Transaction approval from 15 III 1518

Financial transaction approval, Olsztyn, 15 March 1518

Original: Olsztyn, Archive of the Warmia Archdiocese, Dok. Kap. Z. 2/1.

When Copernicus was serving his Chapter as its administrator, one of his functions was to approve financial transactions of a certain kind. Four such transactions are known, all of them executed in the form of a sale (venditio). What is sold in these transactions, however, is not a material object, such as a house or a horse. Instead, what is sold is the rent (or part of the rent) of a farm cultivated by a tenant who pays an annual rent to the owner of the farm. In the four transactions approved by Copernicus as administrator, the owner sells the annual rent payable in future years (rent futures, so to speak) for an equal sum of money paid to him in full on the day of the transaction. At the same time be obligates himself (and his heirs or successors) to repay the purchase price in annual installments until the buyer is fully reimbursed. In document dated 15 III 1518 (three others were lost during World War II), for example, the seller receives 6 marks on 27 March 1518. In exchange, he promises to pay the buyer 1/2 mark a year until the rent is repurchased. If all goes well, the buyer's claim on the rent expires at the end of twelve years.

From Edward Rosen's Introduction published in: Nicholas Copernicus Minor Works (Warsaw-Cracow, 1985).

In God's name, Amen. To all and each who will see the present document, I, Nicholas Coppernig, canon of the church of Varmia, doctor of canon law, and administrator of the common property of the venerable Chapter of Varmia, etc., declare by the present [document] that Urban Scultetus, overseer in Ditterichswalt, holder of four exempt parcels in that place together with the office of overseer, having sought and obtained my permission for this [transaction], by a legal act of sale customary in these parts, affecting and concerning the four exempt parcels which he owns in the same place, with the consent of his wife and heirs, whose approval he promised in good faith, has sold to the honorable Nicholas Vicke, vicar of Varmia and chaplain of the castle in Olsztyn, buying for the fourth allod in Zcauwer owned by the venerable Baltasar Stokfisch, canon of Varmia, half a mark in good money of the annual rent, payable on the feast of St. Michael every year, in exchange for six marks of the same good money paid in full to him in cash. [Urban Scultetus] promises that he, his heirs, and the owners of the said parcels will pay at the next feast of St. Michael, in proportion to the [elapsed] time, half of the rent, that is, one-quarter [of a mark], and every year thereafter the entire rent of half a mark, to the said Baltasar or whoever will be the owner of the said fourth allod, until [Urban] himself, his heirs, or the owners of the parcels, will have accomplished the repurchase of this rent in whole or in part for himself or themselves, with money like that for which it was bought, rent in arrears, however, being previously paid in full in accordance with the time [involved]. In witness and confirmation of these [matters] the present document has been sealed with the seal of the office of administration. Done in the castle in Olsztyn on 15 March 1518 in the presence of Baltasar Lossau and Albert Szebulski, servitors, both called and summoned as witnesses to the foregoing [proceedings].

Translation by Edward Rosen.

Olsztyn, 15 March 1518

In nomine Domini. Amen. Vniuersis et singulis presentes litteras inspecturis, ego Nicolaus Coppernig, canonicus ecclesie Warmiensis, decretorum doctor bonorumque communium venerabilis Capituli Warmiensis administrator etc., significo per presentes, quod Vrbanus scultetus in Ditterichswalt scultetus, habens quattuor mansos ibidem liberos cum officio scultecie, petita ad hoc mea licencia et obtenta, legitimo vendicionis titulo in his partibus consueto, in et super mansos quattuor, quos ibidem possidet liberos, de consensu vxoris sue et heredum pro quorum ratihabicione bona fide promisit, honorabili d[omino] Nicolao Vicke vicario Warmiensi et castri Allensteyn capellano pro allodio quarto in Zcauwerb, quod venerabilis d[ominus] Baltasar Stokfisch, canonicus Warmiensis, possidet ememi, vendidit marcam dimidiam bone monete census annui in festo sancti Michaelis [29 IX] quottannis soluendum pro marcis sex eiusdem bone monete sibi in pecunia numerata plene persolutas [!] promittens super festo sancti Michaelis proxime futuro pro rata temporis census dimidietatem vtpote fertonem vnum, ac deinde singulis annis censum integrum marce dimidie prefato d[omino] Baltasari aut ei, qui eiusdem allodii quarti possesor extiterit, per se, suos heredes ac dictorum mansorum possessores soluere, donec ipse, sui heredes aut mansorum ipsorum possessores huiusmodi censum in toto vel in parte ad se pro simili quia emptus est pecunia duxerint redimendum, censu tamen retardato pro rata temporis integraliter primo persoluto. In quorum fidem et testimonium presentes littere officij administracionis sigillo sunt obsignate. Actum in castro Allensteyn die XV mensis Marcij Anno MDXVIII presentibus ibidem Baltasari Lossau et Alberto Szebulsky familiaribus, testibus ad premissa vocatis pariter et rogatis.