Metadata: Records of the City of Wieliczka, Old Polish records
Collection
- Country:
- Poland
- Holding institution:
- The National Archives in Krakow
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archiwum Narodowe w Krakowie
- Postal address:
- Oddział III, 30-960 Kraków, ul. Sienna 16
- Phone number:
- +48 (12) 422 40 94
- Web address:
- http://ank.gov.pl/
- Email:
- sekretariat@ank.gov.pl
- Reference number:
- 29/117/1.1/7-29/117/1.6/34 [29.117 A]
- Title:
- Records of the City of Wieliczka, Old Polish records
- Title (official language):
- Akta miasta Wieliczki, akta staropolskie
- Creator/accumulator:
- Municipality of Wieliczka
- Date(s):
- 1722/1777
- Date note:
- First half of18th/second half of18th century.
- Language:
- Polish
- Latin
- Extent:
- 26 units (the size of the collection is unknown)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
Set up in the 13th century, Wieliczka is currently part of the Voivodeship of Małopolska [Lesser Poland] (województwo małopolskie), County (powiat) of Wieliczka, Metropolitan Area of Krakow; the town is known for its salt mine. In the 14th to 16th centuries, Jews were hired as local leaseholders or trade intermediaries for the state-owned enterprise responsible for salt mining [żupa solna {‘salt mine’} in Old Polish], but since 1525 were officially banned from settling in the town. From the late 17th century the ban was often violated, which is reflected in the municipal registers. Old Polish Jewish-related records are found in sections 1.1 (documents) and 1.4 (files concerning burgers), and encompass (save for some exceptions) the Saxon period and the first decade of Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski’s reign. Mentions of Jews appear in the records of the vogt and aldermen’s court, the town council’s court, the commissioners’ court [composed of commissioners delegated by the monarch], in documents of the Chamberlain [podkomorzy] of Krakow and in royal ordinances. The relevant files are as follows:
29/117/7: Ordinance for local publicans, 1730 – banning tavern-keepers of Wieliczka from acquiring alcohol from Jews; confirmation of the laws of the Town of Wieliczka by Augustus III, 1739 (banning Jews from residing in the town area); confirmation of the municipal privileges by Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski, 1765: ban on residence for Jews and on local burghers purchasing liquor and other commodities from Jews; Stanislaus Augustus’s privilege for the town, 1765: emphasising that the Jews are impoverishing the burgers; a royal privilege indicating that the number of Jews around the town is increasing; a 1753 excerpt from the report of Augustus II’s commission of 1733 for the salt mines of Bochnia and Wieliczka, banning residence of Jews, except for a certain Gidla with her husband (permitted to operate locally as factors).
A29/117/18 IT 281: 1722 – acknowledgements for the (female) factor from 1740s-1750s. Jews appearing in last wills of local burgers; settlements for vodka deliveries; text of a Jewish oath. 1754 – succession case between a townswoman of Wieliczka and Janas Perlowicz, a Jew.
29/117/19 IT 282: Publication of the Office of the Chamberlain of Krakow barring Jews from residing in Wieliczka and selling liquor within the area; 1769 – complaints against a Wieliczka town councillor regarding the purchasing of vodka from Jews; a trial at the Town Hall against burghers acquiring liquor from Jews, plus a related resolution.
29/117/30 IT 282: Letter from the Municipal Council of Wieliczka to royal commissioners, regarding (inter alia) certain burghers keeping Jews on their premises and providing for them, 1743.
29/117/32 IT 283: Taxation on the house of Janas Perlowicz, carried out upon a writ of the commissioners’ court, 1753; fee paid to a Jewish doctor for treatment – among the expenditures made by a Wieliczka town councillor prior to his funeral; 1777 – declarations of Mendel Salomon, a Jew, regarding a calculation error; interrogations concerning accidental setting of fires by Jews.
- Archival history:
- There is no inventory or handover report for the records. The records were probably kept at Wieliczka’s Town Hall or at the archive of the local Municipal Council. The National Archives in Krakow probably took over the collection after the Second World War. Initially, a temporary inventory was compiled for these units.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Wieliczka was initially governed by its vogts (wójts), in person. Subsequently, the government was divided into the ‘bench’ (consisting of three aldermen and six jurymen) led by the vogt, and the council (of six councillors) nominated by the Krakow Chamberlain. Each of the councillors acted as the burgomaster on a rotating basis. From the 17th century onwards, the town council office and the town’s commonalty elected the vogt, aldermen and treasury commissioners. The Municipal Council was assisted by a syndic, an instigator and a scribe. The Chamberlain largely influenced the town council’s composition until 1765. Wieliczka became part of the Austrian Partition in 1772.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Gidla
- Perlowicz, Janas
- Salomon, Mendel
- System of arrangement:
-
The fonds is arranged as follows:
29/117/1.1/7: [18th century registries and copies of privileges for the Town of Wieliczka, 1730-1783
29/117/1.4/18-29/117/1.4/19: [Copies of/excerpts from Wieliczka’s town council records, primarily concerning local burghers], 1614-1788
29/117/1.4/20-29/117/1.4/23: Protocols and copies/transcripts of records of the vogt and aldermen, 1662-1768, 1639-1764
29/117//1.4/30: [Copies of/excerpts from files of Royal Commissions for the Town of Wieliczka re. conflicts between burghers] 1742-1753
29/117//1.4/31: [Records re. contentious matters involving local burghers, supplications from the populace], 18th century
29/117/1.4/32: [Records re. property-related cases involving local burghers, inheritance cases and contentious cases, commercial transactions, debts; incl. property inventories, purchase contracts, scripts and testimonies of burghers, accounts], 1691-1788
- Access, restrictions:
- If copies (microfilms, scans, photocopies) are available, these will be provided to the researcher. Access to original documents requires the Director’s consent.
- Yerusha Network member:
- The Taube Department of Jewish Studies of the University of Wrocław
- Author of the description:
- Przemysław Zarubin, Kraków, 2018
