Metadata: Registers of the letters of the town of Kraków
Collection
- Country:
- Poland
- Holding institution:
- National Archives in Krakow
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archiwum Narodowe w Krakowie
- Postal address:
- Oddział III, ul. Sienna 16, 30–960 Kraków
- Phone number:
- +48 12 4224094
- Web address:
- http://ank.gov.pl/
- Email:
- sekretariat@ank.gov.pl
- Reference number:
- 29/33/1.17
- Title:
- Registers of the letters of the town of Kraków
- Title (official language):
- Libri epistolarum urbi Cracoviae [Księgi listów miasta Krakowa]
- Creator/accumulator:
- Kraków municipal government
- Date(s):
- 1540/1797
- Date note:
- 1540-1567, 1543-1680, 1681-1695, 1696-1712, 1713-1797
- Language:
- Polish
- Latin
- German
- Extent:
- 51 units; size of the collection unknown
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection is part of the larger collection of Records of the City of Krakow (strictly: Old Polish Archives of the City of Krakow 1300-1795). Due to the escalating conflicts with Kraków merchants and craftsmen, most Jewish-related records (concerning only Kraków-Kazimierz Jews) come from the Saxon and Stanislavian period (18th century); there are also documents from the 16th and 17th centuries (concerning violations of municipal rights by the Jewish population). As a rule, these are postulates of the municipal authorities aimed at limiting the size of Jewish trade and crafts in the city and its vicinity. Worthy of note is the correspondence in Jewish matters with the chancellor Andrzej Młodziejowski (1767-1780), copies of Jewish supplications addressed to central officials and instructions for the sejmik [regional noble diet] of the nobility of the Kraków province in Proszowice. The collection is particularly important for the study of the history of Jews in the royal cities of the Crown and Jewish-burgher relations in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the pre-partition period.
Ref. no.1312. Letters to chancellor Młodziejowski regarding Jewish trade; letters to the Wielopolski royal equerry regarding matters of Jewish trade; letters regarding a dispute with Jews (secretary, receiver Orłowski to the Kazimierz councillor, to the record holder Słomiński, to the voivode of Inowrocław Andrzej Moszczeński, to the record holder of the Antoszewski treasury); instructions for Kraków delegates in connection with a dispute with the Kazimierz Jewish community and lists of city delegates; a translation from a German letter to General Weymar regarding a dispute with Jews over trade; specification of goods which Jews wanted to trade; a memorial to the Crown Treasury Commission regarding a dispute with Jews; a copy of the memorial submitted by the Kazimierz Jewish community to the chancellor, a letter from the Cracow chamberlain Łętowski regarding the robbing of the church in Modlnica (the stolen silver was sold to Jews in Kazimierz); a letter from the chancellor regarding a Jew arrested in the town hall (1772); supplications of Kazimierz Jews to the chancellor; a letter to Chrzanowski, the Warsaw burgrave, regarding the city's conflict over the Jews.
Ref. no. 1313 Letter from the chancellor to the magistrate concerning a dispute between the Merchant Congregation and the Kazimierz Jewish community (1772); a letter from chancellor Młodziejowski on a committed infanticide (inspired by a Jew who allegedly limited the child’s mother's consciousness); a memorial for Wytyszkiewicz, registrar of the Crown Treasury, on the ban on Jews from being in the vicinity of the municipal scales; chancellor's letter regarding an imprisoned Jew; a letter to Słomiński's crown registrar on the matter of the Kazimierz Jewish community; a letter to Młodziejowski regarding Jewish trade; the desiderata of the city of Kraków (Point 2 concerns the restriction of Jewish trade in the city).
Ref. no. 1314 letters to Młodziejowski regarding Jewish trade; a letter to Schonvet regarding the Kazimierz community and the Jew Israel Baruch; information about Jews whose goods were sequestered; Resolution of the Perpetual Council regarding Jewish trade in Kraków; a letter to Franciszek Rzewuski, the royal marshal, regarding Jewish trade; a resolution of King Stanisław August Poniatowski regarding Jewish trade; letter to secretary Ogrodzki regarding Jews.
Ref. no. 1315 Letter from the receiver Lichocki to the merchant Fachinetti - the aforementioned decree regarding Jewish trade; a memorial to Moszczeński, voivode of Inowrocław; instruction for the sejmik [regional council of nobles] in Proszowice on Jewish trade; a letter from Kraków councillors regarding the possibility of reaching a compromise with the Kazimierz Jewish community, draft agreement between Kraków authorities and Jews; Lichocki's letter regarding the release of a Jew from the town hall prison; letter from the governor of Krakow, Kluszewski, on a decree issued in a dispute with the Kazimierz Jewish community; a list of goods that the Jews of Kazimierz want to trade; a letter to the Pomeranian Voivode, Ignacy Franciszek Przebendowski, regarding a conflict with Jews; letter from the record holder Sowiński on a conflict with Jews; a copy of the decree of the assessor's court in a case involving Jews; a memorial on a conflict with the Jewish community in Kazimierz prepared by the authorities of Kraków for the king; supplication by the Kazimierz Jewish community to the chancellor; the chancellor's letter regarding the Jew Abraham Jakubowicz; Fachinetti's letter from Warsaw regarding the Jews; letter from chancellor Młodziejowski by way of Lichocki and Mariani regarding the payment of custom duties by Jews.
Ref. no, 1316 memorial of the Perpetual Council regarding the Jews of Kazimierz; a letter to Lubomirski, a royal marshal regarding the Jewish debt; letter to Lubomirski regarding a Jewish innkeeper; letter from Lubomirski regarding Daniel Herszlowicz.
- Archival history:
- The registers were stored on an ongoing basis in the city archives located in the city hall (the old Polish archives of the Kraków city authorities until 1794; from 1816 the Archives of the Free City of Kraków). After 1887, when the Archive of Historical Records of the City of Kraków was established, the books began to be organised, preserved and processed, and made available for research by 1915. From 1936, the books were kept in the State Archives in Kraków. During the war, the records of the city of Krakow were placed under German supervision. In 1944, the records were temporarily stored in the Benedictine abbey in Tyniec. From 1952, the records were stored in the Provincial State Archives (now the National Archives in Kraków). Some records were lost. Materials from the years 1605-1629, 1634-1678, 1730-1733 are missing.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
The city council (magistrate) in which the councillors (8-16) sat together with the mayor (president) exercised actual power in the city. It held judicial, administrative, police and economic powers. Until the 1770s, it was independent in its decision making. The councillors chose their successors from among themselves (division into the old and new council). In order to sit on the city council, one had to have held the office of a juror previously.
The municipal trustee was a special office responsible for contacts with the court and magnates. Books of correspondence, kept chronologically, allowed for the registration of received and sent correspondence. The city council was both the addressee and the sender of the letters. Some of the correspondence received by the council was from the receiver and its plenipotentiaries. The correspondence addressed to the Kraków magistrate included letters from the Jewish community in Kazimierz. Letters from the king and central officials regarding the validity, violation or enforcement of municipal rights and privileges (including those regulating relations with the Jewish community in Kazimierz) were subject to particularly scrupulous registration.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Baruch, Israel
- Jakubowicz, Abraham
- System of arrangement:
-
The collection comprises the following sub-series:
29/33 / 1.17 / 1307-29 / 33 / 1.17 / 1308 Registers of Letters 1621-1727
29/33 / 1.17 / 1309 Compendium of letters to magnates 1728-1730
29/33 / 1.17 / 1310 Register of letters to magnates and protectors of the city of Kraków 1741-1751
29/33 / 1.17 / 1312-29 / 33 / 1.17 / 1314 Letters concerning various matters of the city of Krakow, written 1771-1775
29/33 / 1.17 / 1315-29 / 33 / 1.17 / 1317 Register of letters [Liber epistolarum] 1776-1781
29/33 / 1.17 / 1319-29 / 33 / 1.17 / 1321 Protocol of letters, registers of letters 1782-1786
29/33 / 1.17 / 1328 [Letters and requests written to the council and magistrate of the city of Kraków and officials and by the city of Kraków] 1543-1680
29/33 / 1.17 / 1329-29 / 33 / 1.17 / 1356 [Letters and requests written to the council and magistrate of the city of Kraków and officials and by the city of Kraków] 1681-1797
29/33 / 1.17 / 1357 [Memorials, desiderata and plans to improve the condition of the city of Kraków] 1680-1796.
- Access, restrictions:
- Scans and microfilms are made available first of all. Access to originals requires permission from the head of the Branch.
- Finding aids:
- Finding aids are available online.
- Yerusha Network member:
- The Taube Department of Jewish Studies of the University of Wrocław
- Author of the description:
- Przemysław Zarubin, Kraków, 2020