Office book
.
An official book is a book that is created and used by an institution with an official character. The term was coined in the 19th century by archivists to distinguish it from files and documents . Official books are the subject of official library studies .
The main purpose of the official registers was to be used as evidence for any legal disputes. In Roman law , as applied in Germany since early modern times , the official registers had perfect evidential value . The circumstances recorded there could hardly be challenged. The recording of economically relevant facts for the execution of accounts is also very important . The collection of taxes was settled with the help of official books.
Their content was initially complete and original texts. Later they often contained complete or partial copies .
shape
External basic forms are the role and the code . However, the latter became more and more popular in the High Middle Ages . The books were kept as a list , alphabetically or objectively arranged index or as a mixed book in which different forms were used one behind the other and side by side.
Typology
The abundance of official books that have emerged over the centuries is typified according to different aspects. These partially overlap.
institution
Based on the institution that keeps the book, a distinction is made:
- Court book , which by a court is led
- Church book that is kept by a church agency
- Stadtbuch that of a city is run
purpose
A distinction is made according to the purpose:
- Citizens' register as a directory of people enjoying city rights
- Land register as a list of properties
- Copy book or traditional book for the collection of legally relevant copies of documents
- Stock ledger as a directory of real estate property and the income from it
- Fief book , a list of the fiefdoms issued
- Matriculation as proof of a certain group of people
- Necrology for recording memorial days
- Log book for recording meetings
- Account book for monitoring income and expenses
- Shrine register as a forerunner of the land register
- Book of wills as a directory of officially deposited wills
- Urbar or Salbuch for records of the manor
- Register of documents for recording outgoing documents
history
The traditional book, as it was created in the 9th century, is regarded as the earliest type. In the 13th century it was transformed into a land register or stock register. Since the 13th century, land registers as well as town registers and shrine registers were also created in the cities. The first copy books can also be found at this time. Shortly thereafter, document registers follow in book form, in which the expiring documents are recorded. The notaries led register documenting the notarized by them legal processes in short form. In the course of time, extensive series of official registers emerged at a number of institutions, which even provided the basis for the entire organization of the written material (official register registry ). The changed processes as well as the increased frequency of administrative actions made the rigid character of the official registers clear since the beginning of the 19th century, so that since then the factual files have been preferred more and more. Since the widespread introduction of electronic data processing in the late 20th century, official registers no longer play a role in administrations.
literature
- Concise dictionary on German legal history . 2nd Edition. Vol. 1. Berlin 2008, Col. 215
