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    Published: 2020-05-04
    Vol. 68 No. 1 (2020)

    Late-mediaeval testaments from the mining towns of Lesser Poland

    Dorota Żurek
    Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej
    Section: Studies and Materials
    DOI https://doi.org/10.23858/KHKM68.2020.1.003

    Abstract

    The article discusses the results of the analysis of late-mediaeval testaments of burghers recorded in the oldest books of the mining towns in Lesser Poland: Bochnia, a salt-mining town, Olkusz, a lead mining centre, and Chrzanów, a town whose development at the turn of the early-modern era crucially depended on lead mining. The testaments came from the years 1424–1526; half of them from 1424–1455. The analysis concerned 79 records, all in Latin. The sources indicate that in the period in question a testament had not yet become a fre-quently used method of transferring property in the towns under scrutiny.The ulimae voluntatis records include various types of unilateral and bilateral deeds: testa-ments, pious legacies and spouses’ mutual bequests. The form was not complex; its greatest part was reserved for dispositions concerning property. Bequests concerned both immovables — houses, gardens, in Bochnia breweries and in Chrzanów malt barns — and movables, espe-cially furniture and clothing. Only three bequests related to mining were found; they were made in Bochnia and concerned a salt well, two work plots in the mine and nine salt mine workers.The testaments analysed often included bequests to spouses; another important though less common category were charitable legacies to parish churches or religious brotherhoods. As to the general characteristics of the group of testators, it included 41 men and 16 women, two of them widows. Most of the testators were artisans. The testaments analysed were mostly written down by members of the town elite; women were also active in this respect. Only a few testators were professionally connected with mining: there were three salt miners (one of them an elder of the salt miners guild, another being also a shoemaker), a saltern worker, a former salt mine guard and a lead trade middleman. Among the testators there were also representatives of the municipal authorities: incumbent and former councillors and aldermen.

    Keywords:

    testaments, town, mining town, Middle Ages

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    Żurek, D. (2020). Late-mediaeval testaments from the mining towns of Lesser Poland. Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej, 68(1), 37–50. https://doi.org/10.23858/KHKM68.2020.1.003

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