Privilege of King Sigismund I the Old exempting Lviv guilds from Kraków jurisdiction

SIGISMUND, by the grace of God King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, Ruthenia, Prussia, etc., lord and heir, we announce by the tenor of this letter to all together and to each one individually, present and future, who shall receive knowledge of it: Since our Lviv burghers have declared to us through their envoys that all together and individual craftsmen operating in the same city of Lviv, according to the usage and custom long observed and accepted there, are divided and ordered into brotherhoods and guilds in such a way that individuals dealing with one and the same material and performing their crafts have their own guild and brotherhood separate from other guilds of different materials – thus blacksmiths, swordsmiths, sabre-makers, coppersmiths [founders], passementerie makers and needle-makers, whose crafts are performed in iron, have one brotherhood and guild; similarly, coopers, wheelwrights, carpenters, cartwrights, who require wooden raw material for the performance of their crafts, also have brotherhoods and guilds divided in this way; besides these, bit-makers and saddlers, who likewise enjoy a separate brotherhood and guild; so also in the same way other craftsmen, according to the diversity of materials around which they are accustomed to perform their work, have various and separate guilds there. And since these same Lviv burghers have also submitted to us in a complaint that the guild masters of the crafts of the city of Kraków, and in particular the carpenters, attributing to themselves authority and jurisdiction over these craftsmen and their journeymen or servants and behaving as their superiors, punish them and impose fines on them according to their own pleasure, and do not allow their journeymen and apprentices trained by them to perform their art in their city of Kraków as supposedly unskilled in its performance, but also forbid their own journeymen under threat of specific penalties from working for them, and in many other ways, with insults and burdens, oppress those Lviv masters and craftsmen, as well as their journeymen or companions and apprentices, with great harm, torment and detriment to them, and contrary to the good opinion of other people about them, their craft and proficiency in the art. They have therefore humbly asked us that we might wish to remedy this matter in a proper way by our royal authority, as well as to approve, ratify and strengthen that custom of theirs, usually observed in guilds and brotherhoods. We, therefore, having considered how disadvantageously the crafts would develop in the same city of Lviv, as well as in other cities and towns, if their masters, journeymen and apprentices, trained in these cities in their art, were disregarded elsewhere and discouraged from using and performing their art as less capable, unskilled or insufficiently trained; also observing ourselves and being assured by our officials and other subjects that those masters of the crafts of our city of Lviv perform their crafts well and diligently – recognizing all those brotherhoods and their guilds and the aforementioned custom as lawful and pleasing, we have deemed it necessary to approve, ratify and strengthen them, and we do hereby approve, ratify and strengthen them. Furthermore, we exempt and make free both the masters of the crafts of our aforementioned city of Lviv, as well as their journeymen and apprentices, trained and untrained, from all authority and jurisdiction of the elders and masters of our aforementioned city of Kraków, not reserving or allowing any right and power to those Kraków craftsmen over them and their journeymen and apprentices. However, the right and custom of the craft is reserved for both sides, according to which every journeyman or apprentice of any craft is obliged to clear himself and make amends for his offense and transgression in the city in which he sinned, and not elsewhere. We further give and grant to those craftsmen and masters of the crafts of our city of Lviv, present and future, full and complete power to accept into their crafts any other capable and accepted persons – to train them in these their crafts, to teach and promote them to mastership and to confer upon them titles, which should not be changed in Kraków or elsewhere; in such a way, namely, that all together and individual journeymen of these Lviv craftsmen, trained and educated by them, be considered as truly and legally trained, and similarly promoted by them to mastership – as true and legal masters in Kraków and everywhere, and be admitted to the use and performance of their art anywhere in the Kingdom and our domains under penalty of thirty marks, of which one half is to be paid irrevocably to our royal treasury, and the other half for the repair of the walls of our aforementioned city of Lviv. And so that the aforementioned brotherhoods and guilds of our city of Lviv may be preserved and maintained in better order and management, we decide and resolve: if any of those masters, journeymen and apprentices of any craft or guild should transgress and commit any, even a serious offense, he should be subject to correction and punishment by the superiors of that same craft of his without anyone's opposition or hindrance. However, it shall be permitted for the party that considers itself aggrieved to appeal from those same superiors to the council of the city of Lviv; and the Lviv council itself, with the knowledge of that guild, shall have full and complete power to judge him and administer due justice to him. In testimony of this letter, to which our seal has been appended. Given in Kraków, on Wednesday on the eve of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, in the year of our Lord one thousand five hundred and twenty-fifth, and in the nineteenth year of our reign. [Bottom left:] Peter, bishop and vice-chancellor, signed. [Bottom right:] By the report of the Reverend Father in Christ, Lord Piotr Tomicki, Bishop of Kraków and Vice-Chancellor of the Kingdom of Poland. [Below, chancery monogram:] For referral / Registered [Verso:] [Note 1:] Sigismund I / Reg. 262. [Note 2:] On the ordering of merchants [?] and their custom 606 [Note 3:] On teaching apprentices, creating journeymen and promoting masters after examination. 1525. [Note 4:] R. [Note 5:] Chest 17. [Note 6:] No. 9. [Note 7:] 340

SIGISMVNDVS Dei gratia Rex Polonie Magnus dux Lithuanie Russie Prussieq[ue] etc. dominus et heres, Significamus tenore presencium universis et singulis presentibus et futuris harum noticiam habituris, Quia cum declarassent nobis per nuncios suos Cives nostri Leopolienses, omnes et singulos opifices in Civitate ipsa Leopoliensi agentes, ex usu et consuetudine illic antiquitus observata et recepta in fraternitates et Contubernia ita esse divisos et ordinatos, ut singuli circa unam et eandem materiam versantes, et artificia sua exercentes habeant suum Contubernium et fraternitatem, ab aliis contubernijs diversarum materiarum separatam, ut fabri ferarii, acifices, gladiatores, Cansefusores, cingulatores et acuum opifices quorum artificia circa ferrum exercentur, habent unam fraternitatem et contubernium, Similiter Doleatores, curzifices, mensatores, rotifices, qui ad exercenda artificia sua lignam presupponunt materiam, habent etia[m] fraternitatem et Contubernia ita esse divisos, Preter hos vero frenifices et sellatores, qui similiter fraternitate et Contubernio speciali gaudent, sic pariformiter et alios opifices, qui pro diversitate materiarum circa quas operas suas exercere solent, habere illic diversa et distincta Contubernia, Cumque exposuissent etiam coram nobis in querela jdem ipsi Cives n[ost]ri Leopolienses, q[uod] Magistri Contuberniorum seu artificiorum Civitatis Cracovien[sis] presertim vero mensarum artifices, superioritatem ac jurisdictionem in eosdem opifices ac eorum socios seu famulos sibi vendicantes, et pro directoribus eorum se gerentes, illos pro libito suo punirent et mulctarent, ac ipsos eorum Socios et discipulos apud illos edoctos artem ipsorum apud se in Civitate Cracoviensi exercere, tanqua[m] eius exercende imperitis, non permitterent, sed et Socijs suis, ne apud illos laborarent, sub certis penis inhiberent, et pluribus alijs modis, contumelijs, et gravaminibus, ipsos magistros et opifices Leopolien[ses], eorumq[ue] famulos seu socios et discipulos, temere afficerent, in magnum eorum prejudicium ac gravamen et detrimentum, et contra aliorum hominum de illis eorumq[ue] artificio et artis pericia bonam existimationem, Supplicarunt etenim nobis humiliter, ut illis in ea re opportuno modo authoritate n[ost]ra regia prospicere, simul ac eandem consuetudinem ipsorum in con-tubernijs et fraternitatibus servari solitam, approbare, ratificare, et confirmare dignaremur, Nos itaq[ue] considerantes sinistra artificiorum in Civitate ipsa Leopoliensi, ac etiam in alijs Civitatibus et Oppidis, institui, si eorum Magistri, Socij et discipuli, in eisdem civitatibus in sua ipsorum arte edocti, alibi contemnerentur, ac ab usu et exercitio sue artis, tanqua[m] minus idonei et imperiti, aut insufficienter edocti, prohiberentur, Necnon etiam animadvertentes nos ipsi, et per Officiales ac alios subditos n[ost]ros certiores facti, ipsos Magistros artificiorum Civitatis nostre Leopolien[sis], bene et diligenter artificia sua exercere, Ipsas fraternitates et contubernia illorum omnia, consuetudinemq[ue] predictam, ratam et gratam habentes, illam approband[am], ratifican[dam], et confirmand[am] du-ximus, approbamusq[ue] ratificamus et confirmamus per presentes. Eximimus preterea et liberos facimus tam ipsos Magistros artificiorum dicte Civitatis nostre Leopolien[sis], qua[m] eorum Socios et discipulos edoctos et non edoctos, ab omni superioritate et jurisdictione Seniorum et Magistrorum Civitatis n[ost]re Cracovien[sis] predictorum, nichil juris et dominij ipsis Opificibus Cracovien[sibus] in illos et eorum Socios ac discipulos reservan[tes] et permittan[tes], Salvo tame[n] omnibus utrisq[ue] illorum Jure et consuetudine artificij, secundum quam tenetur unusquisq[ue] sociorum seu discipulorum artificij cuiuscunq[ue], de excessu et delicto suo in Civitate illa in qua deliquerit se expurgare et emendare, et non alibi, Damus insuper et concedimus ipsis Opificibus et Magistris artificiorum Civitatis nostre Leopolien[sis] presentibus et futuris, alios quoscunq[ue] idoneos ad eorum artificia assumendi et assumptos, in bysdem suis artificijs instituendi, edocendi, et ad Magisterium promovendi, cognominaq[ue] illis imponendi, que Cracovie et alibi mutari non debebunt, plenariam et omnimodam facultatem, ita videlicet ut omnes et singuli Socij ipsorum opificum Leopolien[sium], apud illos edocti et instituti, pro vere et legitime edoctis, et similiter promoti per illos in Magisterium, pro veris et legitimis Magistris Cracovie et ubiq[ue] locorum habeantur, ac ad usum et exercitium artis sue ubilibet in Regno et dominijs nostris admittantur sub pena triginta marcarum, pro una medietate fisco n[ost]ro regio, pro alia vero medietate, pro reparandis menijs dicte Civitatis nostre Leopolien[sis] irremissibiliter persolvenda, Ut autem dicte fraternitates et Contubernia Civitatis nostre Leopolien[sis] in meliori ordine et regimine conserventur, et retineantur, Statuimus et decernimus, ut si quispiam Magistrorum ipsorum, Sociorum et discipulorum, cuiuscunq[ue] artificij seu Contubernij deliquerit, et in quemcunq[ue] casum etiam enormem collapsus fuerit, debbit talis sine cuiusvis contradictione et impedimento correctioni et castigacioni superiorum eiusdem artificij sui subiectus esse, Liberum tame[n] erit illi parti que se gravata[m] esse et se puta-verit, ab eisde[m] Superioribus ad Consulatum Civitatis Leopolien[sis] se excipere et provocare, Consulatus vero ipse Leopolien[sis] cum scencia Contubernij illius, habebit plenariam et omnimodam potestatem illu[m] iudicandi, iusticiamq[ue] debitam illi ministrandi, Harum quibus Sigillum nostrum est appensum testimonio literarum, Dat[um] Cracovie feria quarta in vigilia Exaltacionis sancte Crucis, Anno domini millesimo quingentesimo vigesimo qvinto, Regni vero nostri anno Decimo nono. [Po lewej u dołu:] Petrus Ep[iscop]us et vicecancell[arius] s[ubscripsi]t [Po prawej u dołu:] R[elatio] R[everendissimi] in Christo patris domini Petri Thomyczky Episcopi Cracovien[sis] et Regni Polonie Vicecancellarii [Poniżej monogram kancelaryjny:] R[eferen]da / R[egis]tra[ta] [Verso:] [Nota 1:] Sigismundi I-mi / Reg. 262. [Nota 2:] Super Ordinandis Mercatorib[us] [?] ac eorum consuetudine 606 [Nota 3:] Super edocendis discipulis creandis Socijs ac promovendo Magistratus examinis. 1525. [Nota 4:] R. [Nota 5:] Arca 17ma [Nota 6:] Nro 9. [Nota 7:] 340