Civitas Schinesghe

Expansion of Poland 960-992

Civitas Schinesghe is the first officially written down name of Poland originating from 991–992. The original deed is missing, but mentioned in an 11th-century papal regesta called Dagome iudex, according to which the Piast duke Mieszko I of Poland had given the guidance of unam civitatem in integro, que vocatur Schinesghe ("a whole state, which is called Schinesghe") over to the Holy See.

Though a state of Poland is not explicitly mentioned, the name Schinesghe (Schniesghee/Schignesne/Schniesche/Schinesne/Schinesgne) most likely refers to Gniezno, one of the main settlements of the West Slavic Polans. Their duke Mieszko had himself baptised upon the marriage with Princess Dobrawa of Bohemia in 965. In 1000 at the Congress of Gniezno the first Polish archdiocese was established and Mieszko's son Duke Bolesław I Chrobry was acknowledged as frater et cooperator of the Holy Roman Empire by Emperor Otto III.

Borders of Mieszko I's state

Some points based on the Dagome iudex can help draw the borders of the Polish realm cum omnibus suis pertinentiis infra hos affines,

• sicuti incipit a primo latere longum mare, - on the Baltic Sea, i.e. the Pomeranian coast
• fine Bruzze - along the Prussian borders (settlement area of the Old Prussians)
• usque in locum, qui dicitur Russe - up to a place called Rus', east of Masovia
• et fines Russe extendente usque in Craccoa - and from there to Kraków
• et ab ipsa Craccoa usque ad flumen Odde recte - and from there right along the Oder river
• in locum, qui dicitur Alemure, - possibly Olomouc in Moravia
• et ab ipsa Alemura usque in terram Milze recte intra Oddere - to the Milceni lands, part of the Imperial Margraviate of Meissen
• et exinde ducente iuxta flumen Oddera usque in predictam civitate Schinesghe. - and from its borders along the Oder to aforementioned Schinesghe.

Even though the borders are mentioned, there are still some unresolved questions about the text and its description, such as why was Kraków mentioned as a borderland city and not part of the Civitas Schinesghe.

References

• Translated from the Polish version of this page from Polish Wikipedia on 25 March 2009