Pieczęcie sądów ziemskich w Wielkim Księstwie Litewskim w latach 1564–1792
Seals of Land Courts in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1564–1792

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with seals of land courts and their officials in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (in nine districts of the Wilno (Vilnius) and Troki (Trakai) voivodeships) in 1564–1792. The study is based about two hundred unpublished seals of land courts and their officials. The article is divided into three parts: part one presents an analysis of how the use of seals by land courts and officials was described in the Statutes of Lithuania and the Volumina legum, and in what way those regulations were implemented in practice. Part two is devoted to a thorough heraldic and sphragistic analysis of the seals of land courts, and part three – to an analysis of land court officials: judges, and sub-judges (singular: podsędek, subiudex). The article puts forward the thesis that the norms included in the Second (1566) and Third (1588) Lithuanian Statutes, and those introduced by the reform of 1764, regulating the use of seals of land courts and of their officials were abided by. The article is supplemented by an annexe with the photographs of seals of land courts and their officials.

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