This unit was developed by Vytautas Volungevičius Bibliography Didactic Comments
Source Sheet: The 16th Century, Vilnius as a Multicultural Center - Law
1. Magdeburg Law
1.1. Vilnius has the Magdeburg city rights
The rights of the City under Magdeburg law had been fixed in many documents. It is the corpus of privileges and other important legal documents having long-term meaning. Therefore, every important city, which had the Magdeburg city rights, could develop a variant of its legal regulation, apply and modify the already known legal norms. Vilnius got the Magdeburg city rights in the end of 14th c. according to the example of Krakow. It was fixed in the privilege of Jogaila (Jagiello) to Vilnius city in 1387. The later rulers of Poland and Lithuania in the privileges of 15th-17th cc. verified and amplified the Madgeburg city rights to Vilnius.
Privilege of Grand Duke Žygimantas Kęstutaitis of Lithuania to Vilnius, 1432
Grand Duke Žygimantas Kęstutaitis of Lithuania grants the Magdeburg rights to Vilnius according to the example of Krakow.
URL: http://www.mch.mii.lt/mab/Kolekcija/Pergamentas_En.asp?txtSign=F1-14
Privilege of self-government granted to Vilnius by Grand Duke Casimir Jagiellonian of Lithuania, 1441
Grand Duke Casimir Jagiellonian of Lithuania grants (confirms) self-government under the Magdeburg rights to the town of Vilnius, releases Vilnius inhabitants from jurisdiction of the courts of land law (Court Palatines etc.) and assigns them to the jurisdiction of the town administrator "vaitas”; allows the town to have its own weigh-house for wax, butcher’s house, to hold two annual fairs, to trade in beer, mead and wine; as well as allows the town dwellers to trade anywhere in the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, in return to one item of each of the goods to be sold; allocates a plot of land between the Neris river, Velniakalnis (Mount Tauras) and Lukiškės.
URL: http://www.mch.mii.lt/mab/Kolekcija/Pergamentas_En.asp?txtSign=F1-17
Sigismundus tertius, Dei gra(tia) rex Poloniæ, magnus dux Lithuaniæ..., 1630
Sigismund Vasa (Sigismundus), King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, transumes and confirms the privilege of Sigismund Augustus (Sigismundus Augustus) of January 16, 1566, which confirms the Magdeburg rights granted to Vilnius city (Vilna).
URL: http://pergamentai.mch.mii.lt/IstoriniaiLietDok/istoriniailietdok_7en.en.htm
After grant of Magdeburg rights to Vilnius, the synthesis of the new legal regulation and the former legal was performed. Many various privileges and other documents, which were legally important, were created.
Privilege of Grand Duke Žygimantas Kęstutaitis of Lithuania to Vilnius inhabitants, 1432
Grand Duke Žygimantas Kęstutaitis of Lithuania exempts Polish and Russian inhabitants of Vilnius from customs duties and other levies in the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: Luck, Kiev, Podolia, Smolensk, Brest, Navagrudak, Minsk, Kaunas etc.
URL: http://www.mch.mii.lt/mab/Kolekcija/Pergamentas_En.asp?txtSign=F1-13
Privilege of Grand Duke Casimir Jagiellonian of Lithuania to the town of Vilnius, 1440
Grand Duke Casimir Jagiellonian of Lithuania allows Vilnius inhabitants, according to the old custom, to trade in the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania without paying customs duties
URL: http://www.mch.mii.lt/mab/Kolekcija/Pergamentas_En.asp?txtSign=F1-16
Privilege by Casimir Jagiellonian, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, to the inhabitants of Vilnius, 1448
Casimir Jagiellonian, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, allows the inhabitants of Vilnius to trade in the territory of the Kingdom of Poland without paying customs duties
URL: http://www.mch.mii.lt/mab/Kolekcija/Pergamentas_En.asp?txtSign=F5-2
Privilege of King and Grand Duke Alexander to Vilnius, 1502
This privilege of Alexander, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, was issued in 1502. It grants the residents of Vilnius the right to freely trade within the entire territory of Poland and exempts them from all trade duties.
Privilege of King and Grand Duke Alexander to Vilnius, 1505
This privilege of Alexander, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, was issued in 1505. It permits the construction of houses in Vilnius for merchants from abroad.
Tasks
1. In what languages the privileges and other legal documents for Vilnius city were written?
2. What aspects of city life have been regulated by these legal documents? (It is enough for the answer to follow a short description of each document).
Link
Short information in English concerning the official writing languages in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania:
1.2. International meaning of Magdeburg Law
Nowadays the Polish and Lithuanian historians pay big attention to the fact that the cities of Poland and Lithuania had the Madgeburg city rights.
In 2007 in Warsaw an exhibition was open, which was designed for the meaning of Magdeburg Law. We find an interesting map, in which the cities, which were under Madgeburg Law to the east of Magdeburg, are shown. There are not all of them shown here, but only the most important in the east of Europe.
URL: http://www.pma.pl/magdeburg/lotwa-gl.htm
Shared Copy: http://r6.sharedcopy.com/5rmpa2
URL: http://www.pma.pl/magdeburg/Zasieg%20prawa-ziel.jpg
Tasks
Why the right of City under Magdeburg Law, which originated from the German land Saxonia, was important also for the other towns in Poland and Lithuania?
While answering this question, we recommend to use some publications in the Internet, which are easily found in the Web search engines (Google, Yahoo etc.) with the key words Magdeburg Law, Magdeburg Rights, German town law.
2. Corporal punishment formerly and now
About a drunkard who is beating his wife and children (from Court Book of a Regent of Vilnius) – Vilnius, 1562 04 21
“Told by a townswoman Valentinienė Paulavičienė about Andrius Bažonavičius who, when drunk, guiltlessly beats his wife, her sister and children, and she it afraid that it could harm the health of her sister and children.”
Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės kasdienis gyvenimas. Lietuvos istorijos skaitinių chrestomatija / Sudarė ir parengė A. Baliulis, E. Meilus. Vilnius: Dailės akademijos leidykla, 2001, p. 602.
[The daily life of the Great Duchy of Lithuania. The sampler of readings of the Lithuanian history / Composed and prepared by A. Baliulis, E. Meilus]
Tasks
1. The words „guiltlessly beats” are cited in the source. For that the victim could call up the court. Has the husband the right to beat his wife and children if he is sober?
2. And what could have happened if a townswoman and her children would be beaten for misbehaviour or criminal act?
3. Do you think it was permissible to beat „for guilt” in the 16th century?
4. Was corporal punishment against an offender legal in other countries?
5. Was bodily injury, i.e. cutting off nose, ear or lip allowed? Or cutting off a hand or part of it in case of a captured thief?
6. And what about the present? Is corporal punishment permitted in modern European legal systems? Are there any countries of the world where corporal punishment is a legal penalty?
7. Is it legal to use corporal punishment on children, for example, pull the ear or beat with a belt or cane? Does it help to discipline children? What is your opinion?
General Tasks
1. Do you know where Magdeburg exactly is? Why it had so big influence to the development of cities of Middle East Europe? Can you make mention of some cities which have got rights of Magdeburg?
2. XVI century marked progress of law in Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In this century were codified three Statutes of Lithuania. Do you know some others law codices which were published in Europe in XVI century or before it?
3. What convey such a great and rapid codification of law and roundly change of juridical situation?
