The Books of New Town Burghers and Inhabitants of the New Town of Prague in the 16th and 17th Centuries in a Contemporary Edition. A Reflection of Primary Sources and Further Options for their Historical Usage
Abstract
This discursive contribution analyses the editions of the three volumes on Prague, Libri Civitatis, by Jaroslava Mendelová. The first two list newly accepted burghers and their guarantors from the ranks of the citizens of the New Town of Prague in the years 1518 to 1657.
Volume III contains the list of the inhabitants of the very same Town of Prague from 1585 and of their burgher guarantors. In general, those listed were poor inhabitants who were not entitled to municipal rights, yet they did not reside there illegally, without the knowledge or even against the will of their manorial nobility.
All three primary sources have evidential value far exceeding the "simple" level of the history of urban migrations. The author especially highlights their use for the prosopographic research of Prague in the Early Modern Age.