Late medieval trade books as ego-documents: self-awareness of Nuremberg burghers based on their ricordanze

Abstract

For a long time burghers’ and peasants’ financial records and their private notes have been the focus of autobiographical research. Autobiographical tendencies may be shown not only in Tuscany’s libri di ricordanze, but also in sources from the German speaking territory. The article examines the financial records of the Nuremberg patriciate. The following sources were subjected to research: the famous work of Ulman Stromer (1329–1407) titled Püchel von meim geslechet und von abentewr, the account book of Wilhelm Loffelholz (1424––1475) rarely used in scientific research so far, and the unknown urbaria of his sons Wolfgang (1468–1519) and Christoph (1475–1506). The sources are egodocuments containing extremely valuable information allowing us to learn and understand the consciousness of the upper class in one of the Imperial Cities of the Holy Roman Empire.

Keywords

• Księgi handlowe
• egodokumenty
• autobiografi e
• ricordanze