New Perspectives to the Practice of Chanceries in Late Medieval and 
Early Modern Times

Based on its work on the wealth of Maximilian I's documents and records, the SFB-sub-project “Writing Maximilian” dedicates this workshop to one of the most important instruments of late medieval and early modern rule – the work of chanceries, without which the efficient administration of a territory would hardly have been possible. Rather than focusing on the chancery staff themselves, the workshop will explore chancery practices and activities more broadly by going beyond the reign and countries of Maximilian in terms of topic and geography. At what point does a chancery emerge as an institution, and when can it properly be referred to as a chancery? How did the relationship between a ruler and his chancery operate in practice? What tasks did chanceries perform? Can we reconstruct the workflows of the chanceries themselves? What did the day-to-day operations within the chanceries actually entail? What continuities and systematic changes were there? How and in what ways did chanceries continue to influence each other? To what extent can modern DH-methods help historians to adequately record and analyse the dense written material of the late Middle Ages and the early modern period?
The workshop aims to bring together innovative research discussions and classical methodological approaches and to develop new perspectives on the practice of written production and administration in the late Middle Ages and early modern period.

Programme

Tues, 4 Nov 2025 ^{_{including a poster exhibition at the venue}}

14:00–14:15    Introduction
 Andreas Zajic, Iris Palenik and Sonja Lessacher | Organizers

14:15–15:30    SESSION 1
NEW METHODS AND OLD PROBLEMS IN DEALING WITH SOURCES 
Chair: Philipp Laumer

 Magdalena Weileder | Techn. Univ. of Darmstadt 
Who, to whom, when, where — or not? The Regesta Imperii of Ludwig IV the Bavarian and their Data

 Ondřej Schmidt | Masaryk University, Brno / ÖAW, Vienna
Ambassador’s Travel Records: Examining the Fragmented Correspondence of the Visconti Embassy to King Wenceslas, 1386–1387

 Tobias Heil | Masaryk University, Brno
Kaiser Sigismund quittiert: Zwischenbericht aus einem digitalen Experiment

15:30–15:45 Coffee break

15:45–17:00    SESSION 2

CHANCERY PRACTICES THROUGH THE LENS OF ITS PERSONNEL
Chair: Sonja Lessacher

Renáta Visegrádi | Hung. Res. Network, Debrecen
The Florentine Chancellorship under Coluccio Salutati

Bálint Lakatos | Hung. Res. Network, Budapest
Die königlichen Sekretäre, die Hofkanzlei und die zentrale Administration im Königreich Ungarn, 
1490–1526

Iris Palenik | ÖAW, Vienna
From Powerful Secretaries and Lowly Scribes – Exploring the Chancery Practices during the Rule of Maximilian I

17:00–17:30    Coffee break

17:30–18:30    KEYNOTE LECTURE / TALKING MAXIMILIAN
Daniel Luger | University of Vienna
Archive – Amtsbücher – Algorithmen: Zu Stand und Perspektiven der Kanzlei- und Urkundenforschung im Spätmittelalter im Spiegel digitaler Zugänge

19:15    Dinner | invitation only

Wed, 5 Nov 2025  _{^{including a poster exhibition at the venue}}

09:00–10:15    SESSION 3
 TEXTUAL ANALYSIS: STYLE AND CONTENTS OF CHARTERS
 Chair: Iris Palenik

Philipp Laumer | ÖAW, Vienna
 The Seventh Time is the Charm? Reflections on Multiple Copies of Charters in Sigismund of Luxembourg’s Chancery

Aliaksandra Valodzina | ÖAW, Vienna 
Between Dictamen and Affair: Latin and Medieval German Chancellery Departments of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Vytautas Writing on the Hussites‘ Heresy

Markus Gneiß | ÖAW, Vienna
„Das sie […] als sich geburet bestimbt sullen werden“. The Use and Compilation of Titles and Forms of Address in the Chanceries of Maximilian I

10:15–10:30     Coffee break

10:30–11:15     SESSION 4
QUEENS AND THEIR CHANCERY PRACTICES 
Chair: Julia Anna Schön

Leonie Zelenka | Independent Researcher, Vienna
Kanzleipraxis und Handlungsspielräume: Die Urkundentätigkeit Kaiserin Eleonores von Portugal (1452–1467)

Sonja Lessacher | ÖAW, Vienna
Blanca Maria manu propria – Obser­va­tions on Bianca Maria Sforza’s Chancery Practices

11:15–12:00    SESSION 5
ARCHIVING PRACTICES IN THE 15^TH/16^TH CENTURY 
Chair: Markus Gneiß

Nadja Krajicek-Seidl | Tir. Landesarchiv, Innsbruck
Nur so am Rande? Spurensuche auf Archivgut aus der Zeit von Maximilian I. (1486–1519)

Ronald Kurt Salzer | ÖAW, Vienna
Castles for Credit: Context, Script, and Codicology of the “Gedenkbuch No. 2”

12:00–13:15  Lunch  |  invitation only

13:15–14:30    SESSION 6
TEXT PRODUCTION IN NOTARY OFFICES
Chair: Andrea Singh Bottanová
       
Tomasz Walczak | Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków 
The Role and Function of Notarial Instruments in the Governance of the Diocese of Kraków (1392–1488)

Tonija Andrić | Split University
Split Notary Office in the 15^th Century: Palaeographic and Diplomatic Analysis of Notary Documents

Balázs Csiba | Comenius University, Bratislava
The Chancery of the Bratislava Chapter under the Notary Imre Pápoci (1504‒1547)

14:30–15:00    Résumé and Discussion
Iris Palenik

Image Credits

Collage by Dagmar Giesriegl/ÖAW based on the following images: Innsbruck, TLA, Max 14.1496.4; Innsbruck, TLA, Max 1.42.12, fol. 104r; Seal of Maximilian I, letter of arms for St Mary’s parish church and Ulrich Lehendorffer in Bolzano, 10 October 1517, online: www.monasterium.net/mom/IlluminierteUrkundenWappenbriefe/1517-02-10_Bozen/charter; Detail of: Wien, HHStA, RK, Maximiliana 34-4-3, fol. 82v; Detail of: Innsbruck, TLA, Max 1.42.12, fol. 25r; Detail of: Innsbruck, TLA, Max 1.44.1508.4; Detail of: Getty Museum MS 58, fol. 23; Details of: Museum Brugge, Pieter Brueghel II, De boerenadvocaat (1620), online: www.museabrugge.be/collection/work/id/0000_gro1606_i; Detail of: Picture of Jean Mielot, BnF, ms francais 9198, fol. 19r, online: utpictura18.univ-amu.fr/notice/5649-mielot-traduit-latin-miracles-j-mielot-miracles-notre-dame-fr9198; Detail of: München, Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, Geheimes Hausarchiv, HS 12, fol. 8.