Pieczęcie sądów ziemskich w Wielkim Księstwie Litewskim w latach 1564-1792

ENEstablished after the reform of 1564–1566, land courts handled civil cases and performed notarial functions. From their establishment, each district land court had its own institutional stamps: the stamp of the land court used exclusively for summons (issued in the name of the sovereign), and stamps of the land court officials (the judge and the sub-judge) used for all other land court documents signed by the land court Scribe. Archival sources confirm that the regulations established in the articles of the Lithuanian Statutes and Sejm Constitutions concerning the use of seals of the land court and its officials were implemented in real-life practice. A thorough heraldic and sphragistic analysis of seals of the land court and its officials in the Wilno (Vilnius) and Troki (Trakai) palatinates (nine districts) of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is presented, based on about two hundreds of previously unpublished seals, kept in library and archive collections. The practice of using different stamps of land court officials, the judge and sub-judge, was discontinued after the 1764 reform, and a single land court stamp was used by each district land court after that time. In 1788–1792, the Four-Year Sejm introduced a new administrative division and reorganized the existing court system, namely, it replaced district courts, the castle court, the land court, and the underchamber court with new institutions. Similarities can be found in other districts of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, but this should be an object of further detailed research. [From the publication]