The planned database will be based on three existing data collections and one new data set:
- the unstructured data on Leopold I’s court from the FWF project “The Viennese Court Society under Emperor Leopold I. (1657-1705)” headed by Leopold Auer and with the collaboration of Sigrid Freisleben, Elisabeth Hilscher, Christine Elisabeth, Stefan Sienell (2001-2005)
- the structured data on the courts of Charles VI, Maria Theresa, Joseph II, Leopold II and Franz II (I.) from the FWF project “Personnel and Organization of the Viennese Court 1715-1806“ under the direction of Martin Scheutz and with the collaboration of Irene Kubiska-Scharl and Michael Pölzl (2011-2016)
- a test sample consisting of the marriage registrations of the Viennese parish of St. Stephan, digitized on Matricula Online and
- the newly collected data on the personnel of the court of Franz II. (I.) for the years between 1792 and 1835
Dataset 1: The Viennese court under Emperor Leopold I. (1657–1705)
The team headed by Leopold Auer has collected data on the households during the reign of Emperor Leopold I. mainly from the Court Registers (Hofstaatsverzeichnisse, HSV), the Court Pay Office Books (Hofzahlamtsbücher, HZAB), the Instruction and Marriage and Death Registers (TM-TBP) of the Austrian State Archives (ÖStA), the Vienna City and Provincial Archives, the archives of the parishes of St. Stephen and St. Michael, the Saxon Main State Archives and the Provincial Library of Coburg. For each member of the court – if known – the function, family circle, court affiliation, salary, offices, places of residence etc. were recorded, and this not only for the court elite, but also for office holders of both sexes and different social classes with different offices, quasi from cook to Obersthofmeister. In addition to the court of the Emperor and his uncle Leopold Wilhelm, the households of the Empress Dowager Eleonora Gonzaga-Nevers, the three wives of Leopold I and their children are recorded. The data collection comprises a total of approximately 48,000 rows of unstructured personal data, which were made available for download on the ÖStA website after the project was completed in 2005 in three Excel sheets on the respective source holdings (HZAB, HSV and TM-TBP) and one Excel sheet with an overview of the Court Chamber’s staff (Hofkammer). The Leopold project team has created the basis for a more detailed overview of the office holders, their relationships, responsibilities and career paths. A basis that has so far existed in a format that limits the use of the data to a small group of experts.
Dataset 2: The Viennese court in the 18th century
The second dataset comprises the data of 6,229 court members, which were recorded in a MS Access database in a structured way by Irene Kubiska-Scharl and Michael Pölzl within the course of the second project mentioned above. So far, the data on court personnel between 1711 and 1792 have been published in two volumes in 2013 and 2018.[1] The main sources used were the imperial court and honorary calendars (Hof- and Ehrenkalender) and, for the gaps in the holdings for the years 1711 to 1714 and 1741 to 1744, the court party protocols (Hofparteienprotokolle) and files of the court state administration in the Austrian State Archives. The nature of the source base revealed on the one hand that, in contrast to the Leopold project, about one third of the “functionaries, especially those in the lower ranks, […] are not mentioned by name in the Court Calendar, but only summarily”[2]. On the other hand, no information on salary or family relations is included. The personal data of about 4,000 members of the Court include first and last names, honorary titles, military ranks, information on personal status as well as information on civil status, “place of service”, offices held, membership of the Court and length of service.
Dataset 3: Test sample from the marriage register of the Viennese parish St. Stephan
The aim of integrating this third dataset is to provide an exemplary presentation of a provenance of the data, which will be expanded in a next project stage. In the Leopold datasheets the origin of the data was always indicated by source citations. By making the digitised church records available on the online platform Matricula Online, which is freely accessible, it will be possible to link the source information with the digitised data. The focus in this pilot phase is on the marriage registrations.
Dataset 4: Franz II (I) (1792–1835)
The fourth data set is being developed in a sub-project of the above-mentioned FWF project under the direction of Katrin Keller. The focus is on the completion of unpublished data sets from the Scheutz project on the court of Franz II (I). The aim is to continue the data recordings until 1835.
[1] Kubiska-Scharl, Irene, Pölzl, Michael: Die Karrieren des Wiener Hofpersonals 1711 – 1765. Eine Darstellung anhand der Hofkalender und Hofparteienprotokolle, Innsbruck–Wien–Bozen 2013 (Forschungen und Beiträge zur Wiener Stadtgeschichte, 58) und dies.: Das Ringen um Reformen. Der Wiener Hof und sein Personal im Wandel (1766–1792), Innsbruck-Wien-Bozen 2018 (Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs, 60).
[2] Kubiska-Scharl, Pölzl, Hofpersonal, 297.