Organising Landed Property: Manorial Administration Strategies in the 15th and Early 16th Centuries

Abstract This paper provides an analysis of micro-level processes in the land administration of two different monastic estates, Lambach in Upper Austria and Klosterneuburg in Lower Austria, in the 15th and early 16th centuries. It argues that several different institutional factors can be seen as driving forces of administrative progress and innovation. To keep up with not always congruent economic, legal and social demands, the two monasteries pursued different strategies in administering their landed property. Their approaches and advancements indicate that the development of bureaucratic use of written texts should not be seen as one of the ever-increasing rationalities but rather as the result of a multilayered cultural process.

The terms ›files‹ and ›administration‹ generally evoke images of rather complex bureaucratic structures, producing mountains of papers to manage even the simplest matters. While this picture conveys a critical undertone, it nevertheless implies a highly specialised written administration applying sophisticated tools and processes. These cultural techniques once had to be developed. In this more elusive era in the history of administration, the question was rather if something written is needed at all, and the few documents drawn as well as its implications for text production and reception. By establishing three categories for the analysis of the role and character of texts in societies -making, keeping and using -Clanchy greatly influenced the way pragmatic literacy was approached. 4 Since then, its boundaries were expanded more and more, integrating or expanding to anthropological research as well as communication studies. 5 The basic ideaalso for this paper -is that writing something down necessitates the selection and ordering of information.
Furthermore, this process of writing is part of a realisation of an act, embedded in administrative, economic or political order. Analysing texts based on these assumptions enables us researchers to gain insight into silent knowledge contained in the practice of writing. 6 Methodically, this approach expresses itself not only in ascribing much importance to the economic, legal and social background of each administration but also in analysing the materiality and layout of the administrative sources to gain insight into their use within an administration.

Written Records in Medieval Land Administration
Addressing monastic case studies as well as the administration of landed property as object of research is an evident choice regarding medieval Austria.
Next to towns, monastic administrations have to be considered the most advanced at these periods, with the administration of noble estates generally being underdeveloped in comparison. Landed property, on the other hand, can be considered at the centre of the development of administrative techniques, since due to the manorial system it was both an economic production factor and the basis of lordship, the rule over land and its inhabitants. 7 Having lost most of their antique origins, the Carolingian period led to a renewal of written culture, concentrated in ecclesiastical institutions, namely monasteries. 8 Ecclesiastical institutions were on the forefront of the development of written administrative records due to their scriptoriums for writing liturgical books, which provided them with the skills as well as materials to introduce writing into administration again. 9 Regarding landed property, the driving force for the development of written records has to be seen in new legal requirements. Written documentation gained more and more legal relevance in court. Since the 13 th century, the transfer of property ownership or at least hereditary tenure was generally documented in charters or deeds. Such property-related deeds also made up the majority of single-sheet written documents. 10 17 The possessions were managed by the monastery's canons, which held offices within the organisation or were responsible for incorporated parishes. In this study, the monastery's case will be exemplified by such a parish called Heiligenstadt.

It is situated halfway between Klosterneuburg and
Vienna and is one of many administrative districts.
The affiliations with the parishes intensified since the beginning of the 14 th century, the bookkeeping however remained decentralised. 18 Heiligenstadt was officially incorporated in 1307, although it has been under the patronage of the monastery long before. Since the early 14 th century, however, the priest in Heiligenstadt was always a monastery's canon. 19 Heiligenstadt was a

Information Management
The parish's internal administration of landed property was meanwhile organised in books. Land transactions were recorded in rentals and registers. Other than comprehensive chartularies or issuing registers, these books were solely concerned with transactions connected to landed property. They exclusively recorded bestowals and encumbrances.
The estate registers from Heiligenstadt we know of today start in 1454. 27 The parish owned and managed property in three neighbouring villages: Heiligenstadt, Nussdorf and Grinzing. 28 While in other districts the rents were to be paid to the monastery, the beneficiary in Heiligenstadt was explicitly the parish priest. 29 It was he who acted as manorial lord vis-à-vis the tenants and the estate registers are titled and dated in his name. Elsewhere the book's introductions name Klosterneuburg's provost and -in the codex for Meidling and Hietzing -additionally the supreme cellarer.
The latter was responsible for the monastery's estate registers in general. 30

Stift Lambach
The monastery of Lambach is located in the central region of Upper Austria and was founded in 1056. 41 Most of its holdings were located within 40 kilometres its property right is mentioned, followed by a phrase that this property right was proven by a written deed.
Furthermore, the information about which abbot issued the deed is given. 58 Consequently, the monastery also seized the old deeds when new ones were issued. This prevented the old deeds being used for fraud, 59 which was a common reason for destroying such documents or rendering them useless in other ways. 60 This process also shows the importance of the deeds for the tenants. if only information about their content was required.
Since no references to the originals can be found, one also has to conclude that it was not used as a finding aid for the archived documents. Furthermore, there are only a few later entries by another hand, so the book does not seem to have been in use for a very long time before another method of land administration was found.

Internal Process of Conducting a Land Transaction
The extant sources also allow us to reconstruct -to a certain extent -the administrative practice regarding the internal process of conduction of a land transaction.
Especially the drafts give us insight into the production process of the deeds. Such information is provided by In cases of deeds written by the monastery itself, this information was omitted. This can either be seen as them being labelled as the standard case and therefore also being described by their lack of this information or they were identified by their materiality. Written on parchment and sealed with a characteristic ecclesiastical Vescia-shaped seal, they were easily identified as such. 64 Around 1500, the methods to keep track of the monastery's properties held in some form of tenure were improved. A new office book was written, focusing solely on documents concerning such properties. This time it was not used for drafting new deeds and so on but existing documents were copied. Its structure and finding aids were a great improvement to former times.
It included an index based first on location or office and second on the kind of document, property right or kind of transaction. 65 The use of property rights as category Both were aided by a steady layout (Fig. 3).
The pages were vertically structured into two areas: Most of the corrections concern only minor changes in wording. Other corrections and particularly the annotations concern aspects, which have to be the result of a change of mind or negotiations and therefore of a longer process. In some cases this is made explicit, for example, when the annotation mentions that it was »discussed« and »now« only one of the sons will be the new tenant instead of his mother and his siblings 67 or In cases where the available information was incomplete and had to be added later -most often the rent -a blank space was left in the draft to be filled once the information was provided. 70 The rent is also where we can ascertain the role of the estate registers in this process, which was rather small. Their main function was to provide information about the rent of a holding.
This can also be seen in the wording of the deeds. Here  94 Over the centuries, what has once been means for internal administration and in regional legal conflict rose to state-wide concern.
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42 These properties outside of Upper Austria are not subject of this paper, since they had their own local administration and therefore are not included in the administrative sources which provide the basis of this analysis. 43 Two phases can be observed regarding these offices and their locations. The first beginning in the 14 th century until 1441, where four of six offices remained the same, though they were reduced to five in 1441. In the second phase, the offices changed and only one of the former remained the same. 44 The little information that is to be found on these medieval bailiffs has been compiled in: Stöttinger: Kloster und Umland, pp. 139-145. 45 Stöttinger identified the provost as the head of the urbarium office (Urbaramtsleiter) but leaves open the question whether he controlled all of the properties in the different offices himself or was helped by the other bailiffs. See: Stöttinger: Kloster und Umland, p. 143. Though, such involvement by the bailiffs has to be assumed especially regarding the collection of rent. Shared property rights and sometimes unspecified rents must have made local knowledge of the holdings, their proprietors and their (share of) rent a necessity. 46 Bittbrief means »letter of plea«. Since the landlord was the owner of the property and theoretically could also decline a transaction, these documents were always formulated as a request or plea for him to bestow it upon the new tenant. 47 Like building a house on the property or ensuring that it is cultivated either by himself or a subtenant. LGA-Herrschaftsprotokolle, L1. 55 Extant notes on paper in the same form as the entries in the Briefprotokolle show that in some cases they were not drafted in the latter. These slips of paper are nowadays enclosed with the registers. 56 With the exception of the rent which could be omitted in the deeds, as will be described below.