The Civic Archives in Bozen-Bolzano (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

: ''Stadtarchiv Bozen'';

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

: ''Archivio Storico della Città di Bolzano'') are the municipal

archive An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or ...

of the city of

Bolzano Bolzano ( or ; german: Bozen, (formerly ); bar, Bozn; lld, Balsan or ) is the capital city of the province of South Tyrol in northern Italy. With a population of 108,245, Bolzano is also by far the largest city in South Tyrol and the third la ...

South Tyrol it, Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano – Alto Adige lld, Provinzia Autonoma de Balsan/Bulsan – Südtirol , settlement_type = Autonomous province , image_skyline = , image_alt ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. They are located in the old

town hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

and store documents from over 700 years of civic and regional history.

History

The records of the Civic Archives and their language reflect the complex and rich

History of the Alps The valleys of the Alps have been inhabited since prehistoric times. The Alpine culture, which developed there, centers on transhumance. Currently the Alps are divided among eight states: France, Monaco, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austr ...

and especially the

History of South Tyrol Modern-day South Tyrol, an autonomous Italian province created in 1948, was part of the Austro-Hungarian County of Tyrol until 1918 (then known as ''Deutschsüdtirol'' and occasionally ''Mitteltirol''). It was annexed by Italy following the de ...

, being the oldest documentation from the late 13th century onwards written exclusively in Latin and German. Only from the annexation of the Southern Tyrol after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

by Italy in 1919/20 onwards, the records are mainly kept in Italian. The first mentions about the Bolzano records keeping are dating back to the late XV century. In 1472 the ''

burgermeister Burgomaster (alternatively spelled burgermeister, literally "master of the town, master of the borough, master of the fortress, master of the citizens") is the English form of various terms in or derived from Germanic languages for the chief ...

'' Konrad Lerhueber instituted the so called ''Stadtbuch'' as the towns official register of legal acts. In 1776 the civic council, on behalf of the burgermeister Franz von Gumer, decided to gather the municipal records within the old town hall and ordered the civic

scrivener A scrivener (or scribe) was a person who could read and write or who wrote letters to court and legal documents. Scriveners were people who made their living by writing or copying written material. This usually indicated secretarial and admini ...

Johann Felix Gigl to collect the archives. As in 1907 the municipality moved to Bolzano's new town hall, the historic documents were transferred to the Civic Museum and recorded by the Austrian historian and archivist Karl Klaar who made an inventory still valid today. In 2002 the whole documentation returned to the old town hall, in the meantime adapted as site of the historic archives.

Holdings

Among the many documents preserved, of peculiar interest to the historic sciences are the archives of the former Hospital to the Holy Spirit (''Heilig-Geist-Spital'') existing from the late 13th to the 19th centuries. Also the archives of the former autonomous communities of Gries and Zwölfmalgreien (''Dodiciville'') are kept by the Civic Archives. The oldest document today existing is a fragment of

Bede Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...

's ''Commentaries on Proverbs''. There is also preserved an excerpt of the

Middle High German Middle High German (MHG; german: Mittelhochdeutsch (Mhd.)) is the term for the form of German spoken in the High Middle Ages. It is conventionally dated between 1050 and 1350, developing from Old High German and into Early New High German. High ...

Christherre-Chronik The ''Christherre-Chronik'' (named after its opening words, "Christ the Lord") is a 13th-century world chronicle from Thüringen, written in Middle High German rhyming couplets. It was written by a churchman in the service of Henry III, Margrave ...

in a copy dating back to 14th century.

References

Sources

* * * * *

External links

BOhisto: Bozen-Bolzano's History Online

Handschriftencensus Marburg-Mainz: Handschriftenbeschreibung 1895
{{Authority control Bolzano Buildings and structures in Bolzano Cultural heritage of Italy