Literacy among Cracow inhabitants in the first half of the 19th century. Demographic and socio-economic determinants

Abstract

This study aims at finding the level of literacy among people marrying in two parishes of the city of Cracow in the first half of the 19th century. The ability to sign the marriage contract is then analyzed within the context of the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the individuals. Thus far, scant attention has been paid to this issue in the Polish historiography. Hence, this paper is an attempt to at least partially fill this gap. This research was based on the civil marriage registers from two city parishes - St. Florian and Holy Cross (1810-1846). The database contains information on 2790 individuals. The data was analyzed with the use of traditional methods (descriptive statistics, Maggiolo methods) and logistic regression models. The results show the links between literacy and independent variables (age, civil status, occupation, geographic origin, parents' vital status etc.) in the form of odds ratios.