Klosterneuburger Traditionsbuch

Overview & Synopsis

The Klosterneuburg Tradition Book is one of the most important sources on Austrian medieval history. This manuscript, now housed in the monastery archives of the Augustinian Canons, contains just over 800 records of the monastery's legal transactions, dating from its founding by Leopold III of Babenberg and his wife Agnes at the beginning of the 12th to the middle of the 13th century. The texts include, for example, the first mentions of many Lower Austrian towns and important social-historical information on a wide range of people of both sexes from the founding of the "monastery near the new castle" and the development of the emerging region. It is also an authoritative source for the early history of Vienna.