Reg. Edit. of Emperor Sigismund´s Charters (1410-1437), Vol. 2

J. F. Böhmer, Regesta Imperii. XI. Regesten Kaiser Sigismunds (14101437). Neubearbeitung nach Archiven und Bibliotheken geordnet. Herausgegeben von Karel Hruza. Band 2. Die Urkunden und Briefe aus den Archiven und Bibliotheken West-, Nord- und Ostböhmens nach Wilhelm Altmann neubearbeitet von Petr Elbel Stanislav Brta Premysl Bar Lukš Reitinger. Böhlau Verlag Wien Köln Weimar 2015. The reign of the Roman, Hungarian, Bohemian and Croatian king Sigismund of Luxemburg has attracted increasing attention from historians all over Europe during the last years. This emphasis is not only owed to respective anniversaries such as those of the Council of Constance or the burning of Jan Hus but also due to the fact that Sigismund, ruling over vast stretches of Europe on the basis of universalistic ambitions and pursuing an active Pan-European policy, is regarded as an attractive topic in todays concern with matters of integration and globalisation. Despite the growing scholarly interest in Sigismunds rule the difficult retrieval of scarcely published source material scattered all over European archives remains an obstacle to any investigation in the field. As early as in the late 19th century Wilhelm Altmann edited a compendious collection of 12.300 short abstracts (regesta or calendars) of acts and charters issued by Sigismund, which reveals however significant gaps of documentation and tends to cut vital information provided by the originals in order to keep the calendars text as succinct as possible. To cope with this problem, the international edition enterprise Regesta Imperii has decided to replace this outdated 19th century volume step by step by a modern calendar publication series which is designed to fill the gaps and offer all information from the sources. The first volume, containing regesta to archival holdings and libraries in Moravia and Czech Silesia, perfectly met these expectations, which should hold true also for the second volume now ready to print. The manuscript, dedicated to material from West, North and East Bohemia, contains 174 calendar numbers and grants access to a disparate but highly interesting corpus of source material. As Emperor Sigismund had to fight for his Bohemian heritage against the hussites after the death of his brother for a period of 17 years, he gained support from a number of influential noblemen and cities. The struggle ended up in a de facto division of the whole country into (predominantly) hussite opposed to catholic territories.Accordingly, the new volume adds primarily to the historical documentation of the major cities of Eger/Cheb, Pilsen/Plzen and Elbogen/Loket in West Bohemia which remained loyal to the king and received a considerable number of regal charters. Furthermore, the book sheds light on the career and estate property of Sigismunds influential chancellor Kaspar Schlick, a burghers son from Eger, who laid the cornerstone to the rise of his family to comital dignity, partly by forging alleged regal charters which were painstakingly investigated for this volume. At last, the volume comprises also the pro-hussite regions of East Bohemia. It is a revealing fact, that from these territories there are no more than a handful of charters remaining from the short factual reign of Sigismund in Bohemia between 1436 and 1437.