Nieruchomości oraz sumy pieniężne na rzecz instytucji świeckich i religijnych w Krakowie jako przedmiot spadkobrań szlacheckich w XVII wieku (w świetle aktów podziałowych z krakowskich ksiąg grodzkich)

Abstrakt

PROPERTIES AND SUMS OF MONEY DONATED TO SECULAR AND RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS IN KRAKÓW AS THE SUBJECT OF NOBLES’ INHERITANCE IN THE 17TH CENTURY IN THE LIGHT OF PROBATE DIVISION RECORDS IN THE KRAKÓW MUNICIPAL BOOKS

The article discusses the issue of divisions of property and money donated by the nobility to secular and religious institutions in Kraków in the 17th century. Basic sources for the case study were the almost 200 nobles’ probate division records from that century included in the Kraków municipal books. The sources have revealed a number of facts pertaining to the procedures of probate divisions of property and sums of money donated by 17th-century nobles to various institutions functioning in Kraków at that time. Apart from discussing the problem of probate divisions of such elements the author also presents substantial source text material which can be of much help for scholars interested in the history of the capital of Małopolska in the 17th century. The present case study reveals that the divisions of nobility’s property in Kraków in the 17th century were regulated mainly by inheritance laws typical for the common law. Houses, manors and their surroundings were treated as elements of property which underwent similar regulations as the divisions of villages, estates or forests. The research has revealed practically no evidence of the use of town law in property inheritance procedures. The author indicates the fact that the nobility involved in property divisions also considered various obligations pending on the property which had been undertaken by the testator, since at that time the law enforced the beneficiaries’ legal responsibility for any debts or obligations which had been undertaken by the testator and were pending on the real estate. Among the probate division records a number of documents informing about nobles’ donations to church and secular institutions in Kraków have been found. The outcomes of the research indicate that the benefactors of sums of money and land rents resulting from repurchase agreements at that time were mainly the institutions of the Catholic Church in Kraków, i.e. monasteries, convents, the Kraków Chapter, the chapels located in various churches in the city, or religious brotherhoods. In the light of the sources which are the subject of the present study the only secular institution in Kraków which was the beneficiary of various sums of money donated by the local nobility was the Kraków Academy.