bavarikon4UThe account books of the Regensburg St. Katharinenspital 1354/59 to 1934
The account books of the St. Katharinenspital hospital in Regensburg have been preserved as an almost complete collection from 1354 to 1934 and offer a wide variety of information on diverse cultural and historical issues. They provide insight far beyond the economic situation in the respective accounting year into the history of St. Katharinenspital, the imperial city of Regensburg and the East Bavarian region, supplying valuable details on agriculture and forestry, viticulture, brewing, trade and handicrafts, social ties, wages and prices, and even phenological data. This exceptional situation of preservation was already recognised by the Imperial Archivist Franz Joseph von Samet when he enthused about the hospital archive as a "true treasure of documents" in 1812.
St. Katharinenspital emerged at the beginning of the 13th century from the merger of two hospitals with ecclesiastical and lay roots respectively. The burghers, clergy and nobility endowed the Bürgerspital St. Katharina – not least out of concern for their own salvation – with plenty of landed property and thus secured its permanent existence. One instrument for the sustainable development of the hospital was orderly accounting and control, which took place three times a year from 1230 and later once a year.
The first account books appear in the 14th century, and their records are almost complete until the 20th century. Initially, these consisted of separate books of money received, money spent and grain books, debt books, building and foundation books, as well as accounts of the farms it runs. Other partial series have been added since the 16th century. One special feature are the concepts (=manuals); these are annual accounts enriched with additional information. These served as the data basis for the preparation of three fair copies each year, one for the hospital director and two for the clerical and secular hospital councillors entrusted with the audit.
The structure of the account volumes follows a form-like structure with individual headings. The appearance of the volumes evolved from the typical late medieval narrow folio to folio and large folio volumes with bindings in parchment (limp vellum), leather and solid cardboard with colour shades and marbling. All in all, these account volumes are an important find for local history research and scientific use by a wide variety of disciplines because of their tradition as a series.
>> This collection is part of the holdings of the Archiv der St. Katharinenspitalstiftung (The Archive of the St. Catherine's Hospital Foundation Ratisbon), the Lehrstuhl für Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte an der Universität Regensburg and the Universitätsbibliothek Regensburg (University Library of Regensburg).