The gift register (german: Schenkungsbuch) of an

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conce ...

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

was a record of the properties forming its estate, the majority of which came from

gifts A gift or a present is an item given to someone without the expectation of payment or anything in return. An item is not a gift if that item is already owned by the one to whom it is given. Although gift-giving might involve an expectation ...

(''Schenkungen''). The register served as proof of the legitimacy of these properties and thus provided some security and protection for them. As a rule, the register comprised transcripts of the original documents, not the deed itself, as in the case of the sometimes protocular

tradition book A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays o ...

s. In order to facilitate the management of the estate, documents spanning several centuries were often organised geographically. The entries were kept up-to-date over a longer period of time.

Reichenbach Gift Register

The Reichenbach Gift Register (''Reichenbacher Schenkungsbuch'') belonging to Reichenbach Abbey in the

Northern Black Forest The Northern Black Forest (german: Nordschwarzwald) refers to the northern third of the Black Forest in Germany or, less commonly today, to the northern half of this mountain region. Geography The Northern Black Forest is bounded in the north b ...

was preserved in three volumes: first the St. Paul Manuscript (1099-1105), then the

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

Manuscript (1143-1152) and finally the Wiblingen Manuscript (16th century). The latter, however, has been missing since 1963. The original text, which was not preserved, was probably written by the time of Abbot William (died 1091).

Gift register of Lorsch Abbey

Like those at

Fulda Fulda () (historically in English called Fuld) is a town in Hesse, Germany; it is located on the river Fulda and is the administrative seat of the Fulda district (''Kreis''). In 1990, the town hosted the 30th Hessentag state festival. History ...

, documents about the estates of the imperial abbey of Lorsch have survived dating as far back as the 8th century. The

Lorsch Codex The Lorsch Codex (Chronicon Laureshamense, Lorscher Codex, Codex Laureshamensis) is an important historical document created between about 1175 to 1195 AD in the Monastery of Saint Nazarius in Lorsch, Germany. The codex is handwritten in Caroli ...

compiled in the 12th century contains the names of more than 1000 places, which are mentioned for the first time. Among the place first recorded in the Codex are

Sersheim Sersheim is a municipality in the district of Ludwigsburg in Baden-Württemberg in Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after ...

Lohra Lohra may refer to: *Lohra, Bihar, India *Lohra, Germany **Lohra (megalithic tomb), near Lohra, Germany *Lohra (tribe) Lohra is a community found in Jharkhand. They are traditionally associated with works of iron smelting. History Histrorians ...

, Neckargröningen, now part of

Remseck am Neckar Remseck am Neckar () is a town in the district of Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated at the confluence of the rivers Rems and Neckar, about 12 km northeast of Stuttgart, and 7 km southeast of Ludwigsburg. The ...

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's 2 ...

and

Nauheim Nauheim is a municipality in Groß-Gerau district in Hesse, Germany. Nauheim is located southwest of Frankfurt am Main and is part of the metropolitan region of Frankfurt. It lies in the Hessian Ried. Geography Location Nauheim lies 3 ...

Gift register of Hirsau Abbey

The '' Codex Hirsaugiensis'' was created as an edited version of the ''Traditiones Hirsaugenses'' tradition, in order to enable a systematic access to the monastery's documents. Personalities mentioned in the

Hirsau Hirsau (formerly ''Hirschau'') is a district of the town of Calw in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, located in the south-west portion of the country, about two miles north of Calw and about twenty-four miles west of Stuttgart. Town Hi ...

gift register include Conrad I of Württemberg.

Literature

* Stephan Molitor: ''Das Reichenbacher Schenkungsbuch'' (= ''Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Geschichtliche Landeskunde in Baden-Württemberg. Reihe A: Quellen.'' Bd. 40). Kohlhammer, Stuttgart, 1997, (zugl. Diss. Univ. Freiburg i. Br. 1986).

External links

* {{webarchive , url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070607/http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/ifgl/veroeff/digital/serquell/traditionsbuch.htm , date=June 7, 2007 , title="Traditionsbücher" by Stephan Molitor Legal history of the Holy Roman Empire Legal history of Germany Notary

Reichenbach Gift Register

Gift register of Lorsch Abbey

Gift register of Hirsau Abbey

Literature

See also

External links