Medieval records of Szadek district court held in the Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw - description and potential application

This paper first describes the functioning of first instance local courts of justice (called district courts) in medieval Poland, and against this background presents records of the District Court in Szadek. The historical documents, produced in the period between 1417 (first records) and 1768, constitute a separate archival file, which contains 106 volumes, between several hundred and over a thousand pages each. Ten of the preserved volumes are from the medieval times (1417-1510). The entries in the old books cover various matters: court Writs, information about court verdicts and sentences, lists of witnesses, records of credit and real estate transactions, obligations to settle payments etc. These archives are considered to be the main source for studies on landed gentry, but their vast potential has not yet been fully appreciated or exploited by researchers