Records of the town of Pilzno

Collection description

Collection

Country:: Poland

Holding institution:: National Archives in Krakow

Holding institution (official language):: Archiwum Narodowe w Krakowie

Postal address:: ul. Sienna 16, 30–960 Kraków

Phone number:: (+48 12) 422 40 94; (+48 12) 4212790; (+48 12) 421 68 81

Web address:: http://ank.gov.pl/

Email:: sekretariat@ank.gov.pl

Reference number:: PL 29/112

Title:: Records of the town of Pilzno

Title (official language):: Akta miasta Pilzna

Creator/accumulator:: Municipality of Pilzno

Date(s):: 1400/1911

Date note:: Documents date from 1400, 1454–1493 and 1504–1911.

Language:: Latin; Polish; German

Extent:: 5.5 linear metres (111 units)

Type of material:: Textual material

Physical condition:: poor

Scope and content:: The collection comprises, for the most part, typical urban and municipal affairs, mainly civil and tax cases and, to a lesser extent, criminal matters.

Until the late 18th century no Jews had been recorded in Pilzno’s municipal sources, save for entries of verdicts regarding debt cases or commercial disputes between Jews residing outside Pilzno and local burghers (DEP 292, the deputy vogt’s (podwójci’s) and aldermen’s register of Pilzno, 1778-98: pp. 160-161; 1791: pp. 218-219). The book containing the circular of Pilzno from 1806-07 offers ordinances of Austrian central, national and local authorities with respect to Jews; they concern matters such as the order of expulsion from the rural areas of Jews not earning their living from agriculture or craftsmanship, the instruction to remove Jews from inns and taprooms in the countryside, a ban on purchasing military uniforms from Jews, a revised number of Jewish residents, an option to educate Jewish children in primary schools, with the notice that in order to gain consent for marriage Jewish residents had to prove their acquaintance with the sciences, recruitment of Jewish candidates to learn midwifery and an arrest warrant for a Jewish fugitive (Pilz. 2, pp. 9, 16, 20-21, 29, 33-34, 40-41, 49, 70). Similar ordinances might be contained in other circular books from the nineteenth century.

No Jewish elements are found in DEP 113a, DEP 124 or DEP 290, Pilzn. 3, although scarce quantities may exist.

Archival history:: The municipality of Pilzno did not respond to the 1887 summons of the Galician authorities to preserve local municipal books at the archive in Krakow. The archival resources were provided as they were found between 1903 and 1912 by the town hall of Pilzno, other institutions including the district court and private individuals. In 1941 the German occupational administration supplied the archives at the Wawel with a total of ten registers concerning Pilzno, the town and the precinct, from the 18th and 20th centuries. These were eventually made part of the collection and transferred from Section 3 in 2010 (Pilz. 1-10). The National Archives of Krakow contain other archival matter regarding Pilzno, both contemporary to collection 112 (collections 3, 8, 195) and later (collections 262, 268, 463).

Administrative/biographical history:: The royal town of Pilzno was located 115km west of Krakow. It served as the district (poviat) capital town of the voivodeship of Sandomierz until 1772; between 1772 and 1918 Pilzno was under Austrian rule as part of the region of Galicia.

Jews resided in the area of Pilzno from around 1560. Following an interdiction against settlement in the area of the town there were just 19 Jews living there as of 1777. Once the ban was lifted in 1830 the number of Jewish residents increased to approximately 26% of the town’s population as of 1880.

Pilzno was a royal town that was re-established under the Magdeburg Law in 1354. The documents were produced by the municipality. The town was managed by a town council formed of six elective counsellors (four in the 18th century), each of whom held the office of burgomaster (burmistrz), in succession. There functioned a court of assessors, a deputy vogt (podwójci) and seven assessors or aldermen. The magistrate reported to the Starost of Pilzno, which in practice meant a starost’s deputy; in the Austrian period it was subordinated to the authorities of the Precinct (cyrkuł) of Pilzno, then that of Tarnów and the Gubernium of Lwów; after 1861 it reported to the autonomous authorities of Galicia. From the late 18th century the municipality was replaced by the authorities appointed by the higher Austrian authority; a local government system (municipality) was resumed after 1860.

Access points: locations:: Pilzno

Subject terms:: Crime; Expulsion; Financial matters; Health and medical matters; Health and medical matters--Midwives; Legal records; Taxation

System of arrangement:: Efforts have been made to set the collection in an order within the archive, by separating parchment documents as well as books/registers and manuscripts by producer; yet, there is no continuous numbering of books/registers and manuscripts since the archival materials were received at intervals. The current structure is as follows:

Parchment documents, 1400–1828 (Dok. Dep. 91–92, 95–135, 137–141; 209, 213).

Registers (books) of the Town Council, 1454–1796 (Dep. 108–113, 113a, 114–116, 131–132, 290–291).

Registers (books) of the Municipal ‘Bench’ (municipal tribunal/magisterial court), 1557–1798 (Dep. 117–130, 271, 277–287, 292, Pilz. 1).

Municipal authorities (magistrat), 1782–1911 (DEP 133–140, 288, 289).

Access, restrictions:: If a copy (microfilm, scan, photocopy) of a document exists, this is what will be made available. Access to the originals requires the consent of the Director. Scans available in the reading room as of May 2015 are: Dep. 108, 113a, 114, 115, 116, 123, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 283, 284, 285, 286.

Finding aids:: Inventory available online.

An inventory in Polish is available in the reading room at the archive.

Yerusha Network member:: Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute

Author of the description:: Janusz S. Dąbrowski; Kraków; 2015

fullscreen: Records of the town of Pilzno

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