Marginalia w księgach sądowych grodzkich i ziemskich Rzeczypospolitej Obojga Narodów w XVII i XVIII wieku. Prolegomena
The Marginalia in Municipal and Provincial Court Registers in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 17th and 18th Century. A Prolegomenon

Author(s): Monika Żeromska-Ciesielska, Tomasz Ciesielski
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the marginalia found in court registers — short notes which for the most part have little in common with the entries in official municipal and provincial court registers of that time and should not have been placed there. The municipal and provincial court registers were of great importance for the Polish and Lithuanian nobility, as they existed since the inception of the aforementioned judicial bodies, i.e. the 14th century. Their aim was to document the court verdicts and rulings concerning the property of the nobility. With time, they became regulatory and at the same time concerned private law, since the entries performed the function of land and mortgage registers, contained royal, hetman and magistrate universals, Sejmik resolutions and instructions, tax tariffs and tax-related documents, a register of the forces of the levy en masse, as well as various manifests concerning important events in the public life. Considering their legal and public importance, it would seem that the notes should have a purely marginal character: the marking of blank pages, entries concerning queries, which should constitute footnotes. A completely different type of marginalia can be observed in municipal registers, which, fortunately, appear very rarely. Those include notes of a frivolous or downright obscene character.

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