King Sigismund I (Zygmunt I, 1467-1548), called the Elder, approves the translation of Magdeburg city law from German into the Latin language, done by Mikołaj Jaskier and is granting it official status.
This document is connected with an outstanding testimony of the development of Polish legal culture. Until then, the basic regulations of Magdeburg Law were set down in German: The Saxon Mirror (Sachsenspiegel) and Magdeburg Weichbild (Magdeburger Weichbild). With the growing Polonisation of the German burghers of Krakow a need appeared to translate the regulations into Latin and then into Polish. A three-volume work by the main city clerk of Krakow, Michał Jaskier (died 1539), satisfied this need perfectly, especially because it contained additional comments about the specific character of the city law characteristic only of Poland. Owing to royal sanction, the translation by Jaskier was binding for all courts of the cities, towns and villages established under German law all over the country. The work was an indispensable legal manual and a starting point for further studies on city law, which yielded fruit in the form of the elaboration of a manual of this law in Polish by Bartłomiej Groicki (ca. 1534?-1605).
1535, Krakow
Parchment, lesser crown seal
State Archive in Krakow, ref. no Perg. 528