Metadata: Interregnum courts [Vehmgericht] (Iudicia Interregni vulgo kaptur)
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 29/20
- Title:
- Interregnum courts [Vehmgericht] (Iudicia Interregni vulgo kaptur)
- Title (official language):
- Sądy kapturowe (Iudicia Interregni vulgo kaptur)
- Creator/accumulator:
- Interregnum court of the Voivodeship of Krakow
- Date(s):
- 1632/1764
- Date note:
- Documents date from 1632–1633, 1648–1649, 1668–1669, 1674–1676, 1696–1697, 1733–1733 and 1764.
- Language:
- Latin
- Polish
- Extent:
- 1.3 linear metres (28 units)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
This collection holds records of the Voivodeship of Krakow and extraordinary courts-of-law during the interregna occurring between 1632 and 1764.
The competencies of the court were limited. The cases heard were those otherwise normally handled by castle and land courts, violated security of courts, homicides, removals from estates/real properties, plunders/pillages of one’s property, cases subjected to the seym (which is ‘parliamentary’ or ‘diet’) court, military abuses, etc.; moreover, basically, acts committed after the king’s death, cases of those imprisoned earlier (since 1668), tax arrears (including prior to the interregnum), cases calling for consideration of the rights of the action-bringing parties; entries of non-contentious cases were accepted. As for Jews, complaints against unpaid debts were received.
The main sections of the collection include the inscriptions (inscriptiones) and decrees, as well as registers (regests) of cases (regestra causarum).
From the late 17th century, the registers of cases were extended; they corresponded with the method of judgement and the schedule of cases in the course of the week, plus the morning and afternoon sessions. These notes are mostly concise, quoting the parties, the character of the case, actions and decisions taken, and the ruling (if applicable): lawsuit, banishment, publication of banishment, detention, restitution, etc.
The inscriptions comprise non-contentious entries, protests, manifestations, testimonies.
Apart from verdicts, the decrees include decisions and investigatory activities.
In the decrees section, Jewish-related items refer to Jewish communes (Kazimierz, Olkusz), mainly including rulings passed for overdue taxes or commodity bills, infringed contractual conditions, failure to bring the accused Jews before the court. As for individual cases, the most frequent were verdicts passed for overdue debts or liabilities; some decrees concerned fencing (receiving of stolen goods), abduction and imprisonment of Jewish resident, or wounding. There was no option available to appeal against the verdict of a court (kaptur). The notes regarding Jews contain information on the circumstances of the occurrences, one example being mentions of a robbery of Jewish carts on a highway.
Inscriptions. There is apparently a rather small number of notes defined as evidence or testimony; receipts for communes and Jews appearing individually are scarce as well. Based on evidence submitted, the accused or institution might have been released from claims or banishment, if so adjudged before. Sworn attestations appear with respect to Jews most numerously in relation to collection of taxes; these include a beadle’s account whereby the required attestations have been fulfilled. Seizures (of persons or things) appear seldom amongst the inscription; this finding holds true also for forensic examinations of wounds, presentations of the accused, stolen objects or things, such as, for instance, a case of goods abandoned by some Jews in a private tenement house, combined with the finder’s readiness to return the same to the owners.
Jewish-related elements can probably be found in all the books/register of the collection; items have been confirmed for 29/20/0/1/2, 29/20/0/1/4, 29/20/0/1/5, 29/20/0/1/7, 29/20/0/1/8, 29/20/0/1/6, 29/20/0/1/9 and 29/20/0/2/20. For the year 1648, interregnum-court records have been preserved for the District (Poviat) of Oswiecim in a separate collection.
- Archival history:
- The earliest extant books/registers are from 1632, which suggests that insufficient care was taken with them. The interregnum court (kapturs) registers were stored at the castle court building at the Wawel. After Krakow was seized by Austria, the documents were removed (around 1799) to the former Jesuit college at what is now 52 Grodzka Street. Following the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the books remained in Krakow as property of the Kingdom of Poland. 1852 saw Russia pass the collection over to Austria; the Galician authorities took it over in 1877. It was eventually regained by Poland in 1918 and it has been stored at the Wawel since 1949.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The interregnum court was an extraordinary court that passed its rulings on a summary basis, in a simplified and fast-track manner. After the death or abdication of the king of Poland-Lithuania, the nobility would establish a provincial confederacy court in lieu of regular courts, in order to support the safeguarding of public security until the new monarchs be crowned. The organisation and the rules-and-regulations of such court were determined by the relevant diet (seym) and dietine (seymik) resolutions. The competencies extended to crimes causing threat to public security, violent crimes, tax offences, cases filed out of the will of the parties; non-contentious entries were accepted. In the 17th and 18th century, the court was composed of deputats (‘court deputes’), two elected in each of seven and subsequently eight districts (poviats) (up to three deputats each, as of 1764). The deputies would elect a marshal from among themselves. They would issue the verdict by majority of vote. The body’s sessions were held at the Krakow City Hall.
- Access points: locations:
- Kazimierz
- Krakow
- Małopolska
- Olkusz
- Subject terms:
- Crime
- Financial matters
- Legal matters
- Taxation
- System of arrangement:
-
There are two sections within the fond, arranged in a chronological order:
Inscriptiones et decreta (inducta – former reference no., plus the years): 29/20/0/1/1 (former Terr. Crac. 130,1632–3), 29/20/0/1/2 (TC 136, 1648–1649), 29/20/0/1/3 (TC 139, 1668–9), 29/20/0/1/4 (TC 141, 1674–1675), 29/20/0/1/5 (TC 142, 1675), 29/20/0/1/7 (TC 143, 1675–6), 29/20/0/1/6 (TC 144, 1675); 29/20/0/1/8 (TC 144A, 1675–6), 29/20/0/1/9 (TC 145, 1696–7); 29/20/0/1/10 (TC 145A, 1697); 29/20/0/1/12 (TC 145C, 1764); 29/20/0/1/11 (TC 145B, Protocollon inquisitionum, 1733); 29/20/0/1/8 (TC 144A, 1675–1676, Decreta, protocollon).
Regestra causarum, 29/20/0/1/13–29/20/0/1/28 (Terr. Crac. 390–405, 1674–1764).
- 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.
Also see:
Katalog Krajowego Archiwum Aktów Grodzkich i Ziemskich w Krakowie. Wydał Dr. Stanisław Kutrzeba, Kraków 1909, s. 209–210.
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.
Indeces and an inventory in Polish are available in the reading room.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute
- Author of the description:
- Janusz S. Dąbrowski; Kraków; 2015
