Information about the object:
In the 1960s, archival records were revindicated from the USSR, which had been taken to Vilnius from the Archive of Ancient Records in Lublin in the late 1880s and which did not return to Poland under the 1921 Treaty of Riga. Some of them, however, still remain at the NAHB in Minsk. These polonica consist of old Polish books of noble and municipal courts created in chancelleries operating in the pre-partition Lubelskie and Bełmskie voivodeships and Chelm Ziemia. The concept of the task had its genesis primarily in the need to record and collect digital copies of archival materials relating to today's Lublin Region that are located outside Poland.

Work completed:
The aim of the project was to digitise the books of the noble and municipal courts from the 16th to 18th centuries created in the chancelleries operating in the pre-partition Lubelskie Voivodeship, Bełz and Chełm Land. These records are currently stored in the National Historical Archives of Belarus in Minsk (NAHB). These are the books of the Lublin town registry, the Lublin land registry, the Hradel land registry, the Hradel town registry, and the Zamojski Tribunal for the Zamojski Ordinance Towns. Digitisation covered a total of 19 books.

Digital copies of the aforementioned archival materials are an important addition to the collection of the Hieronim Łopaciński Voivodeship Public Library in Lublin from the Old Polish period. Due to the specific functioning of Old Polish court books in the legal system of the First Republic, these materials are of great importance, first of all, for the history of the region, but they are also important on a national scale. In view of the impossibility of revindication or systematic monitoring of the state of preservation of these archival records, it was necessary to secure them in digitised form.

The books have been uploaded to the Digital Library of the Lublin Regional Public Library and are available online.

Funding: Programme of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage "Protection of Cultural Heritage Abroad".

More about the project: https://polonika.pl

• Biblioteka Publiczna im. Hieronima Łopacińskiego w Lublinie, realizacja w roku 2020.