Nieznane wiadomości o Celestacie i konkursach strzeleckich w świetle średniowiecznych i nowożytnych rachunków miasta Krakowa

Abstract

PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN FACTS ABOUT CELESTAT AND SHOOTING CONTESTS IN THE LIGHT OF KRAKÓW’S MEDIAEVAL AND EARLY MODERN MUNICIPAL ACCOUNTS

The aim of the paper is to present previously unknown facts about Celestat and shooting contests recently uncovered in Kraków’s mediaeval and early modern municipal books of accounts. In the introduction the author outlines the present state of research on source material pertaining to this issue, starting from 1821, i.e. from the publication of the Statutes of the Marksmen’s School from the years 1562–1564 (Statuty) which originally appeared in the currently lost book of Fowler Brotherhood law (Prawo kurkowe); furthermore, special credit is given to Ambroży Grabowski who published extensively on the subject of Kraków’s shooting range and the Fowler Brotherhood in the course of his comprehensive research on the history of Kraków in the Old Poland period which involved an analysis of the original municipal accounts. This part of the paper also offers an overview of the source publications of Franciszek Piekosiński and the state of research on the complex of Kraków’s mediaeval and early modern books of accounts. In the main body of the paper, the author presents previously unknown facts about Celestat and shooting contests discovered in the course of preliminary archival research into municipal accounts, and the findings are divided into four categories: construction and renovation works pertaining to Celestat; purchase of prizes for the shooting contests; cost of preparation and coordination of the competition for the title of Fowler King (mostly the construction of a shooting pole), and the cost of annual parties organized at Celestat to honour the best marksman in town. The first section presents data documenting the renovation of Celestat in 1398 and sheds new light on the construction works connected with the erection of a new shooting range and the headquarters of the Fowler Brotherhood at Mikołajska Gate in the years 1564–1565 which were supervised by the city architect Gabriel Słoninka. The second category of expenses presents the summary of the annual costs which the Kraków City Council spent on the purchase of prizes for the winners of crossbow and black powder weapons shooting contests. These specific facts were also used to conclusively confirm the authenticity of Statuty published in 1821 by Konstanty Majeranowski. The last section focuses on the city’s expenditure on the festivities organized at Celestat each year to entertain the city’s councillors and the current shooting champion. In the conclusion of the paper the author presents examples of using information from Kraków’s books of accounts from the Old Poland period, as well as other series of archival documents generated by the municipal office, to extend and update knowledge about the artefacts from the Fowler Brotherhood’s collection at the Museum of Kraków.