The paper analyzes the writing skills of Podolian nobles in the 16th century. The documentary source taken into consideration for the research is the 1563 Podolia Voivodeship Tax Registry, which includes hand-written notes and signatures of the estate owners. The analysis of these materials reveals the multilingualism of the writing produced in the territory of the Podolia Voivodeship. Ten linguistic combinations with the use of three languages – Latin, Polish and Ruthenian – were identified. The evidence points to the prevalence of Latin in writing. The second most used language was Polish, while the use of Ruthenian was insignificant. The relation of the language choice and ethnic identification is not straightforward, as the examples prove. The skill of writing was mostly the domain of officers (land, castle and private) who held positions that required them to write, as well as of representatives of the Catholic and Orthodox churches.
 

The paper analyzes the writing skills of Podolian nobles in the 16th century. The documentary source taken into consideration for the research is the 1563 Podolia Voivodeship Tax Registry, which includes hand-written notes and signatures of the estate owners. The analysis of these materials reveals the multilingualism of the writing produced in the territory of the Podolia Voivodeship. Ten linguistic combinations with the use of three languages – Latin, Polish and Ruthenian – were identified. The evidence points to the prevalence of Latin in writing. The second most used language was Polish, while the use of Ruthenian was insignificant. The relation of the language choice and ethnic identification is not straightforward, as the examples prove. The skill of writing was mostly the domain of officers (land, castle and private) who held positions that required them to write, as well as of representatives of the Catholic and Orthodox churches.