DOCUMENTS OF THREE GALICIAN 13th-CENTURY PRINCES ON THE WALLS OF THE ST. PANTALEON’S CHURCH (A NEW READING)

Abstract

The article deals with graffiti inscriptions of legal nature on the walls of the St. Pantaleon’s Church in Halych. The inscriptions date back to the 13th century. In recent years they were published several times with significantly diverging transcriptions and interpretations. These discrepancies are analyzed in the first part of the paper, whereas the second offers a new publication of three records from the time of Mstislav Mstislavich, Andrey Andreyevich (a son of the Hungarian king Andrew II), and Daniel Romanovich. It also includes brief notes on an additional graffito from the epoch of Mstislav Mstislavich, which is damaged, partially inexсessiblе and thus difficult to study. With the help of three-dimensional models created by the RSSDA Lab it became possible to read the three documents almost completely. All turned out to be court verdicts acquitting defendants of various misdoings. The exact nature of the accusations is not described. The documents contain information on payments of court fees by acquitted defendants (the fee is variously called «vykladnoe», «vyhod», and probably «vyhodnoe») and list witnesses (six for each case).