Testaments of citizens of Volynian towns in late 16th and 17th centuries: structural analysis and language features

The purpose of the article is to analyze the structure (form) of testaments of Volynian citizens and to investigate some linguistic features of the writing of these private acts at the end of the 16th and 17th centuries. Research methodology: according to the interdisciplinary approach there were used the methods of diplomatic analysis, external and internal criticism of historical sources. Scientific novelty: for the first time it was committed a diplomatic analysis of the texts of unpublished 170 testaments of the inhabitants of Volynian towns from the town and castle books of the end of the 16th and 17th centuries, and revealed some linguistic features of the writing of these acts. Conclusions. The Volyn testament form contains all the main clauses characteristic of this type of documents of early modern times. As for the structure, they are almost indistinguishable from the form previously established in the Crown of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, with the exception of introductory formulas, when sometimes invocation and arenga, as well as final ones. The testaments of the inhabitants of Olyka, where the town chancellery was well developed, had a more complex form. It is obvious that most of the orders of the last will were pronounced orally before the city officials and the clerk, who gave these statements a written character, inscribing the verbal narrative in a text template. The testators wrote down the formulas established at that time, sometimes bringing in their own opinions about the circumstances and causes of death, as well as the personal reflections of the testator. Typical clichés, produced in the offices of that time, remained in force until the beginning of the 18th century. At the same time, a comparative analysis of Volynian urban wills shows the presence of emotional rhetoric, dialogues, and sometimes a detailed description of property, which was not typical of the testaments of the western regions of the Commonwealth, which were formalized and followed the latest European traditions of these acts. Linguistic analysis of the testaments of Volynian citizens shows the presence of numerous Ukrainian words in Polish-language texts.