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

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.

See: Florence Weber: De l’anthropologie économique à l‘ethnographie des transactions, in: Laurent Feller (ed.): Le marché de la terre au Moyen Âge, Rome 2005, pp. 29–48, at pp. 43–45.

Property administration was not formed only by the requirements of the legal system though. During the course of the Middle Ages, the property rights themselves underwent great change. Serfdom was gradually abandoned and substituted through several new forms of tenancy, with different rights connected to these forms. It was rather uncomplicated to administer property rights like Freistift, at the will of the lord, where the tenants hardly had any legal lever against the landlord. Freistift was a form of short term ›lease‹ where the landlords had the right to evict the tenants or raise their rents every year.

Though it was common for the same tenants to stay on the property for a much longer time, sometimes even for generations.

The demands on the administration of the estates could greatly differ based on the dominant forms of tenure as well as the surrounding (legal) competition and customs. Klosterneuburg and its properties in a wine growing area next to Vienna had to comply with other demands and challenges than Lambach with its rural properties. In the following, we will present both monasteries and their ways of administering property, as well as some of the factors and circumstances shaping them. A detailed description of the source documents, their content, form and references will shed light on micro-level processes of land administration and reveal remarkable differences between the two monasteries. The subsequent analysis reflects use, interrelations, traceable developments and functional differentiations and it sets the two case studies in their specific contexts and in perspective to each other.

The Klosterneuburg monastery is situated in eastern Lower Austria at the shore of the Danube. It is consolidated with the identically named town and lies only a dozen kilometres north of Vienna. The monastery was founded in the early 12^th century and since established an extended estate. In the late Middle Ages, it owned rights and properties all over Lower Austria and had a strong manorial presence in its immediate environments and thus in Vienna’s hinterland. Viticulture played a central role in its economy.

Richard Perger: Klosterneuburg, in: Felix Czeike (ed.): Historisches Lexikon Wien, 6 vols, vol. 3, Wien 2004, pp. 537–539.

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.

Rudolf Geyer: Zur Häusergeschichte von Heiligenstadt, in: Wiener Geschichtsblätter 9/1 (1954), pp. 17–18, at p. 18.

The parish owned and managed property in three neighbouring villages: Heiligenstadt, Nussdorf and Grinzing.

According to Perger: Klosterneuburg im Mittelalter, p. 148, the parish further included Sievering, Neustift am Walde, Salmannsdorf and Unterdöbling.

While in other districts the rents were to be paid to the monastery, the beneficiary in Heiligenstadt was explicitly the parish priest.

For example, Salmansdorf, Suffring and Döbling, that is, StAKl, Grundbuch 7/3 or Meidling and Hietzing, that is, StAKl, Grundbuch 15/3: »[...] dauon man ierlich dint vnser lieben frawn gotshaws zu Closternewnburg [...]«; while in the parish of Heiligenstadt, that is, StAKl, Grundbuch 8/1: »[...] dauon man ierlich dient aim yedn pharrer zu der Heylignstat [...]«.

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.

For example, StAKl, Grundbuch 15/3, fol. 1r. – On the supreme cellarer’s responsibility and conduct, c.f. Liselotte Sverak: Die Hofmeister des Stiftes Klosterneuburg unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des 16. Jahrhunderts, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Vienna 2003, p. 89 and StAKl, Hs. 31/1, fol. 49r–49v; Albert Starzer: Geschichte der landesfürstlichen Stadt Klosterneuburg, Klosterneuburg 1900, pp. 350–351.

The different administrative district’s registers from the second half of the 15^th century are indeed identically organised. Folio one of the Meidling–Hietzing register from 1458 explains their structure and content: The register lists the different properties – houses, vineyards, gardens and more – and it records the rents and their recipient. The instructions elucidate that at the very front of the codex there was a table, listing old and new bestowals in sequence. When a change happened, it should be added to the table first and then the deeds, describing the course of events, were to be recorded in the rear of the book. Furthermore, the entries should be designated by a number (Figs. 1 and 2).

StAKl, Grundbuch 15/3, fol. 1r: »Vnd ist auch zewissen dar all alt gewer aus dem vordern gruntbuoch in diczs gegenwurtig gruntpuoch ze vordrist in die tafel, aigentlich nacheinander geschriben sind, vnd was sich nun hinfür newer gewer begeben, die süllen vonerst auch zevordrist in dieselbig tafel, vnd darnach hindten in die hanndlung des gruntbuchs mit der zal beczaichent vnd geschriben werden, wie derselb grunt an ainan yeglichen komen ist als das etlich new gewer aigentlich anczaigent«.

Figure 1

Figure 2

The here-described sections of the estate register are the rental and the register of bestowals. The rental, Dienstbuch, is organised geographically and as introduced it was outlined as a table, structured by red lines. In the parish of Heiligenstadt, it lists properties with houses and farmstead vineyards

Feigl: Die niederösterreichische Grundherrschaft, pp. 84–85 with fn. 28.

in the mentioned villages Heiligenstadt, Nussdorf and Grinzing and to the better part vineyards in the surroundings, listed by location.

StAKl, Grundbücher 8/1 and 8/2.

With every horizontal line, the record of a new property begins. In the main column, the changing tenants are listed. Out-dated entries are crossed out. The next column contains a keyword, describing the property. Vineyards are often characterised by their size only. Next to it, the rent in money or must is registered, sometimes with extra information: a specific property name for example or further obligations. On the margins to the left or to the right, references to the bestowals or mortgages are noted. They refer to the folio numbers in the register in the rear.

A variant of the rental is focused on the payable rents and dues.

StAKl, Grundbuch 8/1, fol. [109]r–[124]v.

Its layout is identical. The duties however, are described in more detail and on the margin to the left a series of ascending numbers appear on the records. Those probably represent the years in which the duties were properly remitted and collected. Concerning Heiligenstadt, the monastery’s archive in Klosterneuburg also preserves a handy booklet from 1489.

StAKl, Dienst- und Bergrechtsregister, 8/6.

It seemingly served the purpose of rent collection. The periodical monitoring, however, was not registered by numbers but by ascending alphabetical letters.

The register of bestowals, Gewerbuch, is organised chronologically. It records bestowals in condensed form but still provides a wealth of information. It names the new and old tenants, the nature of the transaction with connected legal acts, the location of the property identified by its neighbours,

To keep bookkeeping efficient, it was allowed to copy the description of borders from old bestowals and to only change the tenant’s name. Steppan: Das bäuerliche Recht an der Liegenschaft, pp. 88–89 on the treaties of Bernhard Walther.

and it describes rents and dues with day of payment and finally the date of the registration. Most of the entries are crossed out. Perhaps because they were obsolete. Sporadic annotations give extra information on later incidents or on the whereabouts of the corresponding deed. Encumbrances in the form of mortgages, Satz, and second mortgages, Überteuerung, were recorded sometimes in the same register together with the bestowals and sometimes in separate paragraphs. In other manorial contexts, registers of encumbrances and bestowals were kept in distinct books.

Finally, Heiligenstadt’s properties are also registered in the Klosterneuburg monastery’s large urbarium from 1513.

StAKl, Grundbuch 1/1a–b, at 1/1a, from fol. 78 [88]. The urbarium is discussed by Eva Sulovsky: Der grundherrliche Weingartenbesitz und Weinhandel des Stiftes Klosterneuburg im Spätmittelalter und in der frühen Neuzeit, MA thesis, University of Vienna 1995, chapter III, pp. 10–24.

This volume has a very different appearance than the herein before-mentioned documents. Similar to the rentals described above, it lists properties geographically and names tenants, rents and dues. But it depicts just one point of time. No cancellation, no correction, no alteration was made. The handwriting is legible and ornate with generous spacing. The initial on folio one is decorated and coloured. The volume itself is of massive size and bound in leather including clasps.

Overseeing the different documents in Heiligenstadt’s property administration, we recognise an interconnected and polyfunctional documentation system that could meet multiple requirements. The rental, organised in table form, carries condensed information on properties, tenants and rents. It was kept up to date and displays the history of changing tenants at first sight. Together with the index,

The index of StAKl, Grundbücher 8/1 and 8/2 reflects the geographical stucture of the rentals. While in the index of StAKl, Grundbuch 15/3 (Meidling and Hietzing) the sites are even alphabetically organised.

specific entries were easily accessible. Notably because its geographical structure reflected the well-known site. The register of bestowals and encumbrances on the other hand was kept as a journal. It contains details on land transactions, their preceding incidents and the issued deeds. The references from the rental to the register connect the outline with the details, and simultaneously they connect the geographical with the chronological structure. This allowed finding information starting from various queries. The different rentals served the purpose of current administration; the small-sized and handy booklet was maybe used in rent collection. Meanwhile, the register of bestowals and encumbrances could have answered legal questions as well and probably preserved tradition and memory. The large urbarium finally displays representative elements while being unscathed showing neither cancellations nor annotations.

Roger Sablonier: Verschriftlichung und Herrschaftspraxis. Urbariales Schriftgut im spätmittelalterlichen Gebrauch, in: Christel Meier / Volker Honemann / Hagen Heller (eds.): Pragmatische Dimensionen mittelalterlicher Schriftkultur, Munich 2002, pp. 91–120, at p. 102; Rainer Hugener: Buchführung für die Ewigkeit. Totengedenken, Verschriftlichung und Traditionsbildung im Spätmittelalter, Zürich 2014, p. 161.

Though, its function seems not to have lain in the active administration. It might have fulfilled legal functions and was used in contexts of representation.

The character of the urbaria as tool of economic administration and/or symbol of lordship, whose main use has to be seen in representation and as means of evidence in legal disputes, has been and still is topic of much research and discussion. See, for example, Sablonier: Verschriftlichung und Herrschaftspraxis. Enno Bünz: Probleme der hochmittelalterlichen Urbarüberlieferung, in: Werner Rösener (ed.): Grundherrschaft und bäuerliche Gesellschaft im Hochmittelalter, Göttingen 1995, pp. 31–75.

The monastery of Lambach is located in the central region of Upper Austria and was founded in 1056.

About the history of Lambach and its properties see: Helga Litschel (ed.): 900 Jahre Klosterkirche Lambach. Oberösterreichische Landesausstellung 20. Mai bis 8. Oktober 1989 im Benediktinerstift Lambach, Linz 1989; Klaus Landa (ed.): Stift Lambach in der Frühen Neuzeit: Frömmigkeit, Wissenschaft, Kunst und Verwaltung am Fluss. Tagungsband zum Symposion im November 2009, Linz 2012; Ernst Matulik: Entwicklung und Ausdehnung der Grundherrschaft des Stiftes Lambach (15.–18. Jahrhundert), unpublished PhD thesis, Graz 1949; Christoph Stöttinger: Kloster und Umland im Spätmittelalter. Das Beispiel Lambach zwischen der Plünderung und Verwüstung durch die Bayern 1233 und dem Einsetzen der Melker Reform 1419, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Salzburg 2010.

Lambach’s property administration was conducted on two levels. First there was the central administration situated within the monastery, which is the object of research in this paper. Second, there were the Amtmänner, bailiffs, who headed several, geographically defined offices, Ämter. The geographical location of some of these offices changed in the period under research,

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.

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 annotations as well as by deletions and additions to their text. The registers have to be seen not only as the central instrument of written documentation but also of communication during the process of writing a deed. Both were aided by a steady layout (Fig. 3).

Figure 3

The pages were vertically structured into two areas: first the main space for the basic text of the deed and second the left margin. This left margin was reserved for both corrections and additions and it was always situated on the left, regardless which side of the folio the entries were written on. Therefore, the writer of the deed – which did not have to be the same as the writer of the draft – was always confronted with the same structure. Different kinds of annotations had their fixed position. Situated at the beginning of the entry, different signs indicated which parts of the production process were already concluded. Corrections and additions began with an insert sign corresponding to another one in the text and were situated at the height of line where they should be inserted. Administrative remarks, on the other hand, which did not concern the text itself but were directives regarding issuing dates, taxes and so on were placed indent under the entries and could be further emphasised with a border, especially when a task had to be done before writing the deed. Due to this steady layout, a writer looking at the drafts immediately knew which parts of the entries concerned him in the different stages of the production process, therefore minimising the risk of mistakes and oversights.

The contents of the different remarks, as well as the drafts themselves, tell us several things about the process of writing. First, the drafts were often revised over some time. When the former tenants went to the monastery and presented their old deed or sent their Aufgabbrief, in many cases that was only the beginning of a negotiation process regarding the future of the property. This was especially true for cases of inheritance but also happened when a property, or part of it, was sold, most notably within the family. 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

»Beredt ist das ir sun der Liendel yetz den drittail vom hof nemen sol an stat seiner muter im und andern seinen [...] als ain lechentrager«. OÖLA, Herrschaftsprotokolle, L879, No. 563, 13.08.1450.

or when the annotation remarks that the deed above should be written in another way and provides the names of different new tenants.

»Den obgenanten brief sol ich anders schreiben auf Klarein, irn mann Kaspar den Talhaymer und irer baider erben«. OÖLA, Herrschaftsprotokolle, L879, No. 309, 15.11.1446.

These remarks could be phrased in first person or be unspecified. It can be assumed that the writer of the draft was more often than not also the writer of the deed, though the registers show several different writers being involved in the production of deeds in the same period. The character of the annotations as means of communication stayed the same, either in the form of a reminder for the writer of the draft and deed himself or as instruction to other writers who wrote the deed based on his draft. That the process of writing and issuing a deed revolved around the registers can also be seen in them often containing financial information regarding the collected tax for the deed. For these annotations the writer had to return to the registers after the deed was already written and issued, showing that their role was not contained to just the process of writing the deed. Despite of the entries being the draft of the deeds, they were already dated. Since the dates are generally written by the same writer as the text and do not indicate in any way to have been added later, the date of the draft determined the date of the deed, which is confirmed by comparing the drafts with extant deeds.

For the registers in the chancery of the counts of Tyrol at the beginning of the 14^th century, Alois Zauner observes the same and assumes that the deeds were normally written immediately after finishing their draft. Regarding the drafts in the chancery of the duke of Austria, Christian Lackner assumes the same and categorises the dates as the date of the order to write the deed. Since in Lambach the drafts were often revised in major ways after the already dated draft had been written, one has to assume that the date of the deeds could greatly differ from the date they were actually written. See: Alois Zauner: Das älteste Tiroler Kanzleiregister. 1308–1315, Vienna 1967, p. 9. Christian Lackner: Studien zum ältesten allgemeinen Register der österreichischen Herzogskanzlei, in: Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung 100, Vienna 1992, pp. 237–253, at p. 248.

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.

The information was added to the drafts and not just to the deeds in the process of their writing.

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 quite often the phrase »laut Urbarbuch«, according to the urbarium, is used, which in the deeds translates into »nach Inhalt unseres Gotteshauses Urbarbuch«, according to the urbarium of our house of God. Though, that was only one way to declare the rent. Instead of referring to the urbaria, the deeds either declared the actual rent or referred to other deeds.

It cannot be said how such referrals to other deeds worked in practice. This mode was often used in cases where a part of a property was transferred and therefore referred to the deed for the whole property. It is unclear who was in possession of the referred deed and how the tenant of the smaller part should have access to it. It is likely that the local bailiffs played a role in the translation of such statements into practice.

A comparison of the two monasteries’ property administrations shows considerable differences. While Klosterneuburg focused on different forms of specialised but interconnected registers, Lambach was heavily reliant on the deeds or other forms of single-sheet documents, either as originals or as drafts in registers. Nevertheless, both kinds of administration seem to have worked for the respective monasteries. While the different solutions for the same task are in no way unusual, it is still worth trying to analyse both cases regarding the question of what could have caused this different development.

Different sources at the Klosterneuburg monastery point to practical, legal and economic motives for keeping and renewing its estate registers. In the introduction section of an extensive novel urbarium, completed in 1513, the monastery’s provost Geörg Hawsmanstetter explained the reasons behind his efforts. He argues that the manor’s estate registers were defective and in ›diffuse disorder‹ due to either adverse circumstances or negligence.

StAKl, Grundbuch 1/1a, fol. 1r: »zersträter vnordnung«.

In the case of Klosterneuburg monastery’s written documentation, differentiation has been observed by Maximilian Fischer (1782–1851), the monastery’s then-archivist and librarian, in 1845. He catalogued the manuscripts in his archive and reflected on the development in administration.

StAKl, Hs. 275, pp. III–XIII. Discussed by Höller: Das Rechnungswesen der Stiftsherrschaft Klosterneuburg, pp. 152–158. – On Maximilian Fischer, cf. Czeike: Historisches Lexikon Wien, s.v. Fischer Lorenz Maximilian, vol. 2, p. 314.

The preserved documents in the monastery’s archive illustrate the development of differentiation and thus the ability to meet multiple requirements. One of the reasons for properly kept estate registers was to prevail in the concert of manorial lords. Manorial competition was a driving force for development in the sector of written documentation and innovation could have been the result of exchanges of cultural techniques.

Demonstrated with a wider scope by Hugener: Buchführung für die Ewigkeit, pp. 115–116, 147 with fn. 560 and pp. 165–170; For manorial competition and the appearance of vernacular urbaria, see: Christa Bertelsmeier-Kierst: Kommunikation und Herrschaft. zum volksprachlichen Verschriftlichungsprozess des Rechts im 13. Jahrhundert, Stuttgart 2008, pp. 58–59.

The Lambach monastery chose another way to administrate its properties. An analysis of the characteristics of its system reveals how they correspond to several factors of Lambach’s property situation. When looking at these institutional parameters Lambach’s system was embedded in, one can ascertain several influential factors: first the property rights. One of the defining characteristics of Lambach’s Erbrecht was the flexibility regarding splitting up the properties or owning them as larger groups in forms of tenancy in common. As stated before, it was a major influence factor that each tenant could command over his share in the same ways as with properties held by a single tenant. This offered the tenants the upmost economic possibilities and flexibility. On the other side, regarding administration, it posed a great challenge for the landlord, since it caused frequent changes in property and tenant structure. It is questionable if a rigid documentation like in the case of Klosterneuburg, where every property had its own entry in the registers, allowing the documentation of all the changes, would have been able to keep up with these constant structural changes. Properties that got split up could still be documented in such registers, as is the case in Heiligenstadt’s rental. Here, the record of the divided property was translated into two different entries between the lines of the table and the subsequent changes were then recorded separately.

For example, StAKl, Grundbuch 8/1, fol. 5v. – A comparable example can be found in the estate register of the region Aflenz, owned by the monastery St. Lambrecht in Styria. There, the monastery just distributed the entries of the different shares on the page in two columns and then documented transactions under each of them. See: Birgit Heinzle: Das »Geschäft« mit dem Land. Landtransaktionen in der ländlichen Gesellschaft der Herrschaften Aflenz und Veitsch. 1494–1550, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Vienna 2017, pp. 168–169 and Stiftsarchiv St. Lambrecht, IV A a6, Urbar Aflenz 1494, fol. 212r. In the period under review, such divisions can only be observed in Aflenz in some singular cases though. Therefore, the structure of the estate register is based on stable properties. Many thanks to Birgit Heinzle for providing the scan of the cited page of the estate register.

Contrary to Klosterneuburg, which was embedded in and influenced by an area with several developed administrations, neither Lambach’s neighbouring town Wels nor other monasteries like Stift Kremsmünster seem to have put Lambach under pressure to adapt to a regional state-of-the-art property administration to defend its legal rights. Instead we can observe an evolution of Lambach’s own system based on single-sheet documents, corresponding to changes in property rights and structure as well as associated administrative challenges. Fragments of older records of bestowed properties, dating back to the 1420s,

StiAL, Fragmentsammlung, Karton 3, Frag 23–49.

Looking at the differences and similarities of the property administrations of Lambach and Klosterneuburg, we can clearly see the character of the late Middle Ages as time of transition between the Age of Charters and deeds and the Age of Files. Defining for this time are the official books, Amtsbücher, whose development from general documentation to separate, specialised series

Andermann: Pragmatische Schriftlichkeit, p. 40.

In our study, we identified several institutional factors that proved to be influential regarding the organisation of the manorial administration of landed property. First, the patterns of landholding: whether properties could be divided or be owned by a (fluid) group of tenants affected the complexity of their administration. The more stable the property and tenant structure was, the more structured their administration could be. The evolution of property rights in the Middle Ages, which granted the tenants more and more possibilities in dealing with land tenure, also steadily increased the demands towards their administration. Second, the communicative and competitive framework the institutions were embedded in: the appearance of records and administration practices were not only shaped by the economic necessity to achieve a functioning organisation of properties and rents but also ensured sovereignty. To defend one’s rights, it was not only required to dispose written evidence. The produced documents had to correspond with regional legal and cultural customs to get accepted.

While Lambach’s administration was largely based on charters, deeds and their text, Klosterneuburg’s parishes transitioned to a book-based administration. In both cases, the choices of these tools of administration can be seen as continuous reactions to different demands of the monasteries and their specific surroundings. Therefore, what we observe is not a linear progress of rationalisation but rather a heuristic process, torn back and forth by conflicts of incongruous legal and economic objectives and driven by multilayered cultural influences and innovations.

The different solutions found by the two monasteries for an only at the first glance identical challenge showed that at this time local factors were still more influential than later on, when official requirements began to shape the administrations of estates to an ever-expanding extent. In the following centuries, property administration became more and more subject of scholarly and legal thoughts. In the drafted law code for Lower Austria from 1528, the »Institutum Ferdinandi«, no obligation to keep an estate register was imposed. Yet, the importance of written deeds for all kinds of legal acts was highlighted. Registers, however, are mentioned in the private-law treatise of Bernhard Walther in the 1550s, citing their significance related to the registration of bestowals on the one hand and the encumbrances on the other.

Steppan: Das bäuerliche Recht an der Liegenschaft, pp. 26–28 and pp. 84–86.