Metadata: Documents of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Collection
- Country:
- Lithuania
- Holding institution:
- Vilnius University Library
- Holding institution (official language):
- Vilniaus universiteto biblioteka
- Postal address:
- Universiteto g. 3, 01513, Vilnius
- Phone number:
- +370 5 268 7100
- Web address:
- https://biblioteka.vu.lt/
- Email:
- mb@mb.vu.lt
- Reference number:
- F. 69
- Title:
- Documents of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
- Title (official language):
- Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės dokumentai
- Creator/accumulator:
- Grand Duchy of Lithuania
- Date(s):
- 1489/1815
- Language:
- Polish
- Extent:
- 152 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The fonds contains various records of documents of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It includes legal and real estate management (purchase, sale, inheritance, registration, etc.) documents, correspondence of noblemen and clergy, copies of privileges, various church documents, court documents, letters, complaints, documents of the Vilnius magistrate, accounting and land-related documents.
Jewish-related material includes a letter (3 pages) in Polish written by Jozef Lawrynowicz to a Jew named Maušas (Mausas). In the letter Jozef requests a Latin language textbook; he writes about publishing a book in a Vilnius publishing house.
There is an official complaint against Vilnius burghers and the elders of the Vilnius salt merchants brotherhood by the Jewish community of Vilnius for assault and robbery (1666, Polish and Latin).
The fonds also contains money-related documents exchanged between Vilnius city governor Stefan Moroz and the Jews of Byalynichy (now a city in Belarus): this includes a record of a receipt from Byalynichy, and two letters to Stefan Moroz. One of the letters discusses issues related to the payment of goods (1706).
Finally, the fonds contains a record of a summons (in Polish) delivered to the Jews of the Vilnius kahal, who traded in oil, herring and salt. The summons called for a trial in the court of the treasury of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in Grodno. Other people who received the summons included Antoni Tyzenhaus, Adam Baranowicz, Kazimierz Wolmer, treasurer of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and others who traded with the salt merchants in Vilnius.
- Archival history:
- The documents were formed into a fonds In 1967. The documents of fonds No 69 were transferred from fonds No 5. It is unknown how the documents were acquired.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Grand Duchy of Lithuania existed from the end of the 13th century until 1795. The Grand Duchy expanded to include large portions of the former Kievan Rus and other neighbouring states, in what is now Belarus and parts of Ukraine, Latvia, Poland and Russia. In 1569 the Duchy united with Poland, becoming the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Jews started settling in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 14th century. In 1388 the Jewish community of Brest (now Belarus) was granted privilege. Eventually, many other Jewish communities attained this privilege and in 1507 the privilege was granted to all of the Jews in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the 17th century Jews started moving into the current territory of Lithuania. At the end of the 18th century, the Jews lived in almost all of the towns of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It is believed that at the end of the 17th century the Jewish community in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was the largest in Europe.
- Access points: locations:
- Byalynichy
- Lithuania
- Vilnius
- Subject terms:
- Crime
- Financial matters
- Legal matters
- Trade and commerce
- System of arrangement:
- The collection is arranged numerically.
- Finding aids:
- A list of files is available at the Vilnius University library.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People
- Author of the description:
- Monika Žulytė
