In this volume, Maciej Mikula analyses the extant texts of the Ius municipale Magdeburgense, the most important collection of Magdeburg Law in late medieval Poland. He discusses the different translation traditions of the collection; the application of Magdeburg Law in cities; how differences between the versions could affect the application of the rights; and how the invention of printing influenced the principle of legal certainty. Mikula ultimately shows that the differences between the texts not only influenced legal practice, but also bear out how complex the process was of the adaptation of Magdeburg Law.

Acknowledgements Acknowledgements to the English Edition Note on the English Edition List of Tables and Illustrations Abbreviations Introduction 1 The Towns and Cities of 'Younger Europe' 2 The Saxon-Magdeburg Law and the Municipal Law in the Kingdom of Poland in the 13th-16th Centuries 3 The Magdeburg Weichbild in Poland: A Reassessment and a New Research Agenda 4 Sources and Periodization of Urban Legal Studies 5 The Evolution of the Legal Text and the Process of Adaptation of the Magdeburg Law 6 The Trap of Legal Positivism, or the Instruments of Historical Legal Studies 7 The Contents of This Study: An Outline 8 In Search of Method 9 Editor's Note 10 A Synopsis of the Contents of Ius municipale Magdeburgense 1 Manuscripts and Printed Texts of the Silesian-Malopolska Compilation 1 Sources and Contents of the Weichbild 2 Dynamics of the German Text 3 Latin Manuscripts and Jan Laski's Printed Text 4 Conclusions 2 Dynamics of the Latin Text of the Weichbild: the Sandomierz and the Cracow Versions 1 Formal Features of the Latin Texts 2 Divergences in the Latin Texts of the Weichbild 3 Divergences from the German Base in the Latin Texts of the Weichbild 4 Group I: versio Sandomiriensis 5 Group II: Versio Cracoviensis 6 The Wawel Variant of the Cracow Version 7 Conclusions: The Adaptation of the Saxon-Magdeburg Law and the Evolution of the Legal Text 3 Practical Consequences of Textual Divergences: From the Cracow Ms to Jan Laski's Statutes 1 The Weichbild in Jan Laski's Statutes 2 The Urban Community and Its Citizens 3 Crime and Criminal Procedure 4 The Family and Family Property 5 Debtor and Creditor 6 Conclusions 4 Habent sua fata leges: Glosses, Annotations, and Additions 1 Evidence of the Use of the Weichbild in Legal Practice 2 Amendations and Additions 3 Polish Equivalents of Latin Legal Terms 4 Regulae iuris 5 Glosses in Printed Copies of Jan Laski's Statutes: Persistence of the Weichbild's Medieval Conventions 6 Conclusions Conclusions 1 The Significance Weichbild among Other Sources of the Saxon-Magdeburg Law 2 The Demand for Latin Texts 3 Versions and Variants of an Archetype Compilation 4 Cracow - Home of the Urban Law Reform 5 Adaptation of the Saxon-Magdeburg Law in Poland 6 Practical Consequences of the Evolution of the Weichbild 7 Annotations by the Weichbild Users 8 The Road to a Single, Authoritative Law Text Appendix 1: Concordance Table of Articles Appendix 2: Divergences in the Latin Texts of the Weichbild Appendix 3: Agreement of the Latin Texts in Gniezno MS (Gn.) Baworowscy MS (BN 12607) and Dzialynscy Codex IV (Dzial. IV) with the Corresponding German Texts Appendix 4: Weichbild's Edition of Gniezno MS Bibliography Index