Laws of Sagan.

Bookseller Notes

A curious survival in an attractive armorial binding, this is an early formulation of laws and statutes for the Silesian town of Sagan, today's aga , in Poland. The laws codified in this neat manuscript seek to govern both the spiritual and the quotidian lives of the town's inhabitants. A number of statutes relate to civic order, stipulating mandatory attendance at and good behaviour in church, as well as strict ordinances governing the public performance of music - 'by day and by light' only - and control on revelry at inns and during festivals.The laws represent a preoccupation with children entering into unsanctioned engagements, misdemeanours which are met with disinheritance and banishment; the pointed reference to 'all future' secret engagements surely suggests that such an undesirable union has already taken place. The laws deal at length with obligations surrounding inheritance of assets, which must be registered with the city council along the basic division of 'farendes good' and 'unfarendes good' (i.e. movable assets and real estate). Rights of ownership in marriage are outlined: Women who have produced living children have greater rights than those who do not, and there are various inheritance strata, no doubt broadly reflective of the large size of families and complicated family arrangements that arose from the high infant mortality rate and generally low life expectancy.The laws date to a period of Hapsburg dominion over the town; Elector Maurice of Saxony ceded Sagan to the Bohemian king Ferdinand I of Habsburg in 1549, and so it remained until 1627 (when Ferdinand II gifted Sagan to Albrecht von Wallenstein, his supreme commander in the Thirty Years' War). Created by a scribe who signs himself 'A. Kotte', the document is dated both 1577 and 1578. It would reward further research, and comparison with comparable towns in Silesia and beyond.