Trier – Medieval Town in a Crisis
Curious find of long lost register of loans
and rents from 1347 to 1405 has created
the
opportunity
for
a
detailed
“reconstruction” of the material and
social fabric of late medieval Trier
The manuscript with the register from Trier 1347 – 1405. From: Universitätsund Landesbibliothek Bonn, Hs. S 1571
In 1918 an antiquarian bookseller in Munich sold a Trier register of 2300 loans and rents and annuities
taken out from 1347 to 1405 (Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Bonn, Hs. S 1571). The register was
picked up by a library in Bonn and recently rediscovered by a historian from Trier. Currently a team is
editing and studying the text in detail in order to get an intimate picture of daily life.
The text records a multitude of contracts whereby ordinary people rented out or pawned their property
thus demonstrating a huge number of networks among ordinary citizens, clerics and nobles in and
around the town in the 14th century. Especially interesting is the information of how the medieval people
of Trier organised the market for land and properties. By comparing the newfound register of rents with
the other records and city accounts from the same time a unique opportunity to reconstruct the late
medieval Trier society has revealed itself. The central question is how the crisis following the pest in
1349 played out amongst the citizens.
Town in Crisis
More specifically, the register makes it possible to get a detailed understanding of how the city went
about financing the religious socio-topographical landscape (churches, convents, guilds and other
institutions) in a time of profound crisis marked by plague, famines and other crises. Another fascinating
topic is the study of the viticultural tradition of the city located direct in the Mosel region. Already in the
high middle ages wine was exported as far as Scandinavia and the British Isles, when the religious
institutions played a significant role in the expansion of the wineyards in the climatic optimum period
from 1100 – 1300. The register demonstrates how the vineyards came to yield app. less than 50% of their
former height in the 14th century. But it also uncovers how this led to the introduction of new types of
grapes which were more resilient towards the deteriorating climatic conditions. It also led to the creation
of a specific new technology: the use of sulphuric acid to prevent the growth of bacteria and wild yeasts.
One discovery made from the register is the way in which specialists rented cellars where they worked as
professional “sulphurers” tending to the quality of the wine. This took place already in the 1340s and
represented a significant technological invention. A third theme is represented by the consequences of
the plague in 1349 for the property market as well as for the Jewish population, which suffered a series of
devastating pogroms.
Results of the study are going to be presented through digital cartography. Yet another form chosen,
which is currently being circulated, are a series of videos detailing aspects of medieval Trier, making it
the perfect next stop for your medieval travels in Europe. The videos are presented in both German and
English
SOURCE:
Trier – Stadt in der Krise
The project is being financed by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung and directed by Prof. Dr. Lukas Clemens
LIST OF VIDEOS:
Episode 1 – The rediscovery of the register
Episode 2 – The importance of the financial organization in late Medieval trier for the development of the
religious landscape
Episode 3 – The Jews in Trier before and after the plague and the pogroms in the 1349 – 50.
Episode 4 – The impact of the plague as witnessed by the decline of the property market in 1349.
Episode 5 – The development of the wine-production in the Mosel district caused by the deterioration of
the climate in the 14th century.
READ MORE:
Geschichte der Stadt Trier.
By Gabriele Clemens and Lukas Clemens:
C.H. Beck 2007
FEATURED PHOTO:
View of Trier in the 15th century. Printed and colored in the workshop of Anton Koberger.