Gedruckte Mandate für Stadt und/oder Landschaft Zürich

This volume offers a commented selection of around 100 mandates from the Old City-State of Zurich, covering the period from 1525 to 1798. The printed decrees address all topics related to the state, politics, religion, society, and culture in pre-modern Zurich. Most of them were applicable to both the city and the countryside, although some were directed specifically at the residents of either the city or the rural areas. The range of mandates varies from single-sheet prints focusing on one theme, which were posted in public places or read aloud by the pastor from the pulpit, to the so-called Great Mandates with numerous individual provisions. The introduction provides a closer look at the text genre of the mandates and highlights developments over the course of the three centuries.