Metadata: Collection of Parchments
Collection
- Country:
- Ukraine
- Holding institution:
- Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine, Lviv
- Holding institution (official language):
- Центральний державний історичний архів України, м. Львів
- Postal address:
- pl. Soborna, 3-а, 79008, L’viv
- Phone number:
- + 38 (032) 235-40-63
- Web address:
- tsdial.archіves.gov.ua
- Email:
- tsdial@arch.gov.ua
- Reference number:
- F. 131
- Title:
- Collection of Parchments
- Title (official language):
- Колекція грамот на пергаменті
- Creator/accumulator:
- Vahylevych, Ivan
- Date(s):
- 1110/1923
- Language:
- Latin
- Polish
- Extent:
- 895 archival storage units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Scope and content:
-
The collection contains files dealing mainly with the economic activities of Jews and their relations with the Christian population. The oldest of them – ten documents from 1423-41 – relate to a Jewish tax collector named Volchok, in particular, royal privileges for his founding of the village of Werbiż, his appointment therein as village head [wójt], and for the subsequent sale of the village.
Some of the documents from the 16th-18th century pertain to regulation of commerce as engaged in by the Jewish population. Among these are orders from Polish kings to officials and residents of the Ruthenian and Podole voivodeships strictly to monitor (with special attention paid to traders from Ostrog and Międzybóż) Jews’ adherence to the so-called “storage law,” i.e., the obligation to store and sell their goods in Lwów, without circumventing it (the so-called przymus drogowy), under penalty of the confiscation of goods in cases of nonfulfillment (mandates of 1502, 1512, and 1535).
Other documents in the collection contain commercial restrictions pertaining directly to the Jews of Lwów. Among these are two mandates of 1521 barring Jews from displaying goods in their own homes; buying wax or leather on the streets of Lwów or its environs; or selling cloth at retail (i.e., other than at fairs). Also, Jewish women were forbidden to sell cloth, pepper, saffron, silk fabrics, perfumes, etc. in the city. A royal decree of 1527 barred Jews from trading freely in the environs of Lwów.
Documents pertaining to guilds and corporations in Lwów likewise contain restrictions on the commercial and craft activities of Jews. Among these is a clothiers’ guild decree of 1570 by which the king forbade the Jews of Lwów and other cities to sell Ukrainian żupans (long frock coats worn by noblemen in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) and other cloth garments; a Lwów Municipal Council decree of 1634 forbidding members of the tailors’ guild to make clothing for Jews or buy cloth from them; a decree of 1653 (confirmed in 1712) that forbade Jews to hinder residents of the starostwo in the brewing and sale of beer; the charter of the barbers’ (“surgeons’”) guild of 1687 (confirmed in 1691), which barred Jews from treating Christians and limited the number of Jewish “surgeons” in Lwów to two; a Lwów Municipal Council decree of 1671 (confirmed in 1712) barring Jewish bakers from selling white bread, bubliki [circular rolls similar to bagels], and several other baked goods; the 1767 charter of the merchants’ guild, which restricted Jewish trade to points set forth in the so-called “covenants” occasionally concluded between Jews and, as the party of the second part, the magistrate and the merchants’ guild.
The collection also includes the mandate of 1670 by which Polish King Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki sought to defend the Jewish population during riots in Lwów. The king demanded that the magistrate and community representatives swear that they had given no cause for anti-Jewish outrages, and also exempted Jews from all duties and taxes, except for the municipal czynsz (quit-rent).
- Archival history:
- The creation of this collection was initiated by the philologist and public figure Ivan Vahylevych (Jan Wagilewicz) in the course of his analysis and systematisation of materials of the Archive of the City of Lemberg/Lwów in 1862-66. At the time, he managed to collect 844 parchment documents. The fonds would subsequently be arranged and inventoried by the archivists E. Romankevich, A. Hirshberg, K. Vidman, A. Cholovskii, M. Val’ter, F. Pogoretskii, and others. Some of the parchment documents were already lost in the first half of the 20th century, but the collection’s greatest losses came during the Second World War, when 220 documents were lost, although it was soon supplemented with 320 new ones (received from the Archive of the Latin Chapter in L’vov/L’viv, the Manuscript Department of the Shevchenko Research Society Library, the Basilian Monasteries Archive, etc.) The collection continued to grow, by 1971 containing 858 parchment documents. Materials received subsequently include several dozen documents (among them, three birch-bark manuscripts from the 12th century).
- Access points: persons/families:
- Volchok
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds is arranged chronologically.
- Finding aids:
- An inventory is available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary
