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Entering a city: on a lost early modern practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 July 2013

DANIEL JÜTTE
DANIEL JÜTTE*
Affiliation:
Society of Fellows, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
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Abstract:

City gates and walls were among the most striking features of the pre-modern city, yet we still know relatively little about their impact on daily life and what it meant to enter a city at that time. The present article explores precisely these questions. The first section outlines the general significance of city gates and walls in pre-modern times. In the second, I examine the four distinct functions of city gates in the early modern period. The third and main section presents a detailed description of the various practices, procedures and problems that accompanied the entrance to a city. Finally, and to conclude, the history of city gates is viewed in conjunction with the broader history of the early modern city and its transformation in the transition to modernity.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History , Volume 41 , Issue 2 , May 2014 , pp. 204 - 227
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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References

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25 In Antwerp – and likely in other places as well – guard posts had to carry the banner of the city. Stadsarchief Antwerpen (SAA), Burgerlijke Wacht GA # 4811: Ordonnantie Op't stuck vande Borgherlijcke Wachte der Stadt van Antwerpen (Antwerpen, 1607), §§ 72–3.

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33 Creighton and Higham, Medieval Town Walls, 33. See also Kemp, W., ‘Die Mauern und Tore von Nancy und Potsdam: Über Stadtgrenzen, vor allem im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert’, in Bauer, M. and Rahn, T. (eds.), Die Grenze: Begriff und Inszenierung (Berlin, 1997), 237–54Google Scholar, at 246.

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36 See also the final section of this article.

37 Creighton and Higham, Medieval Town Walls, 169.

38 For Florence, see Trexler, R., Public Life in Renaissance Florence (New York, 1980), 306–15Google Scholar.

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40 Schütte, ‘Stadttor und Hausschwelle’, 306–7; Trexler, Public Life, 310.

41 Muir, E., ‘Presence and representation in Italian civic rituals’, in Demonet, M.-L. and Sauzet, R. (eds.), La ville à la Renaissance (Paris, 2008), 81–97Google Scholar, at 95–6.

42 On the significance of city walls for the ‘honour’ of the pre-modern city, see also Mintzker's observations in his ‘Defortification of the German city’, ch. 1.

43 King John, II, 1.

44 Josh. 6:1–27; Judg. 16:1–3.

45 Pepper, ‘Siege law’, 588.

46 Reinle, Zeichensprache der Architektur, 256.

47 Thøfner, M., A Common Art: Urban Ceremonial in Antwerp and Brussels during and after the Dutch Revolt (Zwolle, 2007), 108Google Scholar; see also Paviot, J., ‘La destruction des enceintes urbaines dans les anciens Pays-Bas (XIVe–XVe siècle)’, in Blieck, G.et al. (eds.), La forteresse à l'épreuve du temps: destruction, dissolution, dénaturation, XIe–XXe siècle (Paris, 2007), 19–28Google Scholar.

48 I borrow this term from Creighton and Higham, who speak of the city gate as a ‘closely controllable filter system’ (Medieval Town Walls, 37).

49 For the example of Frankfurt am Main: Boes, ‘Unwanted travellers’, 92.

50 Creighton and Higham, Medieval Town Walls, 171. In addition to keeping watch over inmates, deterrence of criminal behaviour was probably another reason for the occasional use of gate towers as prisons. See Lohrmann, U. and Kiessling, H., Türme, Tore, Bastionen: Die reichsstädtischen Befestigungsanlagen Augsburgs (Augsburg, 1987), 113Google Scholar.

51 For a summary, see Creighton and Higham, Medieval Town Walls, 37.

52 As, for example, in Bordeaux in 1579. See Inventaire sommaire des registres de la Jurade, 1520 à 1783, 8 vols. (Bordeaux, 1896–1913), vol. II, 527.

53 Mączak, Travel in Early Modern Europe, 112.

54 For Brussels, see below. For southern Germany: Kinzelbach, A., Gesundbleiben, Krankwerden, Armsein in der frühneuzeitlichen Gesellschaft: Gesunde und Kranke in den Reichsstädten Überlingen und Ulm, 1500–1700 (Stuttgart, 1995), 238–40Google Scholar.

55 Kemp, ‘Mauern und Tore’, 246. See also Zschocke, H., Die Berliner Akzisemauer: Die vorletzte Mauer der Stadt (Berlin, 2007)Google Scholar.

56 Archives de la Ville de Bruxelles (AVB)/Archives Anciennes (AA) Liasse 166 (Droits d'entrée et de sortie).

57 Zschocke, Berliner Akzisemauer, 35–9.

58 For example in Augsburg, see Lohrmann and Kießling, Türme, Tore, Bastionen, 113.

59 B. Castiglione, Il libro del cortegiano (Turin, 1998), 194.

60 Kemp, ‘Mauern und Tore’, 246.

61 AVB/AA Liasse 501, Mémoire dans lequel on demontre que la proprieté des portes de la ville de Bruxelles appartient à la pluralité . . ., fols. 30, 34, 10 Jan. 1788.

62 AVB/AA Liasse 166, undated letter from the city magistrate of Brussels (c. 1750).

63 The essentials of such a research project are outlined by Gardner, J., ‘An introduction to the iconography of the medieval Italian city gate’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 41 (1987), 199–213CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

64 Levine, L., ‘The city-gate as synagogue forerunner’, in idem, The Ancient Synagogue: The First Thousand Years (New Haven, 2005), 28–34Google Scholar. See also Haettner Blomquist, T., Gates and Gods: Cults in the City Gates of Iron Age Palestine (Stockholm, 1999)Google Scholar.

65 Scully, S., Homer and the Sacred City (Ithaca, 1994)Google Scholar, 50–2.

66 Cassirer, E., Philosophie der symbolischen Formen, 3 vols. (Oxford, 1954)Google Scholar, vol. II, 103; Gardner, ‘Introduction to the iconography’, 202.

67 Constantinople: Gardner, ‘Introduction to the iconography’, 202; Tuscany: Braunfels, Mittelalterliche Stadtbaukunst, 84.

68 Gardner, ‘Introduction to the iconography’, 202; Frugoni, C., A Day in a Medieval City (Chicago, 2005), 27Google Scholar.

69 Florence: Trexler, Public Life, 48; Siena: Gardner, ‘Introduction to the iconography’, 208.

70 Reinle, Zeichensprache der Architektur, 259–60 (with illustrations); Creighton and Higham, Medieval Town Walls, 175–6.

71 Trexler, Public Life, 48.

72 Kaplan, B., Divided by Faith: Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, MA, 2007), 168CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

73 Friedrichs, The Early Modern City, 42. See also Schweizer, Repräsentation und Funktion, 9.

74 For Brussels: Sand, G. and Rubbrecht, F.W., Clés et défense d'une ville: Bruxelles et son histoire (Brussels, 1984)Google Scholar. For Antwerp: Lombaerde, P. (ed.), Antwerpen versterkt: De Spaanse omwalling vanaf haar bouw in 1542 tot haar afbraak in 1870 (Antwerp, 2009)Google Scholar.

75 On the symbolism of gates and their significance in urban rituals in Antwerp and Brussels, see Thøfner, A Common Art, 108, 129–32.

76 For more on Antwerp as perhaps the ‘most cosmopolitan city’ in sixteenth-century Europe, see L. Voet, , ‘Antwerp: the metropolis and its history’, in van der Stock, J. (ed.), Antwerp: Story of a Metropolis (Sixteenth–Seventeenth Century) (Ghent, 1993), 13–17Google Scholar.

77 In the case of Antwerp, in addition to the archives already mentioned, printed registers with a considerable amount of the city's legal ordinances (Gebodboeken) are available for analysis. The Gebodboeken from 1489 to 1620 are available in ‘Index der Gebodboeken der Stad Antwerpen (1489–1794)’, Antwerpsch Archievenblad, 1 (1864), 120–464; for the years 1621–50: ibid., 2 (1864), 1–69; for 1651–1794: ibid., 9 (1934), 115–57, 186–236, 241–315. Future references to this source will be Gebodboeken (including the year in parentheses and the page number).

78 See for instance Gebodboeken (1582), 360.

79 Wolfe, Walled Towns, 17.

80 V. Groebner's insightful study does not explore the question of personal inspection at city gates: Der Schein der Person: Steckbrief, Ausweis und Kontrolle im Europa des Mittelalters (Munich, 2004). On France, see Nordman, D., ‘Sauf-conduits et passeports, en France, à la Renaissance’, in Ceard, J. and Margolin, J.-C. (eds.), Voyager à la Renaissance (Paris, 1987), 145–58Google Scholar.

81 von Goethe, J.W., The Sufferings of Young Werther (Norton, 2012), 140Google Scholar.

82 AVB/AA Liasse 501, Instruction ou Reglement pour les Commissaires établis aux Portes [c. 1720]. Travellers were confronted with nearly the same questions in eighteenth-century Berlin; see Zschocke, Berliner Akzisemauer, 59. In other European cities, this seems to have been handled in a similar way. See Mączak, Travel in Early Modern Europe, 118.

83 Lohrmann and Kießling, Türme, Tore, Bastionen, 110.

84 For Augsburg: ibid., 110. For Kassel: Ebert, J., ‘Willkommene und ungebetene Gäste: Fremde in Kassel im 18. Jahrhundert’, in Wunder, Heideet al. (eds.), Kassel im 18. Jahrhundert (Kassel, 2000), 262–83Google Scholar, at 263.

85 AVB/AA Liasse 501, Instruction ou Reglement pour les Commissaires établis aux Portes [c. 1720].

86 SAA, Burgerlijke Wacht GA # 4812, Instructie voor de Schrijvers aen de Poorten der Stadt van Antwerpen, 4 Feb. 1623.

87 Such as in the Archivio di Stato in Mantua (Archivio Gonzaga, Affari di Polizia).

88 Zschocke, Berliner Akzisemauer, 60; Lohrmann and Kießling, Türme, Tore, Bastionen, 110.

89 For the example of Kassel: Ebert, ‘Willkommene und ungebetene Gäste’, 262.

90 For Antwerp: SAA, Burgerlijke Wacht GA # 4811, Ordonnantie Op't stuck vande Borgherlijcke Wachte der Stadt van Antwerpen [1607], §§ 51–98. Similar legal decrees from later years can be found in Burgerlijke Wacht GA # 4812. See also Gebodboeken (1740), 259, (1753), 271, (1790), 303–4.

91 Mączak, Travel in Early Modern Europe, 118.

92 It is known with respect to Frankfurt am Main in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that the decrees concerning gates for every quarter of the city had to be read out in public at least once a year. See E. E. Raths Der Stadt Franckfurt Erneuerte Wacht-Ordnung . . . (Frankfurt am Main 1711; first issued in 1669), 7. This practice was likely widespread in early modern Europe.

93 On low wages in Berlin, see Zschocke, Berliner Akzisemauer, 33. This also holds true for smaller cities, see Rüthing, H., Höxter um 1500: Analyse einer Stadtgesellschaft (Paderborn, 1986), 212Google Scholar; Kroll, S., Stade um 1700: Sozialtopographie einer deutschen Provinzhauptstadt unter schwedischer Herrschaft (Stade, 1992), 98Google Scholar. On the corruptibility of gatekeepers in Bordeaux, see Dinges, M., Stadtarmut in Bordeaux 1525–1675 (Bonn, 1988), 271Google Scholar.

94 Boccaccio, G., Decameron (New York, 2009)Google Scholar, VIII.3.

95 Beik, W., Urban Protest in Seventeenth-Century France: The Culture of Retribution (Cambridge, 1997), 13Google Scholar.

96 On this problem in Berlin, see Zschocke, Berliner Akzisemauer, esp. 29.

97 Gebodboeken (1696), 223. For similar instances, see also the files of the Antwerp Vierschaar (Court of Justice): SAA, V 85/8 (1610), V 87/1 (1617).

98 AVB/AA Liasse 501, letter of the gate commissary B. Martroye, 30 Apr. 1755.

99 Gebodboeken (1578), 340.

100 AVB/AA Liasse 166. Undated letter from the magistrate of the city of Brussels [c. 1750].

101 For Frankfurt where the so-called Wachtgeld (literally ‘guard money’) had been levied for this purpose since the seventeenth century: Eibach, J., Frankfurter Verhöre: Städtische Lebenswelten und Kriminalität im 18. Jahrhundert (Paderborn, 2003)Google Scholar, esp. 84–5.

102 Ebert, ‘Willkommene und ungebetene Gäste’, 264.

103 Serlio, On Architecture, vol. II, 92. In cities north of the Alps, the problem manifested itself in a similar way. See for example Rüthing, Höxter um 1500, 212–13; Kroll, Stade um 1700, 98.

104 For Antwerp: Gebodboeken (1614), 450, (1622), 8, (1727), 252.

105 In some places, houses were actually fused into the walls. In relation to Tuscan cities, see Braunfels, Mittelalterliche Stadtbaukunst, 63. For Bordeaux: Registres de la Jurade, vol. VI, 43, where the authorities allowed houses to be built propped against the wall, and windows to be cut in it (provided they were protected by grates).

106 Trexler, Public Life, 54.

107 In this regard, see also Boes, ‘Unwanted travellers’, 92.

108 AVB/AA Liasse 501, Waerschouwinge (decree) of 4 Apr. 1743 (in relation to ordinances of a similar nature).

109 Gebodboeken (1604), 423, (1686), 210, (1788), 299.

110 Ordinances concerning the opening and closing times of the gates in Antwerp, although only for the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: Gebodboeken (1614), 450, (1693), 220, (1695), 222, (1701), 228, (1705), 233, (1740), 259–60, (1745), 264, (1746), 266, (1758), 273, (1760), 274, (1787), 297, (1790), 303–4, (1793), 312.

111 AVB/AA Liasse 501, Waerschouwinge of 4 Apr. 1743.

112 For Frankfurt: Der Stadt Franckfurt Erneuerte Wacht-Ordnung [1711], 3. For Strasbourg: Der Statt Straßburg Wacht-Ordnungen ([Straßburg] 1672), 8–9.

113 For instance, in Augsburg: Roeck, Bernd, Eine Stadt in Krieg und Frieden: Studien zur Geschichte der Reichsstadt Augsburg zwischen Kalenderstreit und Parität, 2 vols. (Göttingen, 1989)Google Scholar, vol. II, 805.

114 Hale, J.R., Renaissance Europe, 1480–1520 (London, 1977), 123Google Scholar. The magistrate in Frankfurt also complained about gatekeepers who went home when officially on duty in order to eat or to fetch food from home: Der Stadt Franckfurt Erneuerte Wacht-Ordnung [1711], 4.

115 Boccaccio, Decameron, X.9.

116 Boes, ‘Unwanted travellers’, 92.

117 For Tuscany: N. Machiavelli, Florentine Histories (Princeton, 1988), 304.

118 Mączak, Travel in Early Modern Europe, 53–4.

119 AVB/AA Liasse 501, Mémoire dans lequel on demontre que la proprieté des portes de la ville de Bruxelles appartient à la pluralité . . ., fols. 2, 31, 10 Jan. 1788.

120 Gebodboeken (1628), 25–6; SAA, Burgerlijke Wacht GA # 4811: Ordonnantie Op't stuck vande Borgherlijcke Wachte der Stadt van Antwerpen [1607], § 77.

121 For Frankfurt: Der Stadt Franckfurt Erneuerte Wacht-Ordnung [1711], 4. On the problem of alcoholism among gatekeepers in Brandenburg, see Zschocke, Berliner Akzisemauer, 33. For complaints from Italy about guards falling asleep while on duty: Hilliges, Stadt- und Festungstor, 58–9.

122 See for example the files of the Antwerp Vierschaar from the 1610s: SAA, V 86/7 and 12–14, V 87/5 and 7.

123 Quoted from Mączak, Travel in Early Modern Europe, 53–4.

124 Friedrichs, The Early Modern City, 25.

125 For Bordeaux: Dinges, Stadtarmut in Bordeaux, 271.

126 See also Schweizer, Zwischen Repräsentation und Funktion, 9.

127 AVB/AA Liasse 501, decrees of 9 May 1743 and 7 Jun. 1783 (each one refers to corresponding previous ordinances on the subject).

128 Ekirch, A.R., At Day's Close: Night in Times Past (New York, 2006), 62Google Scholar.

129 See Mintzker, ‘Defortification of the German city’; Blieck et al. (eds.), La forteresse à l’épreuve du temps; K.E. Poling, ‘On the inner frontier: opening German city borders in the long nineteenth century’, unpublished Harvard University Ph.D. thesis, 2011. I thank Dr Poling for sending me a copy of her dissertation.

130 Wolfe, Walled Towns; Mintzker, ‘Defortification of the German city’, ch. 2.

131 Wolfe, Walled Towns, 159.

132 Mintzker, ‘Defortification of the German city’.

133 Creighton and Higham, Medieval Town Walls, 236.

134 Ibid., 243.

135 See also Reinle, Zeichensprache der Architektur, 255; he refers to an ‘Urerlebnis des Stadttors’ in the past.

136 See also Mintzker, ‘Defortification of the German city’, vi.

137 Also, gardens and cemeteries were often located outside the city walls. See van Dülmen, R., Kultur und Alltag in der Frühen Neuzeit, 3 vols. (Munich, 1992)Google Scholar, vol. II, 63.

138 Poling, ‘On the inner frontier’, 2.

139 Mintzker, ‘Defortification of the German city’, 1.

140 Bocchi, F., The Beauties of the City of Florence [orig. Bellezze della città di Firenze] (London, 2006)Google Scholar. The quotation is from the translators’ introduction, 3.

141 F. Bacon, ‘Essays or counsels civil and moral’, in Works, 14 vols. (London, 1861–79), vol. VI, 417 (Essay 18 ‘Of travel’).

142 See, for instance, Bocchi, The Beauties of the City of Florence, 26. On this phenomenon, see also Esch, A., ‘Anschauung und Begriff: Die Bewältigung fremder Wirklichkeit durch den Vergleich in Reiseberichten des späten Mittelalters’, Historische Zeitschrift, 253 (1991), 281–312CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. 285.

143 Mumford, L., The City in History (New York, 1961), 360Google Scholar.

144 Sahlins, P., Boundaries: The Making of France and Spain in the Pyrenees (Berkeley, 1989)Google Scholar, 8 and passim.

145 Of course, early modern Europeans also needed passes or permit letters (in which one can see a prototype of the modern passport) in order to cross certain boundaries. But the inspections at state borders were rarely as rigorous as those at city gates. See Mączak, Travel in Early Modern Europe, ch. 5 and esp. p. 118.

146 Torpey, J., The Invention of the Passport: Surveillance, Citizenship and the State (Cambridge, 2000)Google Scholar.

147 However, the study of this continuity remains quite limited.

148 Sennett, R., Flesh and Stone: The Body and the City in Western Civilization (New York, 1994), 17–18Google Scholar.

149 This observation is from Creighton and Higham, Medieval Town Walls, 248. In the pre-modern era, by contrast, it was the opposite: not only was the city as the whole a ‘gated community’, but there were also walled places and gates within the city, which had either survived from earlier periods or had been erected to assign a specific minority its own district (Jewish ghettos or ecclesiastical enclaves, for example). Internal walls and gates of this sort mimicked on a small scale the importance and functions of the general system.

150 Mumford, The City in History, 9.

151 Benjamin, W., Das Passagen-Werk, 2 vols. (Frankfurt am Main, 1983)Google Scholar, vol. I, 139.