OPROEP TOT BIJDRAGEN/APPEL À CONTRIBUTIONS: Proclaiming, Affixing, Distributing: Disseminating the Law in Early Modern Europe [2nd COMLAWEU conference] (St Andrews: University of St Andrews, 5-6 MAY 2026) [DEADLINE 31 OKT/OCT 2025]

  

Call for Papers

Proclaiming, Affixing, Distributing: Disseminating the Law in Early Modern Europe

The 2^nd COMLAWEU conference, 5-6 May 2026, University of St Andrews
 
Proposals for papers (max. 20 minutes) are invited on the subject of ‘Proclaiming, Affixing, Distributing: Disseminating the Law in Early Modern Europe’ to be presented at the second COMLAWEU (Communicating the Law in Europe, 1500-1750) conference at St Andrews, to be held on Tuesday 5 and Wednesday 6 May 2025.
Abstracts (max. 350 words) and a short bio (max. 150 words) are due to Dr Arthur der Weduwen, Principal Investigator of the COMLAWEU project, by 31 October 2025, at adw7@st-andrews.ac.uk.
This conference seeks to build on the small but rapidly growing body of work on the manifold ways in which early modern Europeans could listen to, see, read and inform themselves of the law in the public and private spaces of their communities. It will seek to determine how various authorities sought to disseminate their laws; and how different audiences received or were exposed to information about the law. We welcome contributions on any part of early modern Europe or its colonies, within the time frame of c. 1450-1800.
Papers are invited on any aspect of the conference, which will seek to provide answers to some of the following questions:
·        How did European authorities disseminate the law within and beyond their territories?
·        What was the role and relative importance of criers, heralds, messengers, affixers and other officials tasked with the proclamation and further dissemination of laws?
·        How many copies of laws would regularly be distributed, in what forms and to what audiences? How commonly were laws affixed as physical exemplars, and where could they be consulted?
·        How did physical geography, infrastructure, postal routes and the size of urban communities affect state communication? How different was the communication of law in cities and villages or rural communities?
·        How did multiple media interact in the dissemination of political and legal information?
·        To what extent did the ceremony of state communication develop over time?
·        To what extent did news of laws, as well as physical copies of manuscript and printed texts, travel across jurisdictions?
·        How did crisis, unrest and war affect the dissemination of the law?
·        How frequently did acts of communication and dissemination spark unrest or conflict?
·        To what extent did copies of laws and other state publications circulate commercially? In what other forms were they republished or altered?
It is expected that papers presented at the conference will also be published by the end of 2027 in an edited volume.
 
Conference context
In early modern Europe it was a ubiquitous norm that law had to be published to be valid. In his thirteenth-century Treatise on Law (part of his Summa Theologiae), Thomas Aquinas considered that the promulgation of law (‘an ordinance of reason for the common good’) was inherent to its essence. In early modern Europe, laws were issued and promulgated by a great variety of political authorities (kings, governors, councils, representative assemblies, executive bodies and so forth). Most of these authorities relied on an inherited system of communication that required laws to be read out (proclaimed) and distributed in handwritten or printed documents. The extent of these efforts naturally depended on the extent of the jurisdiction of the issuing authority: edicts issued by the King of France would have to be published across a country of almost twenty million people, while laws issued by the Parlement of Bordeaux would be restricted to a much smaller region. Municipal laws often extended only to a single urban community, as well as any rural territory owned by the city beyond its walls; at the same time, many pieces of municipal legislation travelled far and wide, serving as warnings to people in other jurisdictions, or models to other authorities for their own programme of legislation. Many people would also have been subject to overlapping jurisdictions, each with a need to communicate their laws: for instance, a citizen of seventeenth-century Rotterdam would be faced with ordinances issued by their town council, but also the local Admiralty, the States of Holland, the States General, and multiple other administrative and financial bodies.
 
If most ordinary people were excluded from the chambers of the state where policy was formulated, they were fully involved in the enactment of the law, which demanded public communication and placed the rulers and ruled in shared communal spaces, such as the market square. The communication of law was steeped in ritual ceremonies, but these were by no means ceremonies in which only the rulers played an active role. The announcement of a new edict provided subjects with an occasion to voice their concerns or disapproval.
 
The practice of verbal proclamation was rarely sufficient to reach all of those to whom the law applied. In many towns across Europe, use was made of town criers, who would sometimes also be charged with the affixing of copies of new laws at locations where they made their announcements. These locations were both practical and symbolic, places where many people would congregate: they generally included the town hall, market squares, churches, town gates, other notable buildings and busy commercial streets. After the crier had moved on, affixed copies of the law could be consulted by literate inhabitants, scrutinised or read out to the illiterate. Many were also reprinted for commercial distribution.
Affixing the law was a highly figurative act, as it represented the presence of government and the threat of the enforcement of order. From the perspective of the authorities it was also politically perilous. The distinctive style of ordinances and the prominent locations in the cityscape where they were posted were chosen by the magistrates for maximum publicity. This meant that ordinances were often targeted by indignant citizens. Unfortunate town criers could be abused or assaulted by unreceptive citizens, especially as criers were not ordinarily accompanied by guards. Citizens could also express their dissent by counter-posting libels, poems, songs, images or even animal parts in public spaces. Increasing efforts to communicate the law ensured that it could be examined, tested or ripped down in protest. Proclaiming and affixing ordinances could reassure but also embolden an attentive and engaged public.

(source: ESCLH Blog)

ARTIKEL/ARTICLE: Margreet BRANDSMA, 'Shifting power relations in seigneuries of the southern Low Countries (Hainaut, twelfth–fifteenth century)' (French History XXXIX (2025), nr. 3 (Sep), 203-223)

(bron afbeelding/source de l'image: OUP)

 

Samenvatting/résumé:

Based on seigneurial legislation from the French-speaking principality of Hainaut in the southern Low Countries, this article discerns long-term shifts in the position of different types of officials involved in the local government of lordships. During the twelfth- to early fourteenth-century period of demographic and economic growth, and again as a result of the shortage of labour in relation to land after the Black Death, seigneurial subjects managed to obtain different forms of self-organization. Overall, a bifurcation can be observed between village officials who were and remained servants of the lord and those controlled increasingly by the community. At the same time, a development towards village elites dominating local government is likely to have limited the agency of a major part of the rural population. This study also reveals remarkable parallels between villages and towns concerning the organization and ideological justification of local government.

Lees meer hier/consultez l'article ici: DOI 10.1093/fh/craf020. 

HANDELINGEN/BULLETIN: Overzicht/inventaire (1848-...)

De Handelingen van de Koninklijke Commissie voor de Uitgave van Oude Wetten en Verordeningen van België kunnen vanaf het eerste volume (1848) integraal op het net worden geraadpleegd. De Handelingen bevatten zowel de processen-verbaal van de vergaderingen, als lijsten van ordonnanties, uitgaven van bronnen en originele onderzoeksbijdragen. We beschikken thans over een volledig overzicht van alle bijdragen, die een gerichte zoektocht vergemakkelijkt. U kan dit overzicht hier terugvinden.

Le Bulletin de la Commission royale pour la publication des anciennes lois et ordonnances de Belgique est consultable en ligne dans son intégralité depuis le premier volume (1848). Les numéros contiennent à la fois les procès-verbaux des réunions, des listes d’ordonnances, des éditions de sources ainsi que des contributions originales de recherche. Nous disposons à présent d'un inventaire complet de l’ensemble des contributions, qui permet de mieux orienter vos recherches ciblées. Vous pouvez retrouver cette synthèse ici. 

BULLETIN/HANDELINGEN: vol. LVIII (2024) (ISBN 9782960272444)

 

Het volume LVIII (2024) van de Handelingen van de Koninklijke Commissie voor de Uitgave van Oude Wetten en Verordeningen van België is net verschenen. 

Le volume LVIII (2024) du Bulletin de la Commission Royale pour la Publication des Anciennes Lois et Ordonnances de Belgique vient de paraître. 

Inhoudstafel/table des matières:

Rapport d’activités 2022 Werkzaamhedenverslag 2022 (5-8)

Rapport d’activités 2023 Werkzaamhedenverslag 2023 (9-15)

Two legal opinions by Gabriel van der Muyden and Elbert de Leeuw (1553) (Alain Wijffels) (17-113)

Auteur:

Alain Wijffels, Membre de la Commission royale pour la publication des anciennes lois et ordonnances de Belgique, Lid van de Koninklijke Commissie voor de uitgave der oude wetten en verorderingen van België.

 Eerste paragrafenf/premiers paragraphes:

The privileges of the German Hanse in England were resumed by a decree of the English Privy Council on 24 February 1552. The Council’s decision was triggered by complaints from the London Merchant Adventurers, who claimed that the privileges were detrimental to both the Crown and the English merchants. Moreover, they submitted, recent cases had shown that the Hansards were prone to misuse their privileges, which caused an even greater prejudice to the Treasury and the English merchant community. The merchants’ complaints also gave them an opportunity to rake up old grievances which for generations had marred Anglo-Hanseatic relations, such as the limited access for English merchants in Prussia, in spite of formal agreements of reciprocity allowing Hansards to trade in England, and Englishmen in Prussia.

During the Fall of 1552 and the Spring of 1553, Hanseatic diets deliberated on counter-measures, but also decided to accept the English authorities’ invitation to send an embassy to London in order to negotiate the Hanse’s position in England. The Hanseatic position, however, was that there were no reasons justifying the resumption of their privileges. Their embassy’s mission was therefore to obtain the restoration of these privileges in full.

In June 1553, the embassy’s members were gathering in Bruges and Antwerp, both in order to obtain more detailed information about the Hanseatic trade between England and the Low Countries, and because of the reports of the English King’s ill-health. They were still in the Southern Netherlands when the news of Edward VI’s death (on 6 July) reached them, followed by reports on the uncertain political situation and succession during the following days. Eventually, when Mary Tudor’s accession was confirmed, they crossed the Channel later in July and settled in London, where they could benefit from the facilities of the Steelyard, the main Hanseatic office in England.

While still in Flanders and Brabant, three members of the Hanseatic embassy, all three doctors of law, made around the 12th of July the journey to Leuven in order to meet and consult “Dr. Gabriel” (i.e. van der Muyden, Mudaeus), about legal issues in connection with their mission in England. The full scope of this consultation is not documented, but two unpublished consilia attributed to van der Muyden (1500-1560) and his junior colleague Elbert de Leeuw (Leoninus, c. 1519-20-1598) deal specifically with the issue of the restrictions imposed by the Gdańsk authorities to foreign, including English, merchants trading in the Polish city. The issue reflected a long-standing controversy in Anglo-Hanseatic relations, which had been raised at several earlier conferences, without ever reaching any substantial agreement. The two consilia (published hereafter) were most probably written during the summer of 1553 as a result of the Hanseatic visit to van der Muyden, whether immediately or within weeks after the meeting with the Leuven professor. Both consilia were obviously written on behalf of the Hanseatic delegates and countenance the position held by the Hanse and Gdańsk in particular.

Het hele nummer is tevens in open access beschikbaar op rechtsreeks.be. De gedrukte versie kan worden besteld bij de FOD Justitie - Bibliotheek. De Commissie dankt de FOD Justitie en de Bibliotheek van de Faculteit Rechtsgeleerdheid en Criminologie van de KULeuven voor hun hulp.

L'ensemble du bulletin a également été mis en libre accès sur le site rechtsreeks.be. Les copies papier peuvent être commandées auprès du SPF Justice - Bibliothèque. La Commission remercie le SPF Justice et la Bibliothèque de la Faculté de Droit et Criminologie de la KULeuven de leur assistance. 

CALL FOR PAPERS: Government Print in Early Modern Europe: Law, Politics and Printers (20-21 MAY 2025, St Andrews: University of St. Andrews) [DEADLINE: 31 OCT 2024]

 

(Image source: conference flyer)

Proposals for papers (max. 20 minutes) are invited on the subject of ‘Government Print in Early Modern Europe’ to be presented at the first COMLAWEU (Communicating the Law in Europe, 1500-1750) conference at St Andrews, to be held on 20 and 21 May 2025.

Abstracts (max. 300 words) and a short bio (max. 150) words are due to Dr Arthur der Weduwen, Principal Investigator of the COMLAWEU project, by 31 October 2024, at adw7@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Papers are invited on any aspect covered by the conference, which will seek to provide answers to some of the following questions:

• What was the impact of print on the codification and dissemination of law?
• How common was the publication of laws in printed form, and how did this change over time?
• How did secular authorities employ print to communicate with their subjects? To what extent did they seek to communicate with audiences outside their legal jurisdiction?
• How did the figure of the ‘privileged printer’ (royal, ducal, municipal, etc.) evolve, and how important was government print to the business of these artisans?
• What influence did printers exercise over the composition and appearance of placards, ordinances and declarations? How did typographical and visual standards of government print change over time?
• To what extent did copies of laws and other state publications circulate commercially? In what other forms were they republished or reprinted (such as in chronicles, periodicals and newspapers)?

It is expected that papers presented at the conference will also be published, by the end of 2026, in an edited volume.

Conference context

Early modern European politics was inextricably tied to the invention of printing with moveable type in the middle of the fifteenth century. By 1500, secular authorities throughout Europe, from Augsburg and Bologna to Deventer and Valencia, had begun to publish statutes, laws and edicts in print for dissemination among their subjects. 

Although publishing ordinances in print was common throughout Europe, the extent to which authorities committed their rulings to print varied greatly. In large cities such as Milan, Lyon and Cologne, the municipal authorities made use of print early in the sixteenth century, but they all did so irregularly, and only when exceptional circumstances demanded it. These interventions often concerned fluctuations in bread prices, outbreaks of plague, or announcements concerning markets. During the 1560s and 1570s, the magistrates of Lyon and Cologne both began to make more regular use of printed broadsheets and pamphlets, a direct result of the uncertainty unleashed by war, economic upheaval and religious tension. In contrast, very few municipal ordinances are known to have been printed in the British Isles or Scandinavia before the later seventeenth century, where virtually all edicts issued in print were published by the crown or Parliament. There were also regions in Europe, such as the Dutch Republic, where even small villages of several hundred inhabitants would have their local ordinances distributed in print.

By 1700, we know that at least 133,000 editions of ordinances and edicts had been published in Europe (as per the latest Universal Short Title Catalogue statistics), and by this date state publications were among the most common type of text to come off printing presses. This is all the more remarkable when we consider that the surviving exemplars of this genre are only a very small representative sample of the likely total production: placards affixed to walls and street corners had a poor chance to survive for posterity.

There is a growing body of work that points to the important role played by printed broadsheets and pamphlets in political conflicts and in fostering the growth of a politically-engaged public. Historians of the book and printing are also increasingly noting the importance of ‘ephemeral’ print, such as ordinances and edicts, in ensuring the long-term viability of printing and the book trade. Large publishing projects tied down capital and did not offer a rapid return on investment. Printing for the government, on the other hand, was a useful strategy to maintain a steady cash flow. Printers could complete a consignment of placards in one or two days of work, deliver the entire batch to the chancellery, and be paid in cash. Although official broadsheets and pamphlets may be considered as a form of ‘ephemera’, work of this sort was respected by the professionals of the book trade. State publications were often produced with great care, and on high quality paper. 

For printers, producing official edicts was ideal work, and the privilege of printing for the state was hotly contested. Being designated as a ‘royal printer’ or ‘printer to the city’ was desirable for the degree of status that such titles conferred, as well as for the payments that accompanied printing for government. In many European states, printers who had monopolies to produce proclamations and edicts were generally the wealthiest in the trade: in seventeenth-century The Hague, Machteld van Leuningen, printer to the States General and States of Holland, even became one of the richest citizens in the entire town. Her success was replicated elsewhere, as in Edinburgh, where Agnes Campbell dominated the Scottish print trade for over three decades thanks to her position as Royal Printer. 

Printers such as Van Leuningen and Campbell also exploited their monopolies for the commercial sale of ordinances and edicts: an important and thus far underexplored segment of the market for state publications. What is becoming clear, however, is that in early modern Europe, there existed a mutually-supportive relationship between the print industry and government. To printers, the authorities represented the best sort of customer: a regular client who demanded few risks on the part of the industry. To the authorities, the printers had come to play a critical role in the smooth functioning of daily administration, and the maintenance of the delicate political bond between rulers and their inhabitants.

(source: ESCLH Blog)

OPEN ACCESS: Recueils de la Société Jean Bodin pour l'Histoire Comparative des Institutions (KULeuven, Bibliotheek Faculteit Rechtsgeleerdheid en Criminologische Wetenschappen)

 

De bibliotheek van de Faculteit Rechtsgeleerdheid en Criminologische Wetenschappen van de KULeuven verzorgde een digitalisering in open access van de Recueils de la Société Jean Bodin pour l'Histoire Comparative des Institutions. Deze belangwekkende rechtshistorische collectie werd in het verleden mee gevoed door leden van deze Commissie, niet in het minst haar voormalige voorzitter Prof. John Gilissen (1969-1987), die als secretaris-generaal meerdere uitvoerige syntheserapporten verzorgde. 

Raadpleeg de reeks hier.

La bibliothèque de la Faculté de droit et criminologie de la KULeuven a mis à disposition en libre accès la version numérique des Recueils de la Société Jean Bodin pour l'Histoire Comparative des Institutions. Cette collection de grande importance a été nourrie par le passé par des contributions de membres de notre Commission, dont notamment son ancien président Prof. John Gilissen (1969-1987), auteur de multiples grands rapports de synthèse en tant que secrétaire-général.

Consultez la collection ici.

OPEN ACCESS: Jean-Marie CAUCHIES & Jean-Marie YANTE (dir.), Ordonnances de Philippe le Bon pour le Comté de Namur 1421-1466 et le Duché de Luxembourg 1443-1464 [Recueil des Ordonnances des Pays-Bas/Verzameling van de Verordeningen van de Nederlanden; 1e série/1e reeks: 1381-1506] (Bruxelles/Brussel: SPF Justice/CRALO-Société Archéologique de Namur/FOD Justitie-KCOWV/Archeologische Kring Namen, 2023), 208 p.

(bron afbeelding/source de l'image: Digitaler Portraitindex.de/Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig - Europeana)

Le volume récemment publié contentant les Ordonnances de Philippe le Bon pour le Comté de Namur 1421-1466 et le Duché de Luxembourg 1443-1464 qui prend rang dans le Recueil des Ordonnances des Pays-Bas/1e série: 1381-1506 vient d'être mis à disposition du public intéressé sous forme numérique. Nous tenons à remercier le service de communication du SPF Justice, ainsi que la Bibliothèque de la Faculté de Droit et Criminologie de la KULeuven. Le volume peut être consulté ici et ici.

Het recent gepubliceerde volume met de Verordeningen van Filips de Goede voor het Graafschap Namen 1421-1466 en het Hertogdom Luxemburg 1433-1464, deel van de eerste reeks in de Verzameling der Verordeningen der Nederlanden: 1381-1506 is ter beschikking van het geïnteresseerde publiek in digitaal formaat. We danken uitdrukkelijk de communicatiedienst van de FOD Justitie, alsook de Bibliotheek van de Faculteit Rechtsgeleerdheid en Criminologische Wetenschappen van de KULeuven. Het volume kan hier en hier worden geconsulteerd.