Finance, law and the language of governmental practice in late medieval towns: Aberdeen and Augsburg in comparison

Lead Research Organisation: University of Aberdeen
Department Name: Sch of Divinity, History and Philosop

Abstract

The development of towns and cities was a crucial aspect of the later middle ages, and this growth left long-lasting legacies, not least for the exercise of government in practice and for associated ideas of governance. This project addresses the problem of how to understand the languages, terminology and ideas of governmental practice in western European towns in the later middle ages. It does so through new analysis of recently created resources for the Bavarian city of Augsburg and the smaller Scottish burgh of Aberdeen.

The Aberdeen records hold UNESCO UK designation status. Preceding collaborative projects led by the co-applicants have created digital transcriptions of the textual contents of different types of urban administrative record - the mainly financial ledger books of Augsburg (1320-1466/70) and the mainly legal council registers of Aberdeen (1398-1511). The opportunity now is to place these resources in comparison and undertake deep historically driven analysis of their content, and simultaneously to develop the ways in which German and Scottish historiographies of the medieval period can benefit from more direct academic dialogue.

The examination will address the following aspects of the Augsburg and Aberdeen records: (1) what were the terminology and ideas of financial administration active in both towns; (2) what were the terminology and ideas of legal-juridical administration (again, in both towns); in both cases asking was there a shared vocabulary of governance, particularly concerning law and finance; and (3) how best to address the methodological challenge of a structured comparison of these two XML data sets. The TEI-format of both XML resources means the comparison is possible; the role of the language technician RF will be vital in applying existing tools and designing new techniques for automatic analysis to support historical enquiry, and enabling a corpus-scale examination of the relevant terminology and advancing an important field of digital humanities.

More broadly, this analysis will enable us to consider how the language of practice differs from the normative language of treatises and commentaries on government in the period, and how far 'urban' is a useful category in the analysis of medieval administrative records.

Publications

10 25 50
 
Description The research team identified the conceptual domains of 'order', 'budget' and 'unity' as the sub-fields of 'urbanitas' which forms the basis of the comparison between Augsburg and Aberdeen; post-award development of publication outputs is underway using a digital humanities methodology; in the second year the project convened an international workshop in Aberdeen with invited participants who discussed the conceptual domains described above, presenting papers based on their own research with other cities and towns; in the third year the project convened an international workshop in Mainz with invited participants who commented on pre-circulated draft publications produced by the FLAG team, expanded on themes in relation to their own research expertise. This created a shared set of insights informing further development of intended publications, and inspired new collaborations. Joint and single-authored publications are in progress, and single authored publications have appeared (including Armstrong 2023). As of early 2024 a dissertation for Habilitation concerning Augsburg has been submitted, and a monograph on Aberdeen is in preparation. Ancillary & related activities arising from the project continue.
Exploitation Route We intend our overall analytical framework and findings, as well as our methods, will be of use to other researchers in the field. See also https://aberdeenregisters.org/flag-project/
Sectors Creative Economy

Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)

Government

Democracy and Justice

Culture

Heritage

Museums and Collections

URL https://flag-project.uni-mainz.de/home/
 
Description The research context of the FLAG project has in part helped to inform the design, development and release of a video game Strange Sickness (2021), see https://strangesickness.com/
First Year Of Impact 2021
Sector Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)
Impact Types Cultural

Economic

 
Description Women, law and landed networks in Scotland, c.1460 - c.1560: Aberdeen and the Northeast
Amount £60,491 (GBP)
Funding ID 2437940 
Organisation Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2020 
End 10/2024
 
Description Aberdeen City Archives partnership 
Organisation Aberdeen City Council
Department Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Archives
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Continuation of ongoing dialogue with City Archives team around original Aberdeen Council Registers volumes, and related burgh records.
Collaborator Contribution Continuation of ongoing dialogue around original Aberdeen Council Registers volumes, and related burgh records. Facilitation of access to original records and/or images.
Impact This is a multi-disciplinary collaboration among scholars and professionals from archives, history and computational linguistics
Start Year 2020
 
Description FLAG Project Workshop I 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact FLAG project workshop I, held in Aberdeen: 'New perspectives on civic administration in 15th-century towns'. 5-6 Nov 2021
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://flag-project.uni-mainz.de/2021/10/30/workshop-new-perspectives-on-civic-administration-in-fi...
 
Description FLAG Project Workshop II 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact Second international workshop run by FLAG, held at JGU Mainz. 6-7 Oct 2022.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://aberdeenregisters.org/2022/10/14/to-mainz-and-augsburg-flag-workshop-ii-meets-in-germany/
 
Description GAMING - In plague-ridden medieval Aberdeen (UNI-Versal Festival, short talks) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Short talk: In this talk, historians Dr Jackson Armstrong and Dr William Hepburn explain how the grisly history of medieval Aberdeen came to life as the video game "Strange Sickness". 17 Sept 2022.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.abdn.ac.uk/events/17704/
 
Description Gallery Late: Medieval Mayhem - Meet the Creators: Strange Sickness with Dr William Hepburn and Dr Jackson Armstrong 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Aberdeen Art Gallery, United Kingdom: Showcase of Strange Sickness, William Hepburn & Jackson Armstrong on hand to chat about the game and answer questions. Gallery Late: Medieval Mayhem. Aberdeen Archives, Gallery & Museums, special after-hours event inspired by our exhibitions. 30 Sep 2022
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/AAGM/whats-aberdeen-art-galleries-and-museums/gallery-late-medieval-...
 
Description Making Strange Sickness: exploring history through game design 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Lunchtime Talks, Aberdeen Maritime Museum: The 2021 Strange Sickness indie video game is an experiment in merging historical research with digital storytelling, built by historians, for gamers. Hear from the co-creators about how the idea for the game emerged from work with the UNESCO-recognised Burgh records and why they decided to explore history through games. 21 Sept 2022.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/AAGM/whats-aberdeen-art-galleries-and-museums/talk-making-strange-si...
 
Description Paper on 'Strange Sickness', at The Middle Ages in Modern Games 2021: Twitter Conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Following the success of the inaugural 2020 MAMG Twitter conference, the 2021 edition took place on 25 - 28 May. This innovative virtual conference, a collaboration between the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Research and The Public Medievalist (www.publicmedievalist.com), sees delegates delivering their papers in 12 tweets, with much social media activity around the actual conference. @MIDAGESMODGAMES, #MAMG21 @CMRR_Winchester . Held at Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Research, University of Winchester. 27 May 2021
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://aberdeenregisters.org/2021/05/27/strange-sickness-goes-to-mamg21-twitter-conference/
 
Description SGSAH International Summer School, session on 'The Aberdeen Burgh Records: Historical Languages, Investigations, Creative Responses' 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact SGSAH International Summer School 2021: This session explores the Aberdeen Registers Online: 1398-1511 (ARO): from the underlying burgh records which survive from the middle ages, and the context of the languages within them (Latin and Middle Scots), to the creation of the ARO as a digital resource in the language of XML. It presents the digital humanities work which is currently underway in the course of the FLAG project, investigating the ARO alongside a comparable digital resource from medieval Augsburg. It explores an exciting set of creative responses to the themes and language in the ARO, in the form of contemporary song-writing and musical performance. 21 Jun 2021
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.sgsah.ac.uk/summer-school-2021/monday-sessions/headline_793424_en.html
 
Description William Hepburn gave a seminar paper on "Urban Ideals in the Everyday Language of Civic Government: Aberdeen 1398-1511" 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact A hybrid in person/online paper for the History research seminar at the University of Aberdeen
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://aberdeenregisters.org/2023/11/30/urban-ideals-in-the-everyday-language-of-civic-government-a...