Metadata: Variae civitates et villae – a collection of remnants of the archival fonds: Dembowiec [Dębowiec]
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 29/121.15
- Title:
- Variae civitates et villae – a collection of remnants of the archival fonds: Dembowiec [Dębowiec]
- Title (official language):
- Variae civitates et villae – zbiór szczątków zespołów. Dembowiec (Dębowiec)
- Creator/accumulator:
- Municipality of Dębowiec
- Date(s):
- 1471/1870
- Language:
- Latin
- Polish
- German
- Extent:
- 0.2 linear metres (9 units)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- poor
- Scope and content:
-
The collection was created by the local municipality and, in the later period under Austrian rule, the administrative authorities of Dębowiec; partly from their own documents, the latter gathered those received by the town from the superior authorities.
The municipal registers consist of records (minutes), which predominantly contain civil-law entries. For the most part these concern non-contentious issues, including trading in real estate, testaments/(last) wills, posthumous inventories, bequests, receipts (bills, notes), arrangements/settlements, merchandise fees, forensic examinations of wounds inflicted, court verdicts in aspersion or battery cases.
Similarly, the Jewish-related elements mainly concern civil-law cases, such as acquisition of realty (a mill), commodity appraisals (including kiers), and contracts. Contentious cases include a Jew’s petition on account of verbal insult; another one concerns a failure to appear at a hearing; there is a plaint submitted by a Żmigród resident, related to his recognition at a fair of the linen he had been robbed of. The registers are records (minutes), featuring signatures in Hebrew. Jewish items are scarce and dispersed; they indicate that in the years 1705–33 (ref. no. 47, pp. 31, 96–98) and 1757–71 the number of Jewish residents, with the leaseholder of a local inn at the head, was low (ref. no. 48, p. 72–73, 156, 226, 228, 246, 317–318, 319, 319–320, 456–457, 486–487, 496–497, 536). Another unit comprises documents concerning Dębowiec, including circular letters from Austrian authorities – one example being a 1786 instruction to submit a census of local Jews in view of expelling the homeless (there is also a 1840 verdict concerning local Jews, ref. no. 49, pp. 62, 91).
- Archival history:
- The authorities of Austrian/Polish Galicia in 1887 undertook an action to amass archival resources from both urban and rural areas, so they could be preserved and protected. Dębowiec transmitted the archives to the Land Department in as early as 1889, from where they were redirected to the Archives in Krakow in 1890. In 1901, it turned out that Dębowiec had more records, documents and two municipal registers, which were eventually deposited in Krakow in 1902, the same date that three other documents – guild charters – were additionally sent. At that time, the resource was ordered, with the categories of original documents, two municipal registers/records and a collection of loose deeds related to Dębowiec (from 1338–1856) defined.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
Dębowiec (Dembowiec) was a royal town, and the seat of a starosta from 1528 to 1777. Presently a village, Dębowiec is 140 km south-east of Krakow and 17 km from Biecz. Situated within the Voivodeship of Krakow till 1772, the town was afterwards made part of Austria (Galicia region) and remained so until 1918.
A ban against Jewish settlement was in force as of 1569. In 1663, a Jewish leaseholder is attested to have appeared at the Starost’s inn. Around 1775, the local burghers complained about Jews getting settled in the town; their number was scarce, though, with a mere 38 in 1799 and the same number in 1835.
Incorporated under the Magdeburg Law in 1349, Dębowiec had a municipality consisting of two councillors and two burgomasters [resp. mayors] (burmistrzs) managing the town, and a Court Bench (seven assessors and a vogt’s deputy – the podwójci) exercising the justice function. Major cases were jointly adjudicated by the burgomasters, councillors, assessors (aldermen), the scribe, guild masters, the appeals being considered and verdicts approved by the starost’s court. From the mid-1780s, the self-government authority (municipality) was replaced by the municipal/domanial and, in parallel Austrian State administration. In 1545 to 1777, Dębowiec was owned by the families of Tarło, Mniszech, and Siemieński. 1777 saw the town’s purchase from the Austrian Government by Maksymilian Zaborowski; in 1861, Józef Zubrzycki became the owner.
- Subject terms:
- Census
- Crime
- Legal records
- Real estate
- System of arrangement:
- The fond consists of documents (ref. no. 41–46) and two municipal books of records, ref. no. 47 (The vogt’s [wójt’s]-and-assessors’ register of Dębowiec, 1704–33, p. 760); ref. no. 48 (The vogt’s [wójt’s]-and-assessors’ register of Dębowiec, 1757–71, p. 564), ref. no. 49 (copies of various documents, 16th to 19th centuries.).
- 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.
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
