History of the Organisation of the Vienna Imperial Court

Despite the interest in the Imperial Court of Vienna and other European courts recently shown by international research, several aspects of the Vienna Imperial Court rest unexplored. The court`s organisation, its history and development in the Early Modern Period belong to these little investigated fields. The present project aims at filling this gap in research with the help of four preserved Instruction Books of the Vienna Imperial Court. The first step towards an evaluation of the Instruction Books, containing about 120 instructions for officials and servants of the Imperial Court on some 1.400 pages, will be their edition, in order to make them accessible to the international scientific community. The compilation of a handbook that portrays the organisation of the Vienna Imperial Court during the Early Modern Period will be the second step in the course of the project. The Instruction Books reflect the organisational structure of the Vienna Court, as it developed over a period of more than two hundred years. Together, they form an intertextual unit of meaning, as widely used working implements of great significance for the everyday bureaucracy of the Vienna Court. The Instruction Books and the instructions contained therein can therefore be defined as suitable source for this research project. 114 of these texts cover about eighty different Court Offices, on all levels of the organisational hierarchy of the Vienna Court. The instructions can be regarded as valuable testimony offering copious and variegated evaluation potentials: Organisation structure, function profiles of court officials and servants, administrative operation and "gute policey", ceremony and rooms and "corporate philosophy" (religion, orderly behaviour, visualisation of rank and dignity, enactment of the role of Emperor, hygiene and cleanliness, state security, excessive control, economy, representation) which can be made visible by analytical-interpretative evaluation, can be cited as suggestive examples. A micro-historical approach has been selected as method of access to the source base in order to cast a new light on the Vienna Court, which so far has been defined by quantities, static hierarchies or individual biographies. Interactions will be made visible and the organisational structure will come alive. The project is to be regarded as basic research. The project will make an essential contribution to the research concerned with the Vienna Court in the Early Modern Period. Its findings can therefore be used by all disciplines dealing with this field. Art history, history of administration and the sociology and theory of organisation can benefit from its results, which will be profitably introduced into a broader scholarly discussion: confessionalisation, organisation theory, rationalisation and research of bureaucracy, professionalisation and specialisation, theories of absolutism, and economic history can be cited as suggestive examples. Furthermore, results will facilitate the comparison of the Vienna Court with other European courts, an undertaking that has been difficult to achieve up to now on account of the present state of research. The issues concerning administrative reform, organisation and management are highly topical, and our findings will help to deepen our understanding of these issues as they reveal old-established lines of development. Last but not least, depicting and interpreting the organisational structure of the Vienna Court will cater to a wider public interest in the Vienna Imperial court, refied in the "Hofburg" building as a centre of attraction to visitors and residents alike. The findings of the project will help to visualise the procedures and actions that took place within the spatial dimensions of a scenery extant today.

Despite the interest in the Imperial Court of Vienna and other European courts recently shown by international research, several aspects of the Vienna Imperial Court rest unexplored. The court`s organisation, its history and development in the Early Modern Period belong to these little investigated fields. The present project aims at filling this gap in research with the help of four preserved Instruction Books of the Vienna Imperial Court. The first step towards an evaluation of the Instruction Books, containing about 120 instructions for officials and servants of the Imperial Court on some 1.400 pages, will be their edition, in order to make them accessible to the international scientific community. The compilation of a handbook that portrays the organisation of the Vienna Imperial Court during the Early Modern Period will be the second step in the course of the project. The Instruction Books reflect the organisational structure of the Vienna Court, as it developed over a period of more than two hundred years. Together, they form an intertextual unit of meaning, as widely used working implements of great significance for the everyday bureaucracy of the Vienna Court. The Instruction Books and the instructions contained therein can therefore be defined as suitable source for this research project. 114 of these texts cover about eighty different Court Offices, on all levels of the organisational hierarchy of the Vienna Court. The instructions can be regarded as valuable testimony offering copious and variegated evaluation potentials: Organisation structure, function profiles of court officials and servants, administrative operation and "gute policey", ceremony and rooms and "corporate philosophy" (religion, orderly behaviour, visualisation of rank and dignity, enactment of the role of Emperor, hygiene and cleanliness, state security, excessive control, economy, representation) which can be made visible by analytical-interpretative evaluation, can be cited as suggestive examples. A micro-historical approach has been selected as method of access to the source base in order to cast a new light on the Vienna Court, which so far has been defined by quantities, static hierarchies or individual biographies. Interactions will be made visible and the organisational structure will come alive. The project is to be regarded as basic research. The project will make an essential contribution to the research concerned with the Vienna Court in the Early Modern Period. Its findings can therefore be used by all disciplines dealing with this field. Art history, history of administration and the sociology and theory of organisation can benefit from its results, which will be profitably introduced into a broader scholarly discussion: confessionalisation, organisation theory, rationalisation and research of bureaucracy, professionalisation and specialisation, theories of absolutism, and economic history can be cited as suggestive examples. Furthermore, results will facilitate the comparison of the Vienna Court with other European courts, an undertaking that has been difficult to achieve up to now on account of the present state of research. The issues concerning administrative reform, organisation and management are highly topical, and our findings will help to deepen our understanding of these issues as they reveal old-established lines of development. Last but not least, depicting and interpreting the organisational structure of the Vienna Court will cater to a wider public interest in the Vienna Imperial court, refied in the "Hofburg" building as a centre of attraction to visitors and residents alike. The findings of the project will help to visualise the procedures and actions that took place within the spatial dimensions of a scenery extant today.