Metadata: Trial books
Collection
- Country:
- Austria
- Holding institution:
- Tyrolean Regional Archive
- Holding institution (official language):
- Tiroler Landesarchiv
- Postal address:
- Michael-Gaismair-Straße 1; 6020 Innsbruck
- Phone number:
- 0043 512 508 3502
- Web address:
- https://www.tirol.gv.at/kunst-kultur/landesarchiv/
- Email:
- landesarchiv@tirol.gv.at
- Reference number:
- Oberösterreichische Regierung - Prozessbücher
- Title:
- Trial books
- Title (official language):
- Prozessbücher
- Creator/accumulator:
- Austrian Superior Government
- Date(s):
- 1498/1782
- Language:
- German
- Extent:
- 106 volumes
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection “Austrian Superior Government – Trial books” is a non-Jewish collection with a significant number of Jewish-related documents. It covers the period from 1498 to 1782 and includes copies of outgoing trial records concerning matters of justice and law, addressed to subordinated offices and individuals. This collection is similarly structured to the other cartulary series of the Austrian Superior Government consisting of several books with an index from A to Z containing transcribed records. The kinds of records included are, for example, copies of orders, decrees, instructions, verdicts and judicial decisions. The collection is divided into an “elder” series covering a period from 1498 to 1523 and a “younger” one from 1523 to 1782.
The repertories B 125 and B 126 are inadequately maintained and the references regarding Jews in these two finding aids do not conform to the references and records in the related cartularies. Therefore, one has to work with the indices of each cartulary to search for Jewish individuals. There are Jewish related records in several trial books concerning private law.
For example, there is a record, issued on 10 May 1641, concerning the court proceedings of the Jew Adele of Enishoven versus Niclaus Rueschen of Constance. The record mostly contains administrative correspondence between the authorities. It is known that there was a verdict in court in favour of Niclaus Rueschen, therefore Adele filed an appeal to the authorities of Innsbruck against this judgement. A similar example, issued on 4 July 1641, is about the Jew Paul von der Mauer against the abbess of Sonnenburg. The former lost a case and filed a complaint to the authorities of Innsbruck against the verdict. The details of the case are not discussed in this document.
NB: This collection is similar to the various cartulary collections of the Austrian Superior Government, consisting of 106 (trial) books. Each book includes its own index from A to Z. Under the letter I/J one may find references to Jewish individuals. Repertories B 125 und B 126 are the super-ordinated indices to the “elder” and “younger” series of trial books.
- Archival history:
- This collection was transferred to the Tyrolean Regional Archive as part of the regular document transfer process stipulated by national archival regulations.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
The accumulator of the “Trial Books” was the Austrian Superior Government as the highest administrative authority in Tyrol and Further Austria, established by emperor Maximilian I in the year 1490. In the second half of the 16th century and at the beginning of the 17th century this authority was subordinated to the Privy Council, but equivalent and related to the Austrian Superior Chamber.
The commission of the Austrian Superior Government, consisting of twelve councillors, was responsible for the judiciary and administration of Further Austria, which was the collective name for the early possessions of the Habsburgs in Vorarlberg in western Austria, in parts of Switzerland, Swabia in south-western Germany, in the Alsace region in eastern France, Baden-Württemberg and Belfort in eastern France. There were administrative bodies in the western part of Further Austria which were subordinated to the Austrian Superior Government in Innsbruck, while the eastern part was directly administrated by the Government itself. This authority was not only the highest administrative agency, as mentioned above, but also the highest judicial agency and was responsible in matters of fief in Tyrol and Vorarlberg as well. In 1749 the main jurisdictions of the Government shifted to the new institution called “Representation and Chamber” (“Repräsentation und Kammer”) until it was dissolved a few years later in 1782. (Cf. Beimrohr, Das Tiroler Landesarchiv und seine Bestände, 68-70; Köfler, Verwaltungsgeschichte Tirols, https://www.tirol.gv.at/fileadmin/themen/kunst-kultur/landesarchiv/downloads/verwaltungsgeschichte.PDF)
- Access points: locations:
- Austria
- Access points: persons/families:
- von der Mauer, Paul
- Subject terms:
- Correspondence
- Legal matters
- Legal records
- System of arrangement:
- This collection is similar to the various cartulary assemblages of the Austrian Superior Government, consisting of 106 trial books. Each includes its own index from A to Z, with which one can look for Jewish individuals under the letter I/J.
- Access, restrictions:
- Public access
- Finding aids:
- Finding aids: Rep. B 125, Rep. B 126 (indices for the elder series), volume indices.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Museum Hohenems
- Author of the description:
- Rebecca Muršec, December 2017
