Municipal chancellery
House no. 10, adjoining the merchant houses on the south, was erected in 1538 to serve as a municipal chancellery. A registry office, in one form or another, was already established there in the thirteenth century and equipped with the task of documenting the proceedings of local municipal governments. City council books and account records were kept from the late fourteenth century.
The chancellery was headed by municipal scribes, who constituted the elite of the elected city officials. They were well-educated experts on law and foreign languages who often represented the city before the king, parliament and courts of law. We also owe the oldest chronicle entries to them: the tradition started by Bernard of Pyzdry at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries was continued by his successors until 1752.
Błażej Winkler was undoubtedly the most eminent scribe in the history of Poznań. Appointed before 1535, his term of office lasted for more than thirty years. He managed to reorganize the chancellery, established the great book of privileges and kept systematic records of city council resolutions and writs. As a reward for his services, Winkler received the right to use House No. 10, ownership of a merchant stall in the square and a plot of land outside the city.
The chancellery was rebuilt in the early 20th century and received its present form after the war. It houses the Society of the Admirers of the City of Poznań founded by Mayor Cyryl Ratajski in 1922.