Project Description

The Baumeisterbücher - municipal account books preserved in the Augsburg City Archives from 1320 to the end of the imperial city period - are an excellent source not only for economic and administrative history, but especially for social and cultural studies. Due to the high density of the tradition and the great uniformity of the entries, the Baumeisterbücher are particularly suitable for showing developments in a long-term perspective. Spatially, the entries also reflect trade networks and diplomatic relations that extend far beyond the Augsburg area - for example to Constantinople, England or Venice. Until now, access to the holdings has been limited due to the mass of material and the unique tradition.

The aim of the project is to edit the source. Thanks to funding from the German Research Foundation, this has been possible since June 2014 at the Research Centre for Historical Cultural Studies with three staff members. During the three-year project, the volumes from 1320 to 1466 will be edited first. Under the direction of Prof. Dr. Jörg Rogge, the research infrastructure required for digital editing and presentation will also be developed within the project period with the cooperation partners of the Augsburg City Archives, the Academy of Sciences and Literature, Digitale Akademie | Mainz, Mainz University Library and the Trier Center for Digital Humanities, aiming at a sustainable, re-usable implementation as well as the long-term safeguarding of the project results.