Document about the early history of the town of Yavoriv from the year 14?8

Abstract

The article is devoted to a document, concerning the early history of the center of crown domain in L’viv land of Rus’ Voivodeship, the Galician town of Yavoriv. There was a shoemaker guild in the 15th century. The contemporaneous authorities in the person of Andrzej Szamotulski allocated 16 trade pavilions for the sale of quild products and also approved its charter. The document, according to an official dating, created in 1408, but the key figure in it – Yavoriv lease-holder and Międzyrzecze castellan Andrzej Szamotulski – was not even born at that time. However, in a number of papers, the document is referred to as containing the first mention of the town of Yavoriv. We made our own attempt to outline the date of its creation – between 1473 (the date of the acquisition of Yavoriv and the neighborhood by Andrzej into the mortgaged possession) and 1511 (the year of his death) years. It was probably May 1, 1478 (or 1488), as we know of cases, where the scribe „forgot” to write the penultimate number in the creation year.

We also analyzed the content of the document – mainly the statute of shoemakers, which regulated the issues of organization and internal life of the quild corporation: the order of entry, common workplace ethics violations and punishment for this. Analyzing its text, we did not find any mention of corporal punishment, production of „masterpiece” (model product) and daily production quotas.

Additional provisions of the charter were introduced in 1622 and approved by Yavoriv burgomaster in connection with another confirmation of the original document. Adoption of additional provisions by the town authorities testifies that its role in the 17th century increased (in contrast to the 15th century, when lease-holders of the Szamotulski family were the rightful owners in the town). The article is accompanied by the publication of the original document, with confirmations of 1578, 1623 and additional provisions.