Podwójny łacińsko-ruski dokument z Medyki (1404) –przejaw polityki językowej w powiększonej Koronie
Double Latin-Ruthenian Document from Medyka (1404) – a Manifestation of Language Policy in the Enlarged Crown of Poland

Summary/Abstract: In 1404, a court was held, attended by 31 representatives of the nobility of Red Ruthenia, a country recently incorporated into the Crown of Poland. The judgement was written in two parallel documents, issued in Latin and Ruthenian. The two parchments were joined and sealed together. The unique form of the double diploma raises the question, for what purpose were two versions issued that were different in language but identical in content and equivalent in substance? An attempt at an answer is preceded by a consideration of the circumstances of the case, including an analysis of the composition of the nobility sitting in court. The list of arbitrators in both versions was arranged in two groups. One of the included newcomers arriving in Ruthenia from the West, the other natives – local boyars. They belonged to two separate cultural circles, the Western, Catholic, and the Eastern, Orthodox. The culturally different issuers performed together, but preserving their own literary traditions. The document may stand as a testimony to the simultaneous use of both languages and alphabets in the era following the annexation of Red Ruthenia. The fact that it was drawn up in two languages is justifi ed by the choice of Ruthenian and Cyrillic as an alternative language and script of the new power in the region; the separation of the issuers is due to the cultural duality of the Red Ruthenian nobility; the joint authentication of equivalent versions corresponds to the status equation of knights and boyars. The bilingualism and digraphia of official literacy are attested by other, but already single documents issued in Ruthenian between 1350 and 1430.

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