Taxatio rerum olim… — 16 th century probate inventories from the municipal books of the Sandomierz voivodship

Abstract

The 16th-century probate inventories surviving in the municipal books of the old voivodship of Sandomierz were compiled in usual circumstances, when it was necessary to record and evaluate the possessions of a deceased person to pass them to the legal heirs. Some records were made in connection with the return of gerada, i.e. part of the movable property which according to the law of succession was due to women. In rare cases such inventories were made in con-nection with creditors’ claims or to record confiscated property. The surviving municipal books from the area in question include 31 probate inventories from the 16th c., the oldest registered in 1535. Most of the records come from the years 1560––1590. They were usually entitled simply taxatio rerum or taxa rerum, which did not fully refl ect the contents, since it was not common to evaluate the property in them. The inventories usually bear the date on which they were registered in the municipal books, specifi ed according to the liturgical calendar; no inventory in question gives the date when it was actually compiled. It is also difficult to establish who was responsible for making inventories since the sources mention ready inventories brought to the office by the relatives of the deceased or by executors of their last wills, and inventories written in the offi ce on the basis of oral testimony. In addition to the date it is important to note the order that the inventory was supposed to follow. With time, legal instructions started to be prepared, specifying the proper ordering of an inventory. They stressed that the  possessions should be grouped according to certain criteria or listed according to the rooms in which they were found. In the inventories analysed for the purposes of this article this sort of ordering is not clear; in practice inventory-takers paid attention to the condition value, number and weight of the items recorded. Thus, the inventories analysed usually started with the most valuable movables which were part of the estate, for example jewels, cash or overcoats. Some inventories listed livestock, food or grain, but certainly the most valuable possessions were pieces of jewellery, usually silver ornaments of clothing. Clothes were often listed, with heavy overcoats at the beginning. Women’s inventories mentioned gowns with corsets, chemises and tunics. Men’s inventories noted various coats (żupan, giermak) and what was called “wear”, i.e. probably trousers. All inventories included headgear. An important part of the estate was bedclothes and linen, with towels and tablecloths recorded less commonly. Many inventories list kitchenware and tableware. The sources examined rarely mention the amount of cash left by the deceased. Cash was mostly listed in inventories regarding debts; the same concerns immovable property. Despite various flaws, probate inventories remain a mine of information on the material culture of burgher life, especially on clothing and furnishings. Interestingly, the inventories analysed never mention books, pictures, musical instruments or pieces of handicraft. It is impossible to fi nd out whether burghers were not affl uent enough to buy them or they were just overlooked by the inventory-takers. Perhaps this is another proof of the selectivity of probate inventories, noted by Andrzej Pośpiech.