Negligence, Lack of Time, or the Common Practice of Medieval Chancelleries? On the Missing Initials in Silesian Documents

Abstract

Despite the fact that it was common practice for medieval law chancelleries to put into legal circulation documents with missing initials, this phenomenon has been neglected by research. Iwona Pietrzyk’s article partially fills this gap by examining a collection of medieval documents issued by Silesian chancelleries. Her choice of this material has been determined by the specificity of Silesia itself, with its numerous territorial authorities subject to changes over time, its economic, ethnic and cultural diversity, and its rich diplomatic material. Pietrzyk’s research indicates that documents without initials were in circulation in Silesia throughout the Middle Ages. They were issued by various chancelleries, both lay and ecclesiastical, and they came from both the issuer and the recipient. Pietrzyk argues that we are dealing here with the common practice of medieval chancelleries, rather than with an individual oversight or negligence of a clerk. On the basis of her analysis, Pietrzyk concludes that the decision to leave an empty space in place of an initial was not that of the issuer of the document or the chancelleries staff, but that of the recipient, who, bearing the costs of drawing up the diploma, had the right to decide on its more or less elaborate graphic form. Also, it was for the recipient to decide to leave an empty space in order to fill the gap in the future with an initial appropriate to the rank of the document.