History of Wills, Testators and Their Families in Late Medieval Krakow Later Medieval Europe Managing Editor Douglas Biggs (University of Nebraska – Kearney) Editorial Board Sara M. Butler (The Ohio State University) Kelly DeVries (Loyola University Maryland) William Chester Jordan (Princeton University) Cynthia J. Neville (Dalhousie University) Kathryn L. Reyerson (University of Minnesota) volume 23 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/lme History of Wills, Testators and Their Families in Late Medieval Krakow Tools of Power By Jakub Wysmułek leiden | boston This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided no alterations are made and the original author(s) and source are credited. Further information and the complete license text can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. The terms of the CC license apply only to the original material. The use of material from other sources (indicated by a reference) such as diagrams, illustrations, photos and text samples may require further permission from the respective copyright holder. The translation and Open Access publication of the book was supported by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education. The book received a financial grant (21H 17 0288 85) in the frame of National Programme for the Development of Humanities - 6 Round. Cover illustration: The Payment of the Tithes (The Tax-Collector), also known as Village Lawyer, Pieter Breughel the Younger. LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021012442 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021012443 Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 1872-7875 isbn 978-90-04-44816-2 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-46144-4 (e-book) Copyright 2021 by Jakub Wysmułek. Published by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi, Brill Sense, Hotei Publishing, mentis Verlag, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag. Koninklijke Brill NV reserves the right to protect this publication against unauthorized use. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner. Contents Acknowledgements iX List of Figures, Graphs and Tables xi Abbreviations xiV Introduction 1 1 Definition of a ‘Will’ 6 2 The Will – A Theoretical Perspective 9 3 Source Base 11 4 Subject Literature 14 5 Structure of the Work 23 1 The Institution of the Will 25 1 Wills in Poland in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries 32 2 Church Guardianship over Wills 36 3 Property Laws in Medieval Cities 43 4 The Influence of Roman Law 51 5 Property Bequests and Canonical Wills in Fourteenth-Century Krakow 60 6 Emergence of the Communal Will in Krakow 70 7 Open and Closed Wills in the Fifteenth Century 82 8 Fifteenth-Century Wills “Made in Sickness and in Health” 89 9 Formula for Wills from 1485 95 10 Liber Testamentorum from 1450 99 11 The Number of Wills in Krakow from 1300 to 1500 104 12 The Reasons for Writing Wills 112 2 The Socio-economic Position of Testators 116 1 Social Characteristics of the Late Medieval City 116 2 Categories of Urban Social Subdivisions 119 3 Municipal Authorities as Testators 126 4 Occupational Structure of Testators 132 4.1 Merchants and Stallholders 135 4.2 Goldsmiths and Belt Makers 139 4.3 Food-Related Crafts 141 4.4 Clothing-Related Crafts 142 4.5 Metalworking and Armour-Making Crafts 143 4.6 Professionals of the Written Word 145 vi Contents 4.7 Other Crafts 150 4.8 Summary: Trade and Handicraft 151 5 The Financial Situation of Krakovian Testators 152 6 Social Structure in Other Cities and Towns 154 7 Wealth and Social Status 157 8 Dower Records in Krakovian Wills 159 9 Estimates of Testators’ Wealth 162 10 Characteristics of Particular Social Groups 167 10.1 Impoverished Testators 167 10.2 Testators of Modest Means 168 10.3 Moderately Well-Off Testators 169 10.4 Wealthy Testators 171 10.5 Extremely Wealthy Testators 172 11 Female Testators 173 12 Immigrant Testators 175 12.1 Immigration and the City’s Population 175 12.2 Newcomers to the City 176 12.3 Cultural Capital of Newcomers 182 13 Determinants of Testators’ Social Position 185 13.1 Economic Capital 185 13.2 Cultural Capital – Education 190 13.3 Social Capital – Quarter Captains, Tower Commanders and Administrators 192 14 Changes in Social Position 196 14.1 The Dower and Level of Wealth 197 14.2 Social Mobility 201 3 The Burgher Family 204 1 Family and Marriage in the Light of Law and Tradition 204 2 New Forms of Bequests for Wives 207 3 The Situation of the Widow 209 4 Children 216 5 Grandchildren 229 6 Siblings, Nieces and Nephews 229 7 Other Relatives 230 8 Servants and Co-workers 232 9 The Image of the Burgher Family as Presented in Late-Medieval Wills 235 Contents vii 4 The Burgher Religiosity 238 1 A Personal Relationship with God 242 1.1 Clergy 242 1.1.1 Confessors 242 1.1.2 Preachers 247 1.1.3 Other Clergy 250 1.2 Religious Objects in Wills 252 1.2.1 Rosaries 252 1.2.2 Books and Paintings 254 1.2.3 Expensive Symbols of Piety: Crosses and Agnus Dei Medallions 261 1.3 Participation in the sacrum: Personal Belongings Used for Religious Purposes 263 2 The Familial Dimension of Piety 270 3 The Corporate Dimension of Burghers’ Piety 280 4 Parish Identity and Ties to Other Religious Institutions in the Medieval City 293 5 Religion Civique – Communal Religiosity 300 5.1 Beguinages 313 6 Christian Duty 317 7 Summary 322 Conclusion 326 Appendix 335 Glossary 364 Bibliography 366 Index of Places 400 Index of Names 401 Index of Subjects 402 Acknowledgements When I started researching the topic of late medieval wills from Krakow, I was mostly interested in the details they offer regarding material culture and social relations in the city. I saw these acts as the lens through which I could perceive the everyday life of Krakow burghers. I also anticipated that the concentration of my efforts on the wills from one, relatively large urban centre would allow me to observe and track the changes occurring in the city over a longer period. However, I very quickly realised that the seemingly constant and unambigu- ous concept of the last will that I held differed significantly from the acts that I found in the sources – that is, in the documents and books created by the municipal offices of Krakow in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. During my study of the source material, these questions multiplied, prompt- ing me to change my perspective and, finally, to reorient radically the way I perceived the role and significance of ‘testaments’ in the process of transfor- mation of late medieval urban society. As a result of this close source study, I moved from the initial questions concerning what people did with the wills, to questions about what these acts, in a metaphorical sense, did to people. From viewing wills as records of objects, people, and religious practices, I came to see them as potent tools of power that had a significant impact on the under- standing of property ownership, family relations, and rivalry between secular and ecclesiastical authorities in the city. I hope that the questions posed and the answers I suggest will inspire other researchers to follow my path and to seek out the observed phenomena in sources created by citizens of other Eu- ropean cities of the period. This intellectual adventure that I embarked upon a few years ago would not have been so fulfilling and satisfying without the friendly and professional help that I received from colleagues, friends, and family members. Among many of them, I wish to thank especially Agnieszka Bartoszewicz, the promoter of my doctoral dissertation, for her encouragement, useful suggestions and practical help with making the first steps in reading and analyzing medieval wills. Dur- ing the later phase of the book development, I discussed many issues regard- ing my research and received thoughtful advice from Barbara Rosenwein, for which I am very thankful. The book would not have been completed without the unceasing support of my wife Ilona. Finally, I wish to thank Thomas Anessi who translated the book into English, and Pascal Porcheron who undertook the proofreading. The book was originally published in 2015 in Polish, as Testamenty mieszc- zan krakowskich (XIV-XV wiek), by the Polish Historical Society (Polskie Towarzystwo Historyczne) and Neriton Publishing House with the support of the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education. The translation into English and the Open Access publication of a revised and updated version of the book was possible thanks to a grant from the National Program for the Development of Humanities of the Polish Ministry of Education and Higher Education. Figures, Graphs and Tables Figures 1 The oldest woodcut picture of Krakow, Kazimierz and Kleparz, by Hartmann Schedl, Liber Cronicarum (1493) 353 2 Map of Wacław Grodecki (1535–1591). It was included in the first modern world atlas, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, published by Abraham Ortelius in 1570 (1579) in Antwerp. “Cracovia” is depicted in the lower left corner of the map, in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship. Jakub Wojkowski, CARTOGRAPHIA CRACOVIANA: Krakow i okolice na dawnych mapach — geoportal. Krakow: Uniwersytet Rolniczy w Krakowie, Wydział Inżynierii Środowiska i Geodezji, 2020. dawnemapykrakowa.pl 354 3 Plan of the city of Krakow by Filip Lichocki, issued in 1787.