Landlords and papers. Property and administration in seigneurial domains (southern Brittany, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries)
Type de matériel :
51
At the end of the Middle Ages, landlords in the southern part of Brittany made use of management and administration tools and techniques popularized by the ducal Chambers of accounts in the late fourteenth century. These improvements were appreciable during the fifteenth century, especially in terms of the increasing conservation of a growing range of written documents. Which tools did collectors and other agents of the landlords use to administer the estates and exercise related seigneurial rights? What difficulties did they encounter? Do the preserved written records offer evidence in this respect? This paper sets out to answer these questions, using current historical research. We consider how texts were designed, executed, and conserved or transmitted by officials, and we identify differences and parallels among the domains. The distinction that has in the past been drawn between eminent seigneurial domains and more modest ones is nuanced in our context. The management techniques and approaches are very similar: the sources reveal no chronological gap in this respect between the various levels in the seigneurial hierarchy. Whether secular or ecclesiastical, landlords used the same methods, which suggests the presence of circulating models and of external influences, as shown by Jean Kerhervé for the Breton ducal estate in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
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