1625 – A. Piotrkowczyk – Przywileie y Constitucie Seymowe (2 pages)

Title:                   Constitucie Statuta y Przywileie, na Walnych Seymiech Koronnych od Roku Pańskiego 1550 aż do Roku 1625 uchwalone
                   (Constitutions, Statutes and Privileges, passed at the General Sejms of the Crown from the Year of Our Lord 1550 to the Year 1625)
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Description:
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These are the first two leaves of the great collected edition of the laws of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was printed in Kraków in 1625 by Andrzej Piotrkowczyk the Younger, royal typographer.

The title page is printed in red and black. Its large two-colour woodcut shows the Commonwealth arms: the Polish White Eagle and the Lithuanian Vytis (Pogoń), with the Vasa family shield at the centre bearing the three Swedish crowns, the Gothic lion and the Vasa sheaf. A royal crown sits above, held by two winged figures. The imprint reads “W Krakowie, W Drukarni Andrzeia Piotrkowczyka, Krola I. M. Typographa, Roku Pańskiego 1625”.

On the back is Sigismund III’s Latin printing privilege, dated Warsaw, 6 March 1625. It recalls that the late Andrzej Piotrkowczyk had first published the collected constitutions. The king renews his exclusive right to print the laws of the Kingdom for ten years and grants it to his son, Andrzej Piotrkowczyk, Doctor of both Laws. Anyone else who printed or sold them would be fined 400 Hungarian florins. It is signed Sigismundus Rex and Iacobus Zadzik, the royal secretary who later became Grand Chancellor of the Crown and Bishop of Kraków.

The second leaf opens the Reiestr Constitucyi y Przywileiow Koronnych, the register of laws with year and folio number. Its first pages read like a summary of how the Commonwealth was built:

• Sejm acts from 1550 onward, and the incorporation of Podlasie, Volhynia and Kyiv into the Crown (1569).
• The Union of Lublin, 1569: the privilege for the union of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with the Crown, the confirmation of the union between the Polish and Lithuanian nations, and the seating of Polish and Lithuanian senators together. The constitutions of the first General Sejm of “both united nations, Polish and Lithuanian” follow.
• The Warsaw Confederation of 1572, Europe’s landmark guarantee of religious peace.
• The first royal elections: Henry of Valois and the Henrician Articles (1573), then Anna Jagiellon and Stephen Báthory (1575–76).

Publisher:             Andrzej Piotrkowczyk the Younger (c. 1585–1645), royal typographer, Kraków

Issued by:              Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, King Sigismund III Vasa
Leaf size:                 29,7 x 19,4 cm
Year:                         1625
Technique:            letterpress and woodcut

Reference:            Estreicher XX, 43–44; Budzyk, Bibliografia konstytucji I 3; National Library of Poland copy (Polona)

Condition:
Good. Both colours are strongly printed. There is toning and scattered spotting, and brown damp marks on the privilege and register pages. The edges are chipped, with small losses at the corners, and the inner margin of the title leaf shows traces of the old binding.
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This is an original antique map published in 1625 and NOT a modern copy or reprint

On your request I will provide a Certificate of Authenticity