De heerlijke rekening als historische bron: een stand van het onderzoek betreffende het graafschap Vlaanderen (ca. 1450 – ca. 1795)

Abstract

This article provides an overview of the historiography on seigneurial accounts in Flanders from circa 1450 until the end of the Old Regime. The main objective is hereby to explore the main characteristics of this socioeconomic source material, and how it has been used in historical studies of premodern Flanders. Furthermore, the possibilities and methodologies for future research based on seigneurial financial administrative documents are covered as well. Such future research is needed in this field, which predominantly draws upon generalizations from isolated case studies, rather than structural comparative analysis.