Letters of Lubeck Magistrate to Reval Concerning Nowgorodfahrer Trade of Last Third of 15th Century (From Tallinn City Archives)

Abstract

The article presents the results of the search work in the Tallinn City Archives (Tallinna Linnaarhiiv), carried out with the materials of the collection of letters from the Lubeck City Council to the Reval Magistrate for the mention of the Nowgorodfahrer corporation. As a result of this work, seven documents were identified dating back to the last third of the 15th century and containing information not only about the nature of the corporation’s commercial activities in Livonia during the period under review, but also in general about the specifics of Hanseatic trade in the Baltic at the turn of the Middle Ages and early Modern times. Based on the identified sources, it was possible to consider the specifics of cooperation between the Lubeck City Council and the Nowgorodfahrer, the degree of their participation in certain events that were important for the history of the Baltic region, as well as the details of their interaction with the Reval Magistrate. The appendix to the article contains the full texts of Hanseatic sources, provided with annotations in Russian and the necessary comments.