Parish Bureaucracy: The Oldest Accounting Book of St. James' Parish in Nysa (1484 – 1542)
A corpus of accounting books has been preserved for the parish of St. James in Nysa, with the earliest entries dating back to the 1480s. Sources of this kind from that period are exceptionally rare, and no similar records is known from the territory of the Gniezno metropolis. The Nysa parish was one of the large urban parishes in late medieval Silesia, encompassing not only the entire town but also several nearby villages. The number of parishioners in the year 1500 is estimated at approximately 6,500 individuals. The oldest accounting book contains entries related to various types of revenues as well as lists of expenses within the parish estate. Its analysis provides valuable insights into the role of record-keeping in the management of parish finances.
