Property Deed for a House and Garden at Deggendorf, with Building Rights and Ecclesiastical Rent In Old High German, manuscript on vellum

DRACHESEL, Georgius. Property Deed for a House and Garden at Deggendorf, with Building Rights and Ecclesiastical Rent In Old High German, manuscript on vellum
Germany (Regensburg), dated April 1478 

192mm x 305mm

Description
Single-sheet charter on vellum, written in 29 long lines in a large and rather fluid late Gothic cursive hand; the opening initial I elongated into the left margin with simple penwork flourish; text in brown ink;
lower margin with slits for seal tags.

Condition
Seal lacking, some creasing, small losses and staining, but overall well preserved. Verso with faint early archive entry and later pencilled numeration (likely Rosenthal stock numbers).

Text
A substantial late medieval German charter recording the conveyance of hereditary property rights (Erbrecht) in the parish of Deggendorf, near Regensburg. Executed by Georgius Drachesel, licentiate in canon law and parish priest, the document transfers a house plot and garden to Hanns Schönberger, mason and burgher of Deggendorf, and his wife and heirs.

The text is unusually rich in practical detail, offering a vivid insight into the realities of property tenure in the later 15th century. The grantee is granted not only the land itself, but the right to construct a dwelling within three years, to draw building materials (including stone) from specified sources, and to access water from a communal well. Such clauses, carefully enumerating easements and obligations, reflect the negotiated nature of urban and semi-urban expansion in the later Middle Ages. In return, Schönberger and his heirs are bound to pay an annual rent of seven shillings and twelve Regensburg pfennigs, divided between the feasts of St George and St Michael, ensuring the continued income of the parish.

The charter concludes with formal validation clauses and is witnessed by Agnes, abbess of Niedermünster in Regensburg, an important Benedictine house, adding institutional authority and regional significance to the transaction.

Provenance
1. Almost certainly retained within local or ecclesiastical archives in the Regensburg region.
2. Later in the stock of Ludwig Rosenthal, Munich, c. 1900 (as suggested by pencilled numeration).
3. Subsequently in the Rosenthal firm’s Hilversum branch, and later private collections.