasinglypreferredto settle in private towns than royal towns, where they enjoyed less protection from the municipal and ecclesiastical courts. The author plausibly suggests that one reason for the denser settlement of Jews in the eastern half of the Commonwealth was the much sparserparishnetworkof the Roman Catholic Church. The book is notable for its clear exposition of the varieties of estate organization and courtjurisdiction and procedures, itsjudiciousjudgements, and its copious and well chosen examples. These vividlyillustratethe situation of 'the lord'sJews', balanced precariouslybetween theirlowly legal statusand theireconomic indispensability. School ofHistory RICHARD BUTTERWICK Queen's University Belfast Cracraft, James. 7he Revolution of PetertheGreat.Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MAandLondon,2003. ix + 192 pp. Illustrations. Chronology . Notes. Furtherreading.Index. $25.95: [i 6.95. HAVING recently completed his excellent trilogy of works dealing with the 'revolution'which took place in severalareasof Russian endeavour (imagery, architecture and, most recently, verbal culture)during the reign of Peter the Great(i682-1725), James Cracrafthas produceda concise'interpretative history of the Petrine era' (p. viii), presumably aimed at the undergraduate and non-specialist reader. His aim is to draw together the various...