Civitas Schinesghe () is the first recorded name related to

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

as a political entity (the name is a Latinization of or , "ducal gords") first attested in 991/2. The original deed is missing, but is mentioned in an 11th-century papal

regesta Papal regesta are the copies, generally entered in special registry volumes, of the papal letters and official documents that are kept in the papal archives. The name is also used to indicate subsequent publications containing such documents, in c ...

called '' Dagome iudex.'' It states that the

Piast The House of Piast was the first historical ruling dynasty of Poland. The first documented Polish monarch was Duke Mieszko I (c. 930–992). The Piasts' royal rule in Poland ended in 1370 with the death of king Casimir III the Great. Branche ...

duke's wife Oda von Haldensleben had given the guidance of ''unam civitatem in integro, que vocatur Schinesghe'' ("a whole state, which is called Schinesghe") over to the

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...

. Though a state of Poland is not explicitly mentioned, the name ''Schinesghe'' most likely refers to

Gniezno Gniezno (; german: Gnesen; la, Gnesna) is a city in central-western Poland, about east of Poznań. Its population in 2021 was 66,769, making it the sixth-largest city in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. One of the Piast dynasty's chief cities, ...

, one of the main settlements of the West Slavic Polans. Their duke Mieszko had himself

baptised Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...

upon his marriage to Princess Dobrawa of Bohemia in 965. In the year 1000, at the

Congress of Gniezno The Congress of Gniezno ( pl, Zjazd gnieźnieński, german: Akt von Gnesen or ''Gnesener Übereinkunft'') was an amicable meeting between the Polish Duke Bolesław I the Brave and Emperor Otto III, which took place at Gniezno in Poland on 11 Ma ...

, the first Polish

archdiocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associat ...

was established, and Mieszko's son Duke Bolesław I Chrobry was acknowledged as ''frater et cooperator'' of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 unt ...

by Emperor

Otto III Otto III (June/July 980 – 23 January 1002) was Holy Roman Emperor from 996 until his death in 1002. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto III was the only son of the Emperor Otto II and his wife Theophanu. Otto III was crowned as King of ...

Borders under Mieszko I

Analysis of the document can help reconstruct the borders of the Polish realm: *''sicuti incipit a primo latere longum mare,'' "as it starts from the first side of a long sea" (presumably the

Pomerania Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to ...

n coast – on the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

) *''fine Bruzze'' 'end Bruzze' – "along the

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

n borders" (settlement area of the

Old Prussians Old Prussians, Baltic Prussians or simply Prussians ( Old Prussian: ''prūsai''; german: Pruzzen or ''Prußen''; la, Pruteni; lv, prūši; lt, prūsai; pl, Prusowie; csb, Prësowié) were an indigenous tribe among the Baltic peoples that ...

) *''usque in locum, qui dicitur Russe'' – "up to a place called Rus' (east of Masovia) *''et fines Russe extendente usque in Craccoa'' – "Russia ends and extending into Cracow" *''et ab ipsa Craccoa usque ad flumen Odde recte'' – "and from there right along the

Oder The Oder ( , ; Czech, Lower Sorbian and ; ) is a river in Central Europe. It is Poland's second-longest river in total length and third-longest within its borders after the Vistula and Warta. The Oder rises in the Czech Republic and flows ...

river" *''in locum, qui dicitur Alemure,'' "in a place called The Alemure" (sometimes identified as

Olomouc Olomouc (, , ; german: Olmütz; pl, Ołomuniec ; la, Olomucium or ''Iuliomontium'') is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 99,000 inhabitants, and its larger urban zone has a population of about 384,000 inhabitants (2019). Located on t ...

Moravia Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The ...

though Olomouc is upriver on the Oder, not down) *''et ab ipsa Alemura usque in terram Milze recte intra Oddere'' – "to the

Milceni The Milceni or Milzeni ( cs, Milčané; german: Milzener; pl, Milczanie) were a West Slavs, West Slavic tribe, who settled in the present-day Upper Lusatia region. They were first mentioned in the middle of the 9th century AD by the Bavarian Geogr ...

lands" (part of the Imperial

Margraviate of Meissen The Margravate of Meissen (german: Markgrafschaft Meißen) was a medieval principality in the area of the modern German state of Saxony. It originally was a frontier march of the Holy Roman Empire, created out of the vast '' Marca Geronis'' ( Sax ...

) *''et exinde ducente iuxta flumen Oddera usque in predictam civitate Schinesghe.'' – "and from its borders along the Oder to aforementioned Schinesghe." The last statement suggests that Schinesghe is by the

and on the Baltic coast. This could mean that Schinesghe has a double meaning in the document - it is first used as the name of the entire state and then as the name of a border town - most probably

Szczecin Szczecin (, , german: Stettin ; sv, Stettin ; Latin: ''Sedinum'' or ''Stetinum'') is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major s ...

Notes

References

* * {{Authority control 10th century in Poland