Perchment Diploma Created by the Chancellery of Bernardines Galician Province

A previously unpublished parchment diploma from the chancellery of the Galician Province of the Franciscan-Observant (Bernardines) offers new insights into the writing culture of Catholic monks on Ukrainian lands during the 19th century. The document, housed in Lviv’s Vasyl Stefanyk National Scientific Library, reveals traditional practices such as settling monastic estates under lay care—a necessity due to the mendicant order's prohibition on property ownership. Analyzed using archeography and sigillography, the diploma provides a snapshot of administrative and economic adaptations by Bernardine monasteries under Austrian rule following the 1772 partition of Poland-Lithuania. Comparative studies with additional surviving diplomas could further illuminate shifts in monastic writing culture during this period.

Loshtyn, N. (2021). Perchment Diploma Created by the Chancellery of Bernardines Galician Province. Archivi Ukraїni, 186–196. https://doi.org/10.47315/archives2021.329.186