Metadata: Castle Court Books [Registers] of Krakow (Acta Castrensia Cracoviensia)
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 29/5
- Title:
- Castle Court Books [Registers] of Krakow (Acta Castrensia Cracoviensia)
- Title (official language):
- Księgi grodzkie krakowskie (Acta Castrensia Cracoviensia)
- Creator/accumulator:
- Court and castle office of Krakow
- Date(s):
- 1407/1796
- Date note:
- Documents date from 1407–1409 and 1418–1796.
- Language:
- Latin
- Polish
- Extent:
- 222.47 linear metres (1682 units)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The Castle Court Books contain different sources depending on the series of books/registers. The entries were made in two or (since 1556) three registers, in parallel. A record (protocollon) was kept since 1535, followed by final draft/fair copy (inducta). The records are of relevance as they contain signatures of the parties, including those made in the Hebrew alphabet by Jews and, sporadically, Latin or Polish signatures.
Initially, all types of notes were made in the register; four main sections were created in ca. 1574:
Inscriptiones (records/inscriptions): non-contentious dispositions related to real estate and other perpetual asset/property-related decisions.
Relationes (reports; until 1792): initially meant to include official reports or accounts, this section began in time to receive all kinds of entries other than inscriptions.
Decreta officii (decrees of the office, till 1789): comprising all contentious/litigious cases.
Decreta iudicii (decrees of the court; this series expired in 1667/1671).
Out of the reports, several series of books or registers emerged, often as a self-contained record (i.e. one without a fair copy): empowerment record, since 1628; books of noblemen’s dietine (seymik) resolutions, 1642–96; manifestations record, from 1661 on; record of transactions in movable properties, since 1675; some records of oaths submitted at paying the taxes have been preserved since 1662 (a 1711 volume re. liquor tax is described as a ‘protocollon iuramentorum Iudaeicorum’).
Notes regarding Jews are found across more than twenty types of documents; these include privileges/charters granted to Jewish communities, individual Jews, safe-conducts and moratoria for Jews; privileges/charters, moratoria and safe-conducts for Christians under dispute with Jews; universal proclamations, distraints (of things or persons); enforcements of verdicts; intromissions (admissions into possession); forensic examinations/autopsies and crime-scene visits; manifestations and protestations in cases related to Jewish communities and specified Jewish residents; empowerments, presentations (of persons or things, at the office); oaths, certificates, empowerments; agreements, contracts, so-called [cor]roborations (confirming the facts or contracts entered into), regarding the cases involving communities and private (Jewish) persons.
The Krakow castle court books mainly concern Jews of Kazimierz and of the Voivodeship of Krakow, including Olkusz, Wodzisław, Lelów, plus some distant localities. The community of Kazimierz was in most cases represented by the elders, members of the kahal board, and assignees (administrative receivers).
The inscriptions mainly comprise entries of capital investments in Jewish institutions (often no entries were made as the investments/deposits were guaranteed by the kahal of Kazimierz and thus were considered certain).
The reports/accounts comprise reports of beadles, manifestations, protestations, entries of documents of institutions and private persons, moratoria and safe-conducts, and the like.
Decrees (court verdicts/decisions) were issued in disputes over pledges/liens, failed debt repayments, commercial contracts, tax arrears.
Manifestation records are numerous, featuring forensic examinations of wounds of injured Jews and Christians, etc.
Dispersed as they are, the Jewish-related records account for a small portion of the notes. The exceptional item is a record of Jewish debt cases, CC 448 (p. 119), comprising eighty-two entries of seniors of various synagogues in the Voivodeships of Krakow and Sandomierz (featuring several dozen signatures in the Hebrew alphabet), along with documents issued by various institutions.
Jewish-related records can probably be found in all the 17th/18th-century report/account volumes and in self-contained records.
Jewish-related content is confirmed in the following books/registers: Inscriptiones (inducta): CC 301–304, 306–310, 312–335; Inscriptiones (protocollon): CC 1225–CC1245; Relationes (inducta): CCR 101A, 101B, 102–106, 107A, 107B, 108A, 108B, 109A, 109B, 110A, 110B, 111–123, 195-214, 215A, 215B, 216, 217, 218A, 218B, 219, 220A, 220B, 221-223; Relationes (protocollon): 1387–1393; Plenipotentiae (protocollon): 457, 458, 459, 459, 460, 461; Manifestationes: 486–495; Protocollon privatum seu transactionum: 442, 443; Decreta officii (inducta): 941–960; Iuramenta in causis contributionibus: Varia 19, 20.
An estimated 15,000–20,000 notes concerning Jews can be found in the castle court registers of Krakow, with 15% of the resource published so far.
- Archival history:
- Since the sixteenth century, the Krakow castle court books were kept in the castle court building situated at the Wawel complex, where the collection has survived in an almost complete condition. Under the Austrian occupation of Krakow, it was moved (around 1799) to the former Jesuit college, presently located at 52 Grodzka Street. 1810 saw the Government of the Duchy of Warsaw hand the fond over to the conservator land-and-mortgage registers. After the Congress of Vienna, 1815, the registers remained in Krakow as property of, and under custody of, the Kingdom of Poland (which was established in 1815 under the rule of the Russian Empire). In 1852 Russia handed over the collection to Austria, with the Land Court of Krakow supervising it ever since. In the autonomy years, the Galician authorities took it over in 1877 from the Austro-Hungarian Government; Poland eventually regained the resource in 1918. It has been kept at the Wawel again since 1949.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The court of law encompassed the districts (poviats) of Krakow, Proszowice, Książ and Lelów in the Voivodeship (Province) of Krakow; between the fourteenth century and 1792, the jury consisted of the starost, the judge, and the castle scribe [pisarz grodzki]. The competencies of the court initially encompassed public security (instances such as attack on house, incineration, assault in public road, rape), security of courts and enforcement of verdicts, cases of noblemen having no landed property. The importance of this institution increased with time, owing to the option to bring actions based on the choice of the parties; after 1589, the court accepted perpetual entries concerning trading in realities. Since the sixteenth century, the starost exercised adjudication every six weeks (as the court) whilst minor cases were handled by the subprefect (podstarości) on a daily basis (as the office). After 1667, the operation of the court as a body separated into sections discontinued; entries could be made on a daily basis. In 1792, the court was cancelled after the landowner courts were established.
- Access points: locations:
- Krakow
- Lelów
- Małopolska
- Olkusz
- Sandomierz
- Subject terms:
- Crime
- Financial matters
- Jewish community
- Legal records
- Privileges
- System of arrangement:
- The books were arranged into series encompassing the types of cases: Inscriptiones (abbr. CC): 1a, 1–440, 448, 1105–1306; Relationes (abbr. CCR): 506–733, 733a, 734–758, 1307–1458; Varia 66; Oblatae laudorum, 759–761, 761a; Plenipotentiae, 49–479; Manifestationes, 480–505; Protocollon privatum seu transactionum, 442–447; Protocolla transactionum in rem iudeorum, (1766–1767), C.C. 448; Law-suits, 1459–1468, 1103, 1104; Decreta iudicii, 1025–1072; Decreta officii, 762–1024, 1024a, 1073–1100; Testimonies/statements, 1102; Investigations, 1784–1789, 1102a; Registers of cases, 1579–1792, 1469–1574, 1576–1599, 1601–1630.
- 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.
- Finding aids:
-
Inventory available online.
See also:
Katalog Krajowego Archiwum Aktów Grodzkich i Ziemskich w Krakowie. Wydał Dr. Stanisław Kutrzeba, Kraków 1909, s. 31–52, 157–187.
Materiały źródłowe do dziejów Żydów w księgach grodzkich dawnego województwa krakowskiego z lat 1674-1696, opracował Adam Kaźmierczyk, Tom I, Lata 1674-1683, Kraków 1995.
Materiały źródłowe do dziejów Żydów w księgach grodzkich dawnego województwa krakowskiego z lat 1674-1696, opracował i wstępem opatrzył Adam Kaźmierczyk, Tom II, Lata 1683-1696, Kraków 2009.
An index of names, places and subjects is also available in the readingroom. However, it is of little relevance to the Jewish-related material.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute
- Author of the description:
- Janusz S. Dąbrowski; Kraków; 2015
