Early Modern Chancelleries: Organizing, Writing, Ordering with an Edition of Chancellery-Regulations from September 7, 1787 in the Prince-Bishopric of Regensburg (Frühmoderne Kanzleigeschäfte: Ordnen, Schreiben, Weisen. Mit Edition der Hochstift Regensburger Kanzleiordnung vom 7. September 1787)
Author : Wolfgang Wüst
Abstract :
If one is looking historically at style and forms of official and legal language in Europe, one will inevitably come across the authorities being responsible for the correspondence of the rulers and offices in town and countryside since antiquity – the chancelleries. There it was, that the type of European official, legal and civil service language was developed, which has been criticized for its incomprehensibility and formula obsession since the Enlightenment at the latest. An indispensable prerequisite for the development of correspondence, however, were well-managed chancelleries, whose internal affairs are revealing for questions of organization, writing and political-administrative tasks. The impetus to maintain order and law was at the beginning of the chancery regulations, examined here as well as in similar normative sources. The questions concerning the organization of the chancery and its communication are compared with a chancery code from 1787, which is edited here in its entirety and comes from Regensburg. It was issued by the chancellery of the local prince-bishop Maximilian Prokop of Törring-Jettenbach. He ruled shortly from 1787 to 1789. The document was intended for the influential court chancellor of the prince bishopric, who was well versed in law.
Keywords :
Europe, Southern Germany, Regensburg, prince-bishops, Middle Ages, early modern times, chancelleries, law and order, civil service, legal language, linguistic criticism
