Rahoza. Przyczynek do dziejów kancelarii i dworu wielkich książąt litewskich w epoce Witolda

Abstrakt

The article is devoted to Rahoza, a man appearing several times in the milieu of grand duke Švitrigaila (Świdrygiełło) of Lithuania during his reign in Vilnius (1430–1432). Since his origins were unknown, and his name’s ethymology is Ruthenian, I tended to suppose that he came to Lithuania together with Švitrigaila from the Chernigov land where he had ruled in 1420–1430. However, a new source was found among the papers of the Königsberg archive (nowadays preserved in Berlin), a summary of grand duke Vytautas’ letter to grand master of the Teutonic Order Michael Küchmeister written in 1418, which mentions Rahoza as the supreme Ruthenian scribe („obirster Ruwssche Schreiber”) of the grand‑ducal chancery. This mention sheds an important light on the structure and organization of the Ruthenian department of this chancery. It allowed to reveal one more mention of Rahoza, namely his „signature” in a shortened form on Vytautas’ document of donation for Sanko in Podillya (Podole), issued in 1424.