"...and especially one chest of books on law." Legal literature in the towns of Prague in the early modern era (using the example of Prague's New Town)
Abstract
A study of inheritance inventories and testaments shows 16th- and 17th-century burgher society's interest in reading books on law and administration. At the centre of attention are the libraries owned by the burghers of Prague (primarily from the New Town) and Louny - those whose interest in such literature was as laypersons as well as those who were professionals in the relevant areas (lawyers, clerks).
The studied sources show a clear, significant, and enduring interest in domestic codifications of law, in particular municipal law (Brikcí z Licka, Pavel Kristián z Koldína, Johann Jakob Weingarten), which declined only with the increased bureaucratization of the administrative sector during the 17th century. During the post-White Mountain era, law gradually became a specialist matter in the cities as well.
In these professionals' libraries from this period, there is a significant increase in the percentage of expert legal literature, especially from abroad, which formed a vital necessity for the exercise of their profession.