Kauno žemės teismas paskutiniaisiais Stepono Batoro valdymo metais (tematinio tyrimo metmenys)

LTKauno pavieto bajorijos, sudėtinės LDK valdančiosios „tautos“ dalies, veikla XVI a. pabaigoje beveik netyrinėta. Tyrimo tikslas ir uždaviniai – atskleisti lietuviškosios (LDK) bajorijos žemės teismų kasdienybę praėjus keliolikai metų nuo naujojo tipo teismų įkūrimo, tyrimo objektas – Kauno pavieto bajorija ir jos kasdienybė žemės teismuose. Straipsnyje pagal išlikusias 1581–1583 ir 1583–1584 m. Kauno pavieto žemės teismo knygas nagrinėjamas žemės teismo darbas, kuriame atsiskleidžia svarbiausios tos epochos bajorijos gyvenimo aktualijos. [Iš leidinio]Reikšminiai žodžiai: Pavietų žemės teismai; Antrasis Lietuvos Statutas, 1566; Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės bajorija; Land Court; Lithuanian Nobility; Court Books.

ENThe district (powiat) land court of Kaunas district in the 1580s played a two-fold – judicial and notarial – function. A comparison of records shows that the functions were nearly identical, although certain land court hearings reveal the prevalence of notarial records. The judicial part of the books reveals not only the procedural side of the activities of the said institution, but also a multi-fold pre-trial aspect of court work – complaints of nobles, inspections of bedels (woźny), enforcement and nonenforcement circumstances of court judgements, reconciliation without legal proceedings, etc. The books of land courts give an account of the flamboyant nobility life of the epoch. The phenomenon of the new courts involved all nobility ranks in the district. In court, nobles solved their property and family affairs: they used to sell, purchase, give, mortgage, exchange and distribute their property, draw up the certificates of their estate inventories, record the last wills and testaments of their deceased relatives, bring lawsuits against their villains, make complaints about their debtors and even expose their injuries or calculate cash losses.Court books may reveal totally unexpected plots; therefore, they are an inexhaustible source of history for studying the daily life of nobility in the GDL of that time. Even though the work of the institution itself was strictly regulated, they contain things which are far beyond any borders of social class, chronology or territorial borders of a specific court. Thus, we not only encounter nobles but also town residents or peasants, and even members of other religions, Jews or Tartars, or foreigners (Poles, Prussian Germans, Moscow residents) at the land court. The court of nobility used to hear several-tens-of-years-old cases; the records also include references to older events (they contain information on old privileges lost in fire or old privileges re-issued in new certificates). Not only local residents but also inhabitants of all the neighbouring areas or more remote districts could be met at the Kaunas Land Court. There is no doubt that the court books under analysis contain abundant data for the research of noble genealogy or legal nobility culture; they are inexhaustible deposits for economic historians, law studies or representatives of special historical sciences. Once we look at the turning-point of interpersonal relations through the legal prism, we may also make unique discoveries of historical psychology, leading us to the dimension of world-views of the GDL residents of that time. [From the publication]