A synergistic approach to non-narrative historical sources. The database and digital edition of the Spängler household account books, 1733–1785

Abstract

The household account books of the Salzburg merchant family Spängler cover an exceptionally long period and constitute a unique source for the history of consumption in Central Europe in the eighteenth century. This review assesses the diplomatic and database edition that was published by the University of Salzburg and partners in 2020. The review focuses on the synergies that the scholarly digital edition of the household account books aims to establish between the transcription of the books, a database for querying their contents, and a special section containing biographical entries about the actors registered in the books. The review shows where this combination of editing styles is fruitful, especially for non-narrative sources, and where there is scope for further improvements.

Keywords

• economic history
• household account books
• database edition
• diplomatic edition
• semantic data
• querying
• web application
• interface