Istorijos šaltinių tyrimai / Studies in Historical Sources

This article is dedicated to the hitherto little investigated topic of the private document in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 15th – early 16th century. The key problem under consideration is the legal power of such document. Three aspects facilitate its “measuring”: utilization in court, relation to the approbation of the Sovereign, and attitude of the public (possibility of contest). Historical sources suggest of the birth of the private document in the GDL in the late 14th century, however, until the mid-15th century such documents were seldom drawn. Gradually the number of documents announced by private persons – the nobility, gentry and town-dwellers – increased. In the mid-15th century, court rulings related documents, characterized by amplified form and evidencing the emerging niche for the increase in importance of the private document, were started to be drawn, however the role the private document played in court was still rather insignificant. The situation changed dramatically with the introduction of the Lithuanian Metrica in the 1480s. This period witnessed the first cases of the utilization of the private document in court as the key evidence that determined the proceeding of the case. More than 200 cases of such use of private documents in court were detected prior to the announcement of the First Statute of Lithuania (1529). Testaments, acknowledgements of debts, property sales and mortgage papers and other documents were regarded as key evidence in court. Noblemen strived to receive the Sovereign’s privileges corroborating sales of property, however, they were not a compulsory means affirming estate related transactions. The private document was fully sufficient to legalize a transaction. In the second half of the 15th century such documents rapidly acquired the status of a common and widely used instrument supplementing and at the same time affecting private relations.