Academic Dissertation, University of Tampere, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, History, 2016.
Management of information is essentially a modern concept meaning the organisation and control over the structure, processing and delivering of information for different uses in decision making. In my PhD thesis, I explore and discuss the possibilities of its use in the context of the administration and communication of the council of Reval (today Tallinn, capital of Estonia) from the earliest known use of the seal of the city in 1257 to the retirement of city scribe and notary public Joachim Muter from his office in 1456/60. My focus is on both the formation of the agency (office) of the city scribes as hired professionals in the written management of information of the civic authority and the process of textualization: that is, the application of the technology of writing in the management of information, communication, administration and textual manifestations of authority in the activity of the council. The study is based on the vast corpus of original material from the council activity still available in the Tallinn City Archives of with supplements from other archives and source editions.
Author(s): Tapio Salminen
Publisher: University of Tampere
Year: 2016
Language: English
Pages: 672
1. A CITY AND ITS SCRIBES: REVAL (TALLINN) AND THE WRITTEN MANAGEMENT OF
INFORMATION OF THE CIVIC AUTHORITY BEFORE 1456/60 1
1.1. REVAL – THE STRUCTURE AND FORMATION OF A MEDIEVAL MERCHANT CITY IN THE NORTHERN BALTIC SEA AREA 3
1.2.MEDIEVAL TEXTUALIZATION, MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION AND THE AGENCY (OFFICE) OF THE REVALIAN CITY SCRIBES AS A PROBLEM OF RESEARCH IN THIS STUDY 43
2. THE ORIGINS AND NATURE OF TEXTUALIZATION IN THE BALTIC SEA AREA AND THE EARLIEST DOCUMENTS ISSUED BY THE CIVIC AUTHORITY OF REVAL 110
2.1. THE THREE PHASES OF TEXTUALIZATION 110
2.2. THE SEAL OF REVAL AS A SYMBOL OF THE CIVIC AUTHORITY IN THE 13TH AND EARLY 14TH CENTURIES 142
3. COUNCIL OF REVAL AND THE MANIFESTATIONS OF CIVIC AUTHORITY, ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION BEFORE 1456/60 181
3.1. THE STRUCTURE OF THE CIVIC ADMINISTRATION AND ITS SPATIAL MANIFESTATIONS IN THE 14TH AND 15TH CENTURIES 181
3.2. TOPICS OF ADMINISTRATION AND SPHERES OF INFORMATION: THE PRODUCTION OF MEMORANDA AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF OFFICES AMONG THE COUNCILLORS 261
4. CITY SCRIBES AND THE CONDITIONS OF THEIR OFFICE IN 1312–1363 325
4.1. KAROLUS DE MONTREAL AND THE OFFICE OF THE CITY SCRIBE IN 1358–63 330
4.2. THE ORIGINS OF THE WRITTEN MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION AND THE FIRST SCRIBES PERMANENTLY IN THE SERVICE OF THE COUNCIL BEFORE 1358 337
4.3. DEVELOPMENTS IN THE STRUCTURE OF THE WRITTEN MEMORANDA IN THE THIRD QUARTER OF THE 14TH CENTURY 382
5. CITY SCRIBES AND THE CONDITIONS OF THEIR OFFICE IN 1363–1456/60 418
5.1. CITY SCRIBES ALBERTUS (1363–74) AND HERMANNUS (1375–1400/3) AND THE MAIN HANDS ACTIVE IN THE CITY SCRIPTORIUM IN 1363–1405 418
5.2. CITY SCRIBES JOHANNES BLOMENDAL (1406–26),WENEMAR SCHETER (1426–29) AND JOACHIM MUTER (1429–56) 467
6. CONCLUSIONS 579
6.1. THE SETTINGS AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY 579
6.2. ASPECTS OF TEXTUALIZATION, WRITTEN MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION AND THE OFFICE OF THE CITY SCRIBES 585
SOURCES AND LITERATURE 608
APPENDICES 646
APPENDIX 1:MIDDLE LOW GERMAN TRANSLATIONS FROM SWEDISH ORIGINAL LETTERS IN AR BEFORE 1450 646
APPENDIX 2: BASIC CODICOLOGICAL INFORMATION OF THE MAJOR LINES OF CIVIC MEMORANDA IN THE WRITTEN ADMINISTRATION OF THE COUNCIL 650
