Privilege of King John II Casimir for the Lviv Shooting Brotherhood regarding merchant fees

JOHN CASIMIR, BY THE GRACE OF GOD, KING OF POLAND, Grand Duke of Lithuania, Ruthenia, Prussia, Masovia, Samogitia, Livonia, Smolensk, and Chernihiv, and also hereditary King of the Swedes, Goths, and Vandals. We hereby announce to all and each person concerned. Since our beloved parent of holy memory, Sigismund III, granted the Shooting Brotherhood of Our City of Lviv, which is highly necessary for averting and repelling enemy attacks on the same City, the authority and consent to collect for the benefit of said brotherhood a fee commonly called "spiszne" [spaszne?] from all merchants driving oxen and all other kinds of cattle and livestock from Wallachia and elsewhere, both into the Kingdom and beyond the borders of the Kingdom, and keeping them on pastures inside and outside the Lviv territory for several days or a certain time, one grosz for each ox, and for smaller cattle of the same kind half a grosz, for all time. However, since in that same permission the space or distance of the place within the limits of which the said collection is to be due was not specified, therefore, in order to remove any uncertainty that might arise from this, by this Our rescript we declare and decree that the same permission should reach and extend to twelve miles, so that the said Shooting Brotherhood could and would have the power to freely collect the same fee from the mentioned cattle and livestock, and only from all merchants, without anyone's opposition or hindrance. And so that the same Brotherhood, for its services – when recently, by repelling with its trained and highly efficient shooting art [...] and the rebellious Cossacks besieging the same City for several weeks and keeping the people in great fear, and inflicting the greatest defeat upon them, it stopped and repelled them, of which it has amply testified – might recognize the proof of Royal favor and generosity, we have deemed it right to grant and bestow upon the same shooting brotherhood, for the increase and preservation of its integrity and the cultivation of the exercise in the art of shooting, the appropriate right and authority, and by these presents we give and permit that from all merchants, both inhabitants of the Kingdom and locals, as well as foreigners, of all estates and nationalities, arriving at the same City for regular fairs, as well as at any other time for the storage of goods, or departing from there, for every one hundred florins, whether in cash or in goods voluntarily brought and imported, or in their goods of any kind and type they might be – with their value to be determined by the said merchants under oath – they shall collect one grosz and [use it?] for their own benefit. Which we make known to all and each person concerned, especially to the Lviv castle and municipal office and all other offices, ordering them to protect and maintain the said shooting brotherhood in this free permission in its entirety and inviolably forever, and to diligently ensure by virtue of Our grace that it is protected and maintained by those concerned. In witness whereof, we have ordered this letter signed by Our hand to be strengthened with the seal of the Kingdom. Given in Lviv on the 11th day of August in the Year of Our Lord 1651. In the third year of Our reign in Poland, the fourth in Sweden. [Signature of the monarch:] John Casimir, King [On the tab on the right side:] Declaration of the privilege of the City of Lviv for [...] merchants [...] [Under the tab:] Hieronim Radziejowski, Deputy Chancellor of the Kingdom of His Royal Majesty, by his own hand [Seal:] [In a hanging round tin on a silk cord, the great crown seal of John Casimir in red wax is preserved, with the coats of arms of Poland, Lithuania, and the Vasa Sheaf] [Verso:] [German note:] Privilege from King John Casimir dated 11 August 1651 [...] [Archival signatures:] ad Nr 277. Fasc. I; 78. 2/3.; Litt. D.; No 4to [Note of the Lviv castle record:] In the lower Lviv castle on Monday [...] in the Year of Our Lord 1651 [...]

IOANNES CASIMIRVS DEI GRATIA REX POLONIAE Magnus Dux Lithuaniae, Russiae, Prussiae, Mazoviae, Samogitiae, Liuoniae, Smolensiae, Czerniechouiaeque, nec non Sueccorum, Gotthorum, Vandalorumque Haereditarius Rex. Significamus praesentibus literis Nostris quorum interest universis et singulis. Concessisse Divum Sigismundum III Progenitorem Nostrum desideratissimum Fraternitati Iaculatorum Civitatis Nostrae Leopolien[sis] ad avertendos et propulsandos hostium insultus in eadem Civitate apprime necessariam facultatem et consensum, pro usu eiusdem confraternitatis pensionem vulgo Spiszne [Spaszne?] dictam ab omnibus Mercatoribus boves aliasque cuiusvis speciei pecudes ac pecora ex Valachia et aliunde tam in Regnum quam extra Regni limites expellentibus, eaque intra et extra Territorium Leopolien[se] per aliquot dies vel aliquod tempus in pascuis detinentibus per unum grossum a quolibet bove a minoribus vero et eiusdem generis pecudibus per medium grossum temporibus perpetuis duraturis exigendi. Verum cum in eadem concessione intercapedo sive interpositivum loci intra quod nimirum praefata exactio competere ipsis debeat specificata non sit, exindeque ad tollendam omnem quae inde oriri posset ambiguitatem eandem concessionem ad duodecim milliarium porrigi et extendi debere, praesenti rescripto Nostro declaramus et elici[mu]s, ita ut eandem pensionem praenominata Iaculatorum Confraternitas a memoratis pecoribus et pecudibus, idque ab omnibus mercatoribus tantum, sine cuiusvis contradictione et impedimento ad praefatam duodecim milliarium distantiam libere exigere possit et valeat. Quo vero ea ipsa Confraternitas pro meritis suis, fusaefados et rebelles Cosacos oppugnationem eiusdem Civitatis non ita pridem per aliquot septimanas pertinaciter ingenti hominum timore tenentes pervia ac dexterrima sua iaculandi peritia propulsando, et maximam ex iisdem eorum clade retinendo, ac reviciendo, abunde contestatis propensae erga se voluntatis liberalitatisque Regiae agnoscat argumentum, illi ipsi iaculatorum confraternitati pro augenda conservandaque ipsius integritate ac promovendo artis iaculatoriae exercitio ius et facultatem commodam tribuendam ac donandam censuimus, prout vigore praesentium damus et concedimus, ut omnibus mercatoribus tam regnicolis et indigenis quam exteris et cuiuscunque status et nationibus in eandem Civitatem tam ad nundinas solitas quam quovis alio tempore ad depositionem venientibus vel inde recedentibus, a quibuslibet centum florenis, sive in parata pecunia, mercibusve de gratia illata et importata sive in mercibus illorum cuiuscunque illa generis et speciei fuerint, aestimationem eorundem per dictos mercatores iuramento liquidandis, contentis per grossum unum exigendi, in suum commodumque [convertendi?]. Quod omnibus et singulis quorum interest praesertim vero Castrensi et civili Leopoliensi alisque quibusvis officiis ad notitiam deducen[dum] eidem mandamus, Ut praenominatam confraternitatem iaculatorum circa eandem concessionem liberam integre et inviolabiliter perpetuo foveant et manuteneant, foverique et manuteneri ab iis quorum interest accurate curent pro gratia Nostra. In cuius rei fidem praesentes manu Nostra subscriptas Sigillo Regni communiri iussimus. Datum Leopoli die 11 Augusti Anno Domini MDCLI. Regnorum Nostrorum Poloniae III, Sueciae IIII Anno. [Podpis monarchy:] Ioannes Casimirus Rex [Na zakładce po prawej stronie:] Declaratio Privilegii Civitatis Leopolien[sis] ad [...] Mercatorum [...] [Pod zakładką:] Hier[onymus] Radzieiowski Procanc[ellarius] Reg[ni] M[aiesta]tis m[anu] p[ro]p[ria] [Pieczęć:] [W wiszącej okrągłej puszce na jedwabnym sznurze zachowana wielka pieczęć koronna Jana Kazimierza z czerwonego wosku, z tarczami herbowymi Polski, Litwy i Snopkiem Wazów] [Verso:] [Nota niemiecka:] Privilegium von König Johann Casimir d[a]t[o] 11 august ex Anno 1651 [...] [Sygnatury archiwalne:] ad Nr 277. Fasc. I; 78. 2/3.; Litt. D.; No 4to [Nota relacji grodzkiej lwowskiej:] In Castro Inferiori Leopoliensi feria secunda [...] Anno Domini 1651 [...]