DOI article:
Jaworski, Rafał: Zastawa paradna wielkich książąt litewskich w świetle spisu z roku 1545
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19890#0172
court, also vodka. This last alcohol was ladled with smali kovshes.
A set of five such smali vessels is entered on the list.
Four kredenses constitute another category. These objects were to
protect the banąueters against poison. Their origins are not yet well
known. A belief in the power of kredenses was based on the
knowledge drawn from bestiaries. The stem set on a lavishly
omamented foot usually assumed the form of a stalk. From its top
there departed some ”twigs” with mounted tongues or dragon ’s teeth
suspended from them. These were the teeth of fossil animals.
Furthermore, enumerated in the receipt were a coconut shell in a
silver-gilt mount with a cover and a beaker madę from the horn of
”a unicom”. They performed a similar function as did kredenses -
they were to protect the user against poison. There were many other
drinking vessels enumerated on the list (silver beaker, crystal tumbler,
Turkish bowls, and Venetian tumbler) and also those for storing
liąuids (can). Besides, four sets of spoons and four knives were listed.
In addition, scrap silver weighing half a kilogram as well as scrap
copper-gilt were given out of the treasury.
The last two items are trubkas. The word trubka has several
meanings. Here it probably appears in its most generał meaning as a
smali cylindrical object. One of them was madę of jasper and the
other was defined as smolzhovaya. Perhaps this adjective is derived
from the Russian word smoła - tar - which would indicate that the
trubka was black.
Some items were provided with the information on whose property
they had been before they found their way to the treasury. It has been
established that the Grand Duke received a group of them by escheat.
that is, by the right of the ruler to personal and real property after the
family of the owners had died out. Acąuired in this way for the treasury
was the silverware that had belonged to Prince Fiodor Ivanovich
Yaroslavich (d. 1521) and Princess Maria Rovienska (d. ca 1517).
The list also includes items connected with the clergymen of the
Orthodox Church. These objects pose the problem of identifying
particular persons and indicating the circumstances in which these
articles reached the treasury. It was the Grand Duke who appointed
officials in the Orthodox Church. He introduced the elected clergyman
into possession of the property appertained to a given dignity and - in
the case of bishops - approached the patriarch of Constantinople about
their consecration. The presentation of the clergyman-elect to the ruler
was a part of the process of his installation. Perhaps during the
presentation the clergymen brought gifts to the Grand Duke.
The 1545 receipt is a valuable testimony to coexistence at the
Lithuanian court of two cultural traditions. The Grand Duke’s table
was set with objects connected with the court tradition of Western
Europę and the customs of the East.
The fact that the above-mentioned silverware was stored in the State
treasury, in the care of a treasurer. indicates that these objects were
treated as State, not ducal, property.
A set of five such smali vessels is entered on the list.
Four kredenses constitute another category. These objects were to
protect the banąueters against poison. Their origins are not yet well
known. A belief in the power of kredenses was based on the
knowledge drawn from bestiaries. The stem set on a lavishly
omamented foot usually assumed the form of a stalk. From its top
there departed some ”twigs” with mounted tongues or dragon ’s teeth
suspended from them. These were the teeth of fossil animals.
Furthermore, enumerated in the receipt were a coconut shell in a
silver-gilt mount with a cover and a beaker madę from the horn of
”a unicom”. They performed a similar function as did kredenses -
they were to protect the user against poison. There were many other
drinking vessels enumerated on the list (silver beaker, crystal tumbler,
Turkish bowls, and Venetian tumbler) and also those for storing
liąuids (can). Besides, four sets of spoons and four knives were listed.
In addition, scrap silver weighing half a kilogram as well as scrap
copper-gilt were given out of the treasury.
The last two items are trubkas. The word trubka has several
meanings. Here it probably appears in its most generał meaning as a
smali cylindrical object. One of them was madę of jasper and the
other was defined as smolzhovaya. Perhaps this adjective is derived
from the Russian word smoła - tar - which would indicate that the
trubka was black.
Some items were provided with the information on whose property
they had been before they found their way to the treasury. It has been
established that the Grand Duke received a group of them by escheat.
that is, by the right of the ruler to personal and real property after the
family of the owners had died out. Acąuired in this way for the treasury
was the silverware that had belonged to Prince Fiodor Ivanovich
Yaroslavich (d. 1521) and Princess Maria Rovienska (d. ca 1517).
The list also includes items connected with the clergymen of the
Orthodox Church. These objects pose the problem of identifying
particular persons and indicating the circumstances in which these
articles reached the treasury. It was the Grand Duke who appointed
officials in the Orthodox Church. He introduced the elected clergyman
into possession of the property appertained to a given dignity and - in
the case of bishops - approached the patriarch of Constantinople about
their consecration. The presentation of the clergyman-elect to the ruler
was a part of the process of his installation. Perhaps during the
presentation the clergymen brought gifts to the Grand Duke.
The 1545 receipt is a valuable testimony to coexistence at the
Lithuanian court of two cultural traditions. The Grand Duke’s table
was set with objects connected with the court tradition of Western
Europę and the customs of the East.
The fact that the above-mentioned silverware was stored in the State
treasury, in the care of a treasurer. indicates that these objects were
treated as State, not ducal, property.