Polish royal privileges for Prussia in a XVIth century manuscript

Abstract

The article is dedicated to a manuscript stored in the Rare Books Department of the State Historical Public Library (Moscow), containing the texts of the nine privileges from the mid‑15th to early 16th centuries, issued by the Polish kings Casimir IV and Alexander to the cities of Royal Prussia. The compilation of the texts in 1570 coincides with an important stage in the struggle of the Danzig patriciate with the Polish royal power for the economic and political rights of the “free city”. The content, design and history of origin make the monument a valuable source for studying the history of Danzig and Royal Prussia in the 15th and 16th centuries. The appendix contains the texts of two privileges that were not included in the general collections of documents on Prussian history.