nihil novi  [Latin: “nothing new”] – a popular name of the 1505 constitution (act) of the Sejm in Radom which provided that the king could not issue any acts whatsoever without the consent of the senate and the house of deputies (the Sejm); the king was only allow to issue independent royal edicts pertaining to royal towns and cities, Jews, fiefdoms, peasants living in the royal domain and mining. The nihil novi constitution greatly increased the importance of the Sejm (including, in particular, the house of deputies), thereby reinforcing the position of the nobility. It also proved conducive to the development of parliamentary rule and the establishment of a system of government known as the noble democracy.

The content of this entry has been prepared on the basis of the source materials provided by the Polish Scientific Publishers (PWN)