Kristi Viiding’s lecture about taking notes in early modern law studies at the University of Szczecin

Put it in your mind or in the notes: Instructions for Taking notes in Early Modern Law Studies

Research professor of the Under and Tuglas Literature Centre, Kristi Viiding’s lecture at the University of Szczecin

My talk presents two Latin guidelines for taking notes for future professional legal activity, from 1592 in Riga and c. 1605 in Zamość, written by the Livonian-Polish humanist and lawyer from Riga, David Hilchen (1561–1610), who had studied law and rhetoric in German universities (Ingolstadt, Tübingen, Heidelberg) but did not promote. Yet he was very successful in practice: he composed the draft of the Livonian Land Law in 1599 and many other regulations for the city of Riga between 1586 to 1599. In 1595, he was one of the representatives of the King of Poland in an international dispute with Brunswick over the inheritance of Princess Sophia. His special interest was the law of succession. From 1603, he lived in exile in Zamość. My aim is to demonstrate the importance of the prescriptive genre of ratio studiorum for the research of the practice of legal notebooks.