The Habsburgs Imperial Chancery in the 16th century: evaluating the original documents from the Archive of the St. Petersburg Institute of History, Russian Academy of Sciences
In the Archive of the St. Petersburg Institute of History are preserved several dozen original charters and letters of the Holy Roman Emperors from the 16th century. The paper deals with the history of the Imperial Chancellery, one of the most important imperial administrative institutions in the 16th century. The Imperial Chancery was a business, diplomatic and legal office concerned with production of administrative, legal documents and official correspondence. The Imperial chancery had developed an organizational structure that divided chancery personnel into several broad strata: the archchancellor, vice chancellor (the highest level), senior secretaries, secretaries, taxators, registrars, firm servants. Vice chancellor, the actual boss of the Imperial Chancery, had absolute control of all subordinate Chancery personnel, his position was essentially political in nature. All officials of the Imperial Chancery in the 16th century have come from the middle class and have been professionally educated; they took loyalty and confidentiality oath to the emperor. Parting from the Imperial Chancery Ordinance of 1559, main phases of the issuance of a chancery charter or letter are represented in the paper. On the base of charters and letters from the archives at the St. Petersburg Institute of history different generations of the chancery production are discussed: confirmations of privileges of any kind, letters of recommendation, Imperial mandates and edicts etc. A special emphasis is placed on typical linguistic formula and types of signatures.