TY - BOOK AU - De Paermentier,Els TI - A Complex Chancellery. The Series of Acts in the Comital Entourage During the Meeting of Counts of Flanders and Hainaut(1191-1244) PY - 2013///. N1 - 32 N2 - As a sequel to earlier studies of Thérèse de Hemptinne and Walter Prevenier on the origin and development of the comital chancellery in Flanders during the 12th century, this research aims to examine how this chancellery had further developed during the first half of the 13th century, under the government of the successors to Philip of Alsace (1191), by trying to answer those central research questions: How was the comital chancellery organized during the first half of the 13th century? Who within this administrative organ of the chancellery was responsible for both the validation and the intellectual and material production of the charters issued by the count (esse)s?  Can we still speak of an univocal concept of a “chancellery”? Furthermore, since 1191, the personal union between the two counties of Flanders and Hainaut has prompted an additional research question, on the extent to which this political construction could have influenced the working of one chancellery for two different counties governed by one prince(ss). This study applies a combined methodology of diplomacy, paleography and prosopography in order to determine the membership of the counts’ administration, as well as ascertaining which charters were drawn up and written down within the comital chancellery, and which ones were not. For each of these three methodological approaches, the digital source database Diplomata Belgica offered an invaluable support. The results of this study have yielded new insights into the organization and operation of the comital chancellery during a period when this administrative bureau was still developing, and more generally into the progress of bureaucratization in the southern Netherlands in the first half of the 13th century. Finally, these conclusions have, in turn, led to slightly nuancing the existing and commonly accepted definitions of the concept “territorial princely chancery.” UR - https://shs.cairn.info/journal-revue-historique-2013-1-page-23?lang=en&redirect-ssocas=7080 ER -