Chancellery of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

The Chancellery of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (from late Lat. Cancellarius - clerk) is a state institution of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , which provides documentation for the functioning of the central authorities and administrations.

It was created at the end of the XIV century as a personal office of Prince Vytautas and was located in Vilna . It acquired the character of a state institution around the middle of the 15th century, when the domestic document flow increased significantly. The chancellor was the head of the chancellery ; in 1566, the post of sub-chancellor was introduced, replacing the chancellor during his absence. The introduction of the post is associated with an increase in the workflow in the state, as well as the fact that some of the heads of the office had to stay in the capital to approve state documents, and someone had to accompany the grand duke. The Chancellor was the keeper of the large state seal, the sub-chancellor was the small one, and therefore both of them were called "staplers." In addition, the chancellor and the sub-chancellor included in the staff of the office were regents , secretaries , clerks, and clerks . A separate group of employees were Arab and Tatar clerks, who handled documents in Arabic and Tatar, respectively . Sometimes, personal servants of large statesmen, often people of the chancellor and sub-chancellor, were involved in the work in the office. The office was secular in nature, only some Latin-speaking workers who were from Poland were at the same time church servants ^[1] .

According to the Belarusian historian Alexander Grusha , already at the beginning of the 16th century there was a division in the chancellery into Russian and Latin divisions, formed by language. Since 1696, paperwork was conducted in Polish.

Each department had its own clerks and secretaries. After the introduction of the post of sub-chancellor, the office began to divide into large (main) and small. Such a division was not approved organizationally, but was associated with the division of clerical books between the chancellor and the sub-chancellor. Pechatari kept not only books that they themselves kept, but also clerical books of their predecessors ^[1] .

The order of the office in general was as follows: on behalf of the chancellor or sub-chancellor, the document was prepared by any of the clerks in the office, after the document was confirmed by large or small print, after which the text of the document was copied into the book, which was kept when the document confirmed the document ^[1] .

The functions of the office included the preparation of documents of the central administration of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, but the main task was to ensure the decisions of the Grand Duke and the Rada of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , as well as the Sejm , which did not have its own office. The office performed a huge amount of work, which is associated with appeals by private individuals. All letters of deed confirming privileges and court decisions issued to private individuals were prepared here. In addition, the office was engaged in witnessing private real estate transactions, entered copies of these documents in special “copy books”, and, upon request, made extracts from them, that is, served as a notary public. For the issuance of documents on hand, copying them or extracting from copy books, the office took a fee. Also, the reason for the enormous volume of work of the office was its maintenance of legal proceedings . On behalf of the Grand Duke, clerical workers took part in trials: printers as judges, secretaries and clerks - assessors. The clerks were sometimes included in on-site trial commissions. ^[1]

Since the end of the 15th century, the office also began to perform functions that were not related to documentation support - it served as the embassy service and state post office. In addition, the office staff was often assigned to work as auditors , graduates , commissioners , and to fulfill other instructions of the authorities. The Chancellery was a single executive body of the state, but only technical, since it did not take its own managerial decisions. Nevertheless, it was the state governing body of the principality . Office workers constituted the intellectual elite of the state. They were editors of the Statutes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , as well as the decrees of the Seimas and Rada. Pechatari occupied one of the leading positions in the public and political life of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

The office was liquidated along with the liquidation of the state at the end of the 18th century.