Livonia Land Revision of 1624/1625: Turaida, Krimulda and Sigulda Castle Districts.

Turaida Museum Reserve publishes a fragment of the Act of the Land Revision (called uncus/ Hakenrevision, Ger. Hake, Lat. uncus (plough) being land measure unit) of 1624 / 1625 in the original (German) with a translation in Latvian. On initiative of the Director of Turaida Museum Reserve Anna Jurkāne, in the course of 2015–2016 the current volume has been prepared for publication, transcribed, translated and scholarly commented by professor of the University of Latvia Dr. hist. Gvido Straube. The published material covers Turaida, Krimulda and Sigulda castle districts. The scholarly comments section also contains an overview of the situation in Turaida, Krimulda and Sigulda castle districts in 1630.

The Land Revision Act of 1624/1625 is kept at the Latvian State History Archive (hereinafter LSHA; part of the Latvian National Archives); it has not been published yet, same as the Land Revision Act of 1630.  We hope that the volume “Livonia Land Revision of 1624: Turaida, Krimulda and Sigulda Castle Districts” will be followed by the publication of other parts of this important Livonia Land Revision Act: the revision of 1624 covered altogether 20 castle districts.

The large number of place names (names of farmsteads, rivers, lakes, manors, civil parishes, villages, etc.) mentioned in the revision records stimulate the interest of linguists, geographers and researchers of local history. The current volume is supplemented by a large-scale research paper by Dr. hist. Muntis Auns on the historical geography of Turaida and Krimulda castle districts in the 13^th–18^th centuries. The texts written by researchers G. Straube and M. Auns present different perspectives on the revision records as these materials constitute a rich source both for the study of economic history, the understanding of migration processes and the research into historical cartography, ethnic history and the development of place names. Both authors’ texts constitute detailed-study papers, which underline aspects of micro-history as well as the regularities of historical processes that stem from them.