Vilniaus miesto Magdeburgo teisių suteikimo ir patvirtinimo privilegijos

• Klovas, Mindaugas, parengė [com]
• Urmański, Antoni, parengė [com]

LTLeidinyje publikuojamos svarbiausios Vilniaus miestui skirtos privilegijos, kuriomis buvo suteikta ir patvirtinama miesto savivalda – Magdeburgo teisės. Iš viso surinkta 18 dokumentų – pradedant 1387 m. kovo 22 d. Jogailos ir baigiant 1748 m. lapkričio 26 d. Augusto III Sakso privilegija. Privilegijos išverstos į lietuvių kalbą, tad visi galės susipažinti su jų turiniu. Knygoje apžvelgiama Vilniaus miesto savivaldos istorija, aptariamas neišlikusių privilegijų klausimas, privilegijų suteikimo aplinkybės, pateikiama privilegijų charakteristika, analizuojama dokumentų „kelionė“ per archyvus ir originalų praradimų istorija. [Anotacija knygoje]

ENSelf-governance. In the 12th-13th centuries, regulation of the autonomy of cities in the Germanic lands spread, leading to the formation of various types of town rights, among which the most important were Madgeburg, Lubeck and Kulm. Cities guided by these rights became noted for their autonomy: they elected their own city councils and courts, managed their city’s finances, handled the city’s economy and oversaw public order, and were granted privileges that guaranteed and defended their rights to trade and engage in craft production, as well as securing the towns people’s property rights. In turn, the city was bound to the ruler or other suzerain by certain tax obligations. The nature of this self-governance differed in each city, depending on conditions in each particular locality, therefore Germanic town rights varied significantly and sometimes overlapped depending on their geographical distribution. Kulm Law spread in the state of the Teutonic Order, whereas Lubeck Law was more popular in the cities of the Hanseatic League, meanwhile, Madgeburg Law was most widespread in the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the 14th century, Vilnius maintained close ties with the city of Riga, and in his letters Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas had invited new settlers to his domains, promising to grant them the same rights as in Riga: “may they [new settlers] enjoy having Rigan city civil rights, if, having sought council with the wise among us, no better rights were to be invented by then”. Riga had received the privilege of Hamburg Law, which had much in common with Lubeck Law.Nevertheless, with changes to the geopolitical situation, i. e., Lithuania creating a union with Poland and having adopted Christianisation under the Roman Catholic Church, on 22 March 1387 the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania Jogaila granted Magdeburg Law to Vilnius, which was already common and widely spread throughout the cities of the Kingdom of Poland. The confirmation privilege of Sigismund Kęstutaitis of 1432 additionally specified an example of self-governance - the city of Krakow: “we renewour granting of Germanic town rights, called Madgeburg law, to [...] with all the ensuing conditions, exceptions, provisions, points and articles, as is commonly known, the same Magdeburg Law that the city of Krakow received”. Historians have guessed that the mention of Krakow may be indicating knowledge of the Magdeburg Law books known of in Poland’s cities and used in their court proceedings: the Landrecht of the Saxon Mirror and the Magdeburg Weichbild, and also the latter city’s status as a legal authority. To this day, historians do not know to what extent the newly granted Magdeburg Law changed the established legal norms or which specific legal codices were used in Vilnius. It seems that a side from the organisation of self-governance (a relatively autonomous city administration and economy) and legal autonomy (separate courts), various innovations were slow in spreading and that there was no mechanical transfer of a foreign law. The most important result ofthe further spread of Madgeburg Law was the formation of a townspeople’s social strata, which was legally recognised by the Statutes of Lithuania. In the late 18th century, when Vilnius became incorporated into the territory of the Russian Empire, city self-governance was narrowed down - the magistrate was now subject to the orders of the governorate administration, yet it continued to use Magdeburg Law and previous privileges.Alas, not for long. In 1808, by order of the governor-general’s decree, the city’s six-member duma was founded and was given the majority of the city’s administrative functions. The magistrate was left with the processing of townspeople’s civilian and criminal court cases and the establishment and closure of craft guilds or workshops. Given the chance, the townspeople would frequently remind the Russian imperial authorities of the validity of Madgeburg Law in Vilnius and the city’s old privileges, however the tsarist administration avoided all public discussions of this matter for as long as it could. Only in 1832 governor-general Nikolai Dolgursky explained very bluntly that “the rights and prerogatives granted to Vilnius by the old privileges cannot be reinstated as they no longer comply with the general government resolutions and have long since lost their validity”. Finally, in 1840, Magdeburg Law was terminated and the townspeople had to abide by general Russian imperial laws, while in 1866 the magistrate itself was dismissed, passing on all of its competencies over to the duma. In this way, the city rights that had existed for centuries and the long-nurtured self-governance of the inhabitants of Vilnius were all extinguished. Number and nature of the privileges. The 1370s-1380s can be considered as the start of the spread of written culture in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, when documents of various types started being used not only when dealing with foreign policy matters, but internal affairs as well. On the occasion of the Christianisation of Lithuania, in 1387 the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania Jogaila issued three privileges: to the diocese of Vilnius, to Lithuania’s Catholic nobles and to the townspeople of Vilnius. Written privileges became a guarantee of these granted rights, and in this way the first steps were taken towards the Europeanisation of Lithuania. [...]. [From the publication]