The Lviv citizens’ testaments during the 17th-century plagues

The article deals with the testaments written by the inhabitants of Lviv during the plague epidemics in 1602, 1623 and 1625. The acts of last will that emerged during an extraordinary period required special permission and alleviation of the procedure. When the city was haunted by the plague, its frightened population, together with the local officials, left it to escape the infection. These circumstances made some legal procedures in the composition of the testaments more complicated: the local officials who were responsible for providing thi stype of legal services delayed a visit to make a will or refused to come because of the fear or self-infection. Therefore, already sick or still healthy residents of Lviv and its suburbs were forced to express their last will in the presence of not all officials or casual witnesses who agreed to listen and record their last wills. As a result of such non-professional compilation, the testaments which emerged in the plague periods contain many unique details upon the history of daily life in the city during the epidemic. The texts also shed some light on personal perception of the epidemic by some Lviv residents and officials, their preventive actions, and relationships between family members during this rough time. These testaments also reveal the tragic pages of the last hours of plague-infected people who died outside of Lviv at anapiary, near windmills, or in plague camps far from their families and homes. Such acts of last will also show misunderstandings by the testators who divided property in extreme conditions assuming that the whole family might die, and it would not be inherited by anyone. On the contrary, in the case of the death of all members of a family, the testators asked to transfer their property for praying for the souls of the dead. The last option was also practiced among childless testators. In general, the testament texts of the epidemic periods were not written in a high style. Mainly, they contain a declaration of the essential orders concerning debt, property, the salvation of the soul, and the burial of the body, although there were some exceptions.