Translation / modern text
We hereby announce by this our letter to all and each person concerned, that when we arrived at our city of Lwów against the Turk with a general expedition of the entire knightly estate, and when our burghers presented to us the devastation of municipal property and other assets belonging to the endowment of the council office, depopulated both by Tatar raids with fire and sword and by military destruction, and also when we considered the resulting depletion of income for both the needs of the city and the council magistrate; furthermore, when with a just mind we weighed the debts that the city and the burghers incurred for the purchase of these goods from private individuals, as well as the frequent contributions and levies usually paid by our burghers for the benefit and utility of the city in compensation for the devastated property, as well as the daily and nightly labors usually undertaken and endured by the magistrate regarding the good governance of the city – we deemed it our duty, upon the request addressed to us by certain of our advisors, both on behalf of the city itself and the councilors, to remedy the misery of the city and our burghers with our special benevolence through this diploma.
Therefore WE, having the greatest regard for our city of Lwów as lying on the borderland, exhausted and deprived of its property, give and permit the said mayor, councilors, reeve, jurors, and the entire community of our city of Lwów, that from all merchants and people of any status and condition (except the knightly estate), or rather from their goods of all kinds and types, carried by the piece, commonly called 'sztuki', at any time imported and exported usually to our city of Lwów, for the transport of a bale, cask, barrel, chest, cauldron, piece of coal, sheet metal, 'wantiuch' or however they are called and are to be called, they may collect and enforce six Polish groschen, and from Lwów beer from each vessel commonly called a 'bawoł' one shilling, and from mead one groschen, for a period of twenty years from the date of this letter, consecutively and immediately following one another, so that during this period the property and former income may return to their former state.
From these above-mentioned and specified incomes, two parts for the aforementioned period of twenty years shall be allocated and used for the benefit and needs of the city, and the third part – for the comfort and remuneration of labors – shall fall to the magistrate of the council office only for ten years. After the expiration of this decade, the same third part for the next ten years should be used for the public utility of the city. In witness whereof, we have ordered this letter, signed by our hand, to be strengthened with the royal seal. Given in Lwów, on the 21st day of October, in the year of our Lord 1621, of our reign in Poland the thirty-fourth, and in Sweden the twenty-ninth year.
Sigismund the King, by his own hand
Piotr Koźmiński, Secretary of His Royal Majesty, by his own hand
[On the reverse:]
Sigismund III
On pieces or 'sztukowe'
on all goods, year 1621.
[Inscriptional note:] On the Wednesday after Judica Sunday of Lent next, in the year of our Lord 1624, to the Lwów starosta castle acts by the distinguished Jakub Scholc, syndic of the city of Lwów, registered [...]
[Other notes and signatures:] No: Ser: 9. / No 9. / 1621 / to Fascicle 148 / S.
Original wording — transcription
Significamus praesentibus literis nostris quorum interest universis et singulis Quod cum in Civitatem nostram Leopoliensem adversus Turcam cum Generali totius Equestris Ordinis expeditione venissemus et desolationem Civilium aliorumque ad residentiam Officij Consularis spectantium bonorum tum per incursiones Tartarorum igne ferroque tum etiam per militum devastationem depopulatorum per Cives nostros expositam habuissemus reditusque tam pro usibus Civitatis quam Magistratus Consularis diminutionem exinde considerassemus, tum aes alienum quod Civitas et Cives in emptionem eorundem bonorum apud privatos Cives factam contraxit atque frequentes Civium Contributiones et Exactiones in rem et usum Civitatis per Cives nostros in recompensam depopulatorum bonorum conferri solitas laboresque diurnos et nocturnos circa bonum regimen Civitatis per Magistratum suscipi et tolerari consuetos aequo animo perpendissemus faciendum nobis esse duximus ut ad supplicationem per certos Consiliarios nostros tam ipsius Civitatis quam Consulum nominibus apud nos factam calamitati Civitatis et Civium nostrorum singulari liberalitate n[ost]ra per diploma praesens subveniremus. Proinde NOS maximam Civitatis nostrae Leopolien[sis] uti finitimae et exhaustae atque bonis suis destitutae rationem habentes eisdem PROCONSULI CONSULIBUS ADVOCATO SCABINIS totique communitati Civitatis nostrae Leopolien[sis] damus et concedimus ut ab omnibus mercatoribus et cuiuscunque status et conditionis hominibus (exceptis Equestris Ordinis) seu potius ab eorum mercibus omnis generis et speciei per frustra vulgo Sztukami dictis quocunque tempore in Civitatem nostram Leopoliensem advehi et evehi solitis vecti od Belli, Fassy, Beczki, Skrzynie, Kotły, Węgla Sztuky, Blassy, Wantiuchu aut quocunque nomine et vocabulo nuncupatis et nuncupandis per grossos sex polonicales vero a cervisia Leopolien[si] a quolibet vase vulgo bavela dicto per unum solidum a mulso vero seu melleduce per unum grossum percipiant et exigant idq[ue] ad decursum viginti annorum a data praesentium consequenter et immediate se se sequentium ut eo temporis spatio bona et reditus antiqui ad pristinum statum perveniant. Quorum quidem proventuum modo suprapto recensitorum et specificatorum Duae quidem partes pro usu et necessitate Civitatis ad decursum suprapti temporis Viginti annorum, Tertia vero pro consolatione et contentatione laborum Magistratui Officij Consularis ad Decennium tantum cedent et conferentur. Post decursum autem eiusdem decennij eadem tertia pars ad aliud decennium pro publico Civitatis usu converti debebit. In cuius rei fidem praesentes manu nostra subscriptas Sigillo Regni communiri iussimus. Datum Leopoli die XXI Mensis Octobris Anno Domini MDCXXI Regnorum nostrorum Poloniae XXXIV Suetiae vero XXIXno Anno.
Sigismundus Rex [manu propria]
Petr[us] Koźmiński Secr[etarius] S[acrae] R[egiae] M[aiestatis] [manu propria]
[Verso:]
Sigismundi 3tij
Super frusta als Sztukowe
omnium mercium A[nn]o 1621.
[Nota inskrypcyjna:] Feria Quarta post Dominicam Judica Quadragesimae proxima Anno Domini 1624 Ad Acta Castren[sia] Capit[anealia] Leopolien[sia] per Excell[entem] Jacobum Scholc Syndicum Civit[atis] Leopol[iensis] oblata [...]
[Inne noty i sygnatury:] Nro: Ser: 9. / Nro 9. / 1621 / ad Fas 148 / S.
Reading notes
Parchment document in very good condition. Preserved two-colored silk cord (red and white) threaded through the plica; the royal seal has not survived (only small wax crumbs visible on the knot). The Latin text contains Polish terms regarding goods and packaging (sztukami, od beli, fasy, beczki, skrzynie, kotły, węgla sztuki, blachy, wantiuchu, etc.). On the verso, a note about registration in the Lwów castle court in 1624 by syndic Jakub Scholc.
