Source catalogue

King Sigismund II Augustus resolves a dispute between Andrzej Gembicki and the reeve and benchers of Lwów, confirming the principle that files of appeal cases must be sent to the royal court or the higher Magdeburg law court at the Wawel Castle in Kraków exclusively in sealed scrolls by a court messenger. Consequently, the monarch releases the municipal authorities of Lwów from the allegations and claims of the plaintiff, who demanded that the procedural documentation be handed over to him personally.

The sender conveys his respect and wishes the recipient a good and happy New Year. The short text is partly difficult to read. A note on the folded sheet mentions the Queen and an instruction to pass on a message, but most of its wording remains uncertain. The signature may read “Dumons.” The letter has its own date notation: Warsaw, 4 January 1703.

King Sigismund Augustus confirms in the form of a vidimus transumpt two earlier privileges of kings Władysław Jagiełło (1415) and Władysław of Varna (1444), concerning the granting and use by the city of Lviv of suburban lands and surplus fields, the so-called 'obszary'. The document guarantees the transumed copy the same legal force and credibility as the original documents.

The sender writes in French about correspondence received, lace goods, payments, and money transfers. He mentions a bill or note and an amount read as 1,242 écus; details of the accounting are partly illegible. The signature reads Dupont. The address leaf names the Palatine and general of the Lublin voivodeship. No date was read in the letter itself.

Queen Isabella Jagiellon of Hungary, together with her son John Sigismund, grants the burghers and merchants of Lviv the privilege of duty-free import and sale of all goods within the territory of Hungary and Transylvania. This grant is an expression of gratitude for the hospitality, kindness, and assistance shown to the monarchs by the council and inhabitants of Lviv during their multi-month stay in the city.

The sender addresses a high-ranking recipient and asks for a favor or recommendation; he also mentions a petition/request and benefits received. A substantial part of the text is difficult to read. The ending contains the notation “Camorali li 11 del 1690” (partly read; month absent/illegible) and an illegible signature. No date or place has been assigned without a full reading. The address leaf mentions Palatino di Russia and Leopoli.

King Sigismund II Augustus approves the resolutions of the Lwów city council concerning the limitation of the number of potters in the city. The act introduces a ban on practicing this craft by persons not belonging to the guild.

The surviving letter is addressed to a Most Illustrious Benefactor. The handwriting is very difficult to read in places. Visible fragments suggest requests and matters concerning correspondence and actions taken for the recipient, but the details cannot be reconstructed with confidence. The external address leaf preserves a formal form of address, while the surname and titles remain uncertain. The inventory card records that the unit was begun on 8 October 1697; this was not treated as the letter date. The note on the letter does not permit a reliable date reading.

King Sigismund II Augustus approves a transumed document of the Lviv city council from 1529 containing the statute and master articles of the combined guild of blacksmiths, locksmiths, swordsmiths, coppersmiths, armorers, and needle makers. The monarch grants legal force to the guild's provisions at the request of the guild elders and brothers.

King Sigismund II Augustus decrees that all property owners in Lviv and those conducting commercial activities there are subject to the jurisdiction of the magistrate and the obligation to pay municipal taxes, regardless of their social status. The document abolishes all exemptions, immunities, and servitorates, authorizing city authorities to enforce municipal duties equally upon all residents.

The letter contains a merchant’s account listing two quantity-and-price entries. The recorded amounts are 17 × 23 = 391 and 36 × 19 = 684; the underlined total is 1075 (the currency is abbreviated and the reading is uncertain). The goods’ names cannot be read confidently enough to identify them. The sender also refers to earlier correspondence and the settling of an account or delivery; the remaining text is difficult to read. The heading gives Nürnberg, 9 July 1690; the address directs the letter to a merchant in Lemberg.

King Sigismund II Augustus confirms and transumes four privileges granted by kings Casimir Jagiellon and Sigismund I to the shoemakers' guild of the city of Lwów. These concern the limitation of the number of shoemakers in the castle suburb to two masters, the prohibition of practicing the shoemaking craft in noble manors outside the city walls, the rules for the sale of hides by tanners, and the prohibition of purchasing hides before the city gates.

King Sigismund II Augustus, at the general sejm in Kraków, approves a document from the Lwów assessors dated 1554, certifying the sale of a hide of arable land with meadows and thickets in the village of Kleparów to the peasant Grzegorz Sołtys by Stanisław Kmitowicz and Barbara and Katarzyna Kmitówna. The issued diploma ensures the buyer and his heirs perpetual and inviolable ownership rights to the acquired land.

The sender addresses the Lviv magistrate with a petition. Readable fragments mention the chapter, Imć Bogacki, and the possibility that someone might occupy his place. The sentence is uncertain, so the particular position or matter cannot be established. The letter is dated 4 March 1756.

King Sigismund II Augustus confirms to Jan Krowicki and the inhabitants of the jurisdiction of the Church of St. John the Baptist in the suburbs of Lwów the ancient privileges of kings and officials regarding Armenian law and exemptions from castle burdens. Furthermore, the monarch permits the local Armenian craftsmen to freely practice all crafts according to ancient custom.

King Sigismund Augustus adjudicates the ownership of the Brzuchowice estate, including the mill, to the city of Lwów and confirms municipal jurisdiction over the villages of Brzuchowice and Hołosko. He ensures the successors of Marcin Hanel the right to collect income from the Hołosko estate, while maintaining traditional labor services (szarwarki) owed to the city.

King Sigismund Augustus resolves a dispute between the city authorities of Lviv and the butchers' guild, confirming a 1550 agreement regulating meat trade rules on free market days. At the same time, the monarch reserves the exclusive right of Lviv butchers to sell meat outside designated market days and cancels mutual court costs for both parties.

The writer congratulates the recipient on the king’s choice concerning the Ruthenian palatinate. He asks for support if a canonry becomes vacant in Lviv. The letter does not show that he received the benefice.

The document establishes the detailed course of boundaries and the construction of boundary mounds between the Franciscan-owned village of Kozielniki and the municipal lands of Lwów, as well as the villages of Sichów and Zubrza, putting an end to previous disputes and injuries. Furthermore, it confirms the right granted to the convent by the municipal authorities for limited logging for firewood and cattle grazing on municipal lands, provided that good relations with the city are maintained.

The writer recalls a declaration by the Lviv magistrate concerning the parish benefice and the anticipated opportunity to take it up after the death of Father Łozowski. The death of the dean also requires renewed consideration of the deanery and of the earlier declaration; the writer mentions a suffragan who was expected to take the deanery. The closing is addressed to the noble and distinguished gentlemen, and the signature appears to read “M. Rzewuski”. Dated Warsaw, 13 February 1763.

Pope Pius IV notifies the cathedral chapter in Lviv of the appointment of Paweł as the new Archbishop of Lviv following the death of Archbishop Feliks. He calls upon the chapter to show submission and obedience to the new ordinary under penalty of ecclesiastical sanctions.

King Sigismund Augustus grants to the Voivode of Sandomierz, Spytek Jordan of Zakliczyn, and his successors, a house in Przemyśl that had fallen to the Crown by right of escheat. The grant is a perpetual donation with full rights to freely dispose of the property.

King Sigismund Augustus grants the inhabitants of the village of Krotoszyn, belonging to the Dominican convent in Lviv, the perpetual right to collect dry and fallen wood for fuel in the royal forest of Derewacz. He simultaneously orders the Starosta of Lviv, Piotr Barzy, and his successors not to infringe upon this right.

King Sigismund II Augustus orders all Armenians residing in Lviv to unconditionally submit to Armenian law and jurisdiction and to bear municipal burdens equally. The document invalidates all existing and future letters exempting them from this jurisdiction.

At the request of the Bishop of Bila Tserkva, the writer asks the Lviv magistrate to support a prelate as candidate for the parish benefice left vacant by the death of the suffragan priest. The candidate is described as an archcathedral canon with suitable birth, education, and qualities, though parts of this description are illegible. The letter repeats the request and closes with a respectful formula.

Pope Pius IV sends the pallium to the newly appointed Archbishop of Lviv, Paweł Tarło, via Jerzy Tylicz. He instructs the Bishop of Kraków or the Bishop of Przemyśl to confer the pallium upon the nominee after he has received episcopal consecration and to receive his oath of fidelity to the Apostolic See.

The writer addresses the recipient as “my gracious Lord and Brother”, mentions a letter from another person, and raises a matter connected with Lublin. The text says that someone “demands” something, but the surrounding passage is too illegible to identify the subject or the party making the demand. The dateline reads 9 Junii 1685 at Kamionka; the recipient’s name on the folded address is uncertain.

King Sigismund II Augustus confirms in the form of a transsumpt the privilege of Sigismund I the Old issued in 1535 for Lviv. According to its content, files of appeal cases are to be delivered to the royal court exclusively by a special municipal messenger paid by the appealing party.

The sender says she was pleased that the recipient “took” the widow Małachowa, who was said to retain great affection for him. She also mentions rumors, her own intention to visit or travel, and the recipient’s affairs, but the rest is partly illegible. The signature identifies Anna as a humble servant. The closing date notation contains “Maii 1773”, but the day and place are uncertain.

King Sigismund II Augustus resolves a dispute between Lublin councilor Maciej Kasprowicz and the municipal authorities of Lwów, upholding the privileges of the citizens of Lwów to be judged exclusively within the borders of the Crown. The monarch rules that in cases subject to Magdeburg law, a summons 'by one edict for three' does not constitute a peremptory term, but merely a first ordinary summons to court.

The sender addresses the senators of Lviv, refers to their order and its implementation, and signals dissatisfaction or a problem in the subsequent course of the matter. The sender asks them to consider or settle it; the specific subject cannot be confidently recovered from the manuscript. The letter has no legible date. The signature may include the name Ignacy and a surname beginning “Krzysztof…”, but this reading is uncertain.

Archbishop of Lwów Paweł Tarło, with the consent of the metropolitan chapter, abolishes the burdensome duty of daily Lenten preaching imposed on the cathedral preacher by the foundation of Archbishop Bernardyn Wilczek from 1507. Instead, he mandates that the preacher deliver sermons in the cathedral only on two selected weekdays each week of Lent, and on Sundays and feast days – both in the morning and in the afternoon.

The sender acknowledges receipt of a letter concerning an “interessu do Seymiku” (the reading of the word requires caution). The remaining text refers to the course of the matter and efforts to obtain information, but details and names are illegible. The date reads “w Lwowie d. 28 Martii 1698” — Lviv, 28 March 1698.

King Sigismund Augustus clarifies and confirms the privilege of his father, stipulating that appeal cases from the municipal courts of Lwów, sent in sealed scrolls by a designated messenger, are to be heard by the royal court regardless of general adjournments (limitations). This principle was extended to persons of all estates and jurisdictions litigating before the Lwów courts.

The document resolves a jurisdictional dispute between the authorities of Lviv and the Armenian community, defining the scope of competence of the municipal court and the Armenian court in criminal and property cases. The King confirms the right of the Armenians to elect twelve seniors to adjudicate in rotation with the wójt (advocatus) and regulates issues of municipal order and the taking of oaths.

King Sigismund II Augustus confirms the submitted articles and legal order of the Lwów soap-makers' guild, previously approved by the councillors of the city of Lwów in 1561.

The sender addresses a group as “Panowie” and refers to a matter presented to them. Legible fragments mention the addressees’ favor, an opinion, and the sender’s obligation; the remainder is too uncertain to identify the matter. The date line reads “w Warszawie d. 24 Aug 1684”. The signature and cover address are uncertain.

King Sigismund II Augustus confirms the right of the Lviv Metropolitan Chapter to collect bridge and causeway tolls in the village of Wierzbiż, originally granted by Władysław Jagiełło, and establishes a detailed tariff of fees intended for necessary repairs of roads, causeways, and bridges.

A substantial letter survives, addressed to the Crown Marshal, probably the Grand Crown Marshal, with the salutation “Most Illustrious Lord and Brother.” The archival card describes it as a letter from Adam Jabłonowski of Lachiew to the marshal with a request (the rest of that description is uncertain); the letter itself is too difficult to read to specify the request. The signature appears to read Adam Jabłonowski. The dateline reads “W Jabłonowie 16 Decembr 1696.”

King Sigismund II Augustus approves an entry from the Piotrków municipal council books of 1538 concerning the sale of a house with a plot and garden behind the Kraków Gate in Piotrków by the altarist Jan Kraska to the councilors and mayor of the city of Lwów. The buyers were obliged to pay an annual rent of 15 groszy to the aforementioned altar on the feast of St. Matthew.

The sender addresses a superior and refers to a letter received from the burgrave, connected with the depositing or accounting of dues. The sender asks the recipient to take further action or decide the matter and invokes obligations toward the recipient; some details are uncertain. The letter is dated Lviv, 18 June 1757. The cover on p. 4 is addressed to a superior.