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IMC 2009: Sessions

Session 505: Medieval Urban Literacy, III: Urban Air Makes You Free - Law and the Professionals of the Written Word

Tuesday 14 July 2009, 09.00-10.30

Sponsor:Medieval Urban Literacy Project
Organiser:Anna Adamska, Onderzoekinstituut voor Geschiedenis en Kunstgeschiedenis, Universiteit Utrecht
Moderator/Chair:Marco Mostert, Onderzoekinstituut voor Geschiedenis en Kunstgeschiedenis, Universiteit Utrecht
Paper 505-aThe Process of 'Documentalisation' in Towns of the IJssel Region (Eastern Low Countries), 13th-15th Centuries
(Language: English)
Jeroen F. Benders, Afdeling Geschiedenis, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Index terms: Administration, Literacy and Orality
Paper 505-bTown Notaries in Transylvania
(Language: English)
Ágnes Flóra, Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest
Index terms: Law, Literacy and Orality
Abstract

This is a sessions in a series on medieval urban literacy. Current wisdom has it, that (written) law played a major role in the development of towns, with town privileges playing a major role in determining a town's identity. The papers in this session address this notion anew, asking not only what the role of writing in legal matters was, but also what was 'urban' about 'urban legal literacy'.