Denunciation and reproval – attentiveness as a resource in the implementation of law in late medieval and early modern urban society (1400–1650) (B02)

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In urban societies, denunciations and reprovals were intentionally employed to a considerable extent from the late Middle Ages onwards for the attainment of diverse regulatory goals. These goals could only be achieved if the inhabitants of these communities remained attentive to the behaviours/appearances of their fellow townsmen and townswomen. Dress regulations are of particular interest here as clothing served as a marker of social status for civilians, albeit predominantly only for women initially. It was also only through clothing that public officials could signal that they were ‘on duty’. The project examines the interplay between the expectations of attention permanently prescribed within these urban societies and the specific settings in which a violation of dressing regulations for women and (male) officials was met with a particularly high level of readiness to advert them to the respective authorities by the city’s inhabitants.