The practice of maintaining account books has been observed in German-speaking regions since the 13th century. Account books are classified according to their provenance as monastic, noble, urban, and mercantile. However, it is notable that account books from disparate contexts of origin exhibit notable similarities, which gives rise to the question of whether conventionalised accounting practices were followed by actors from these different contexts. The project is dedicated to investigating these conventionalised practices of written accounting. A praxeological approach is employed to examine the written actions of various actors in monastic and noble, urban and commercial economic administration, with a view to identifying similarities and differences. It will be demonstrated that accounting underwent a process of transition between routine and innovation, and that its conventionalised functioning was an expression of a relationship structure determined by dependency and/or power.
Representative samples are selected and evaluated from the four different contexts of origin, namely the monastery and court, the city and the office. The results obtained are then subjected to reliability and representativeness checks using the micro-exemplary method, with comparisons made to the results of comparable studies. The account books are then examined in terms of both content and material science. This is followed by the development of overarching conventionalised practices that underlie the actions of individuals. The approach thus combines theoretical considerations on conventionalised practices and on 'material culture'.

Publications:

[in Zusammenarbeit mit Markus Jansen, Adrian Meyer und Tristan Spillmann]: Konventionen als Regulativ der Schriftlichkeit. Vier Skizzen [in Vorbereitung].

Die Kunst, Daten in Informationen umzuwandeln. Zur Auswertung eines zisterziensischen Rechnungsbuchs aus dem 13. und 14. Jahrhundert und den Herausforderungen in der Analyse serieller Wirtschaftsquellen, in: Gudrun Gleba, Niels Petersen (Hgg.): Wirtschafts- und Rechnungsbücher des Mittelalters und der Frühen Neuzeit: Formen und Methoden der Rechnungslegung: Städte, Klöster und Kaufleute, Göttingen 2015, S. 13–44.

Die Zisterze Kaisheim und ihre Tochterklöster. Studien zur Organisation und zum Wirtschaften spätmittelalterlicher Frauenklöster mit einer Edition des „Kaisheimer Rechnungsbuches“ (Vita regularis. Editionen 5), LIT-Verlag: Berlin [u.a.] 2013.