Zolotnyky was a town on a merchants’ road by 1469, 16 years before it was “granted town rights”

The entry, as printed

Michaelis Slothnyczky. Primo exhibuit literam super advocaciam in Zlothnyky opido perpetua; et tenetur servire una hasta et duobus sagittariis. … Litera super opidum Slothnyky, quod tenet Michael Slothnyczky. Cum theloneo a curru pervum grossum et a bove tres denarii et servicium continet cum una hasta et uno sagittario; viam habet mercator de Leopoli per Sabalow in Podoliam et Halicz.

In English

[Charters] of Michał Złotnicki. First he showed a perpetual charter for the office of wójt in the town of Złotniki; and he is bound to serve with one lance and two archers. … A charter for the town of Złotniki, held by Michał Złotnicki. With a toll: from a cart, a small groat; from an ox, three denarii; and it states service with one lance and one archer; the merchant has [here] his road from Lviv through Sabałów to Podolia and Halych.

What the reference books say

Zolotnyky on the Strypa has an early first mention on Wikipedia, 28 November 1435. Its history as a town is started in 1485, when, according to the reference books, the Złotnicki family obtained town rights for it.

But there is a record in which Zolotnyky is already a town. And it is sixteen years older.

Spring 1469: the gentry show their charters

In the spring of 1469 royal officials held an inspection in Ruthenia: everyone who held an estate or a right from the king had to show his charters. The clerks briefly noted whose charter it was, for what, under which seal, and how many soldiers the holder owed. A separate section was given to tolls: who collected money from carts and oxen, and by what right.

This register was published in 1902 by Aleksander Jabłonowski. Local historians have taken individual villages from it, but far from all.

A wójt, a toll and a merchants’ road

Michał Złotnicki showed the inspectors “a perpetual charter for the office of wójt in the town of Złotniki”. A wójt was the head of a town community under German law, and a hereditary wójt is the usual mark of a town founded under that law. In return Michał owed the king one lance and two archers.

In the section on tolls the clerk added another charter, “for the town of Złotniki, held by Michał Złotnicki”: from a cart, a small groat; from an ox, three denarii. And he explained why there was a toll: here “the merchant has his road from Lviv… to Podolia and Halych”. So in 1469 Zolotnyky was a town with a wójt, a toll and a place on a trade road.

How we know it is our Zolotnyky

The holder is Michał Złotnicki, of the same family that, according to the reference books, obtained the town rights of 1485. The same inspection records money owed to him on the villages of Kosiv and Zvyniach, which lie not far away, in the neighbouring Chortkiv area.

Zvyniach, by the way, is first mentioned on Wikipedia under 1549. In the 1469 inspection it is eighty years older.

What this changes

The 1485 privilege most likely confirmed or renewed an older town right. The inspectors did not record when the first charter was issued, so 1469 is the latest possible date, not the day of founding.

We have not yet securely identified Sabałów, through which the merchants’ road ran. If anyone in Zolotnyky knows the old road from Lviv to Podolia and the places where tolls were taken, it would help.

Sources

• A. Jabłonowski, Źródła dziejowe, vol. XVIII, part 1 (Warsaw, 1902), appendix “Lustratio an. 1469”, p. 52 (charters of Michał Złotnicki) and p. 67 (section on tolls).
• Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego, vol. XIII (Warsaw, 1893), entry “Wierzbowiec” (the location of Kosiv and Zvyniach).

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