Piotr Kitowski

Almost every judicial act is associated with lower or higher fees paid by a petitioner in whose interest the act is taken. The existing legal system or the applicable normative basis of law are irrelevant. The situation was no different in the early modern Europe. This article provides an analysis of the fixed and variable fees levied in the smaller cities of Royal Prussia. The problem of charges in the inheritance proceedings, during which the estate of the deceased testator had been resolved, passing over to the heirs entitled to inheritance, is presented based on the examples from Kościerzyna, Nowe, Chojnice, Sztum. Presentation focuses on the amount of individual fees, as well as the method of their calculation and collection. It is based on the preserved normative acts and examples from the eighteenth’s century town records. This makes it possible to incorporate both formal and practical side of legal charges, which in relation to the small towns of Prussia, were never widely discussed.

Review: S. Salmonowicz, Polnische Preussen oder Westpreussen. Ausgewählte Studien, Instytut Kaszubski: Gdańsk 2018, 159 p.

In 2018, Prof. Stanisław Salmonowicz, published his latest book entitled Polish Prussia or West Prussia. Selected Studies (Kashubian Institute in Gdańsk). It consists of the author’s biography and eight texts published in the last 30 years. The key binding individual works together is the subject of  Prussia, in which Prof. Salmonowicz specializes and is an undisputed academic authority. They raise the issue of relations between Royal Prussia and the Crown, the role of Königsberg in the era of Enlightenment, the functioning of the Academic Schools in Prussia and their importance for the identity of its inhabitants, the language in everyday life of early modern Toruń, the culture of Pomerania, and the image of Poland as seen through the eyes of Georg Forster. Assembling these broad elements into a single publication provides a major asset for researchers dealing with Prussian issues in general, and more broadly, with modern history.