The First Two Charters for the Austin Penitential Canons regular in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at Bystritsa and Medininkai (1390–1391)

The article seeks to present a commented critical edition of the two charters issued by Władysław II Jagiełło/Jogaila, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, to the Austin Penitential Canons Regular who settled in recently converted Lithuania in the late 14th century in Bystritsa (in present-day Belarus) and Medininkai. They are dated 21 May 1390 and 2 April 1391, respectively. The existence of these documents was known to scholarship from at least the late 19th century, and a partial edition of the texts of later copies was easily accessible from the time when Jan Fijałek and Władysław Semkowicz published their Codex diplomaticus ecclesiae cathedralis necnon dioeceseos Vilnensis. This article contains the full edition of the Bystritsa charter, made from a copy that in all probability was made in June 1540. It also contains the full edition of the Medininkai charter, made from the original parchment produced some time between 1392 and 1394. The availability of the whole texts allows us to better identify the group of people involved in the process of the settlement of the Penitential Canons in Lithuania. In this respect, the most interesting case is represented by Andreas Lascarii, the future Bishop of Poznań (1414–1426). His involvement in the production of these documents may be regarded as his first-known activities in the public field

Archaeology · Art · Duchy · Penitential · Political science · Historical and Archaeological Studies · History · Law · Medieval European History and Architecture