Tafelgüterverzeichnis

The Tafelgüterverzeichnis is a list of the "courts which belong to the table of the king of the Romans" (curie que pertinent ad mensam regis Romanorum), that is, a register of the lands belonging to the royal demesne (or fisc) and of the payments in cash or in kind which each estate owed annually. The title "king of the Romans" was the preferred official title of the medieval Kings of Germany if they had not yet been crowned Holy Roman Emperor. Besides Germany, they also ruled the kingdoms of Italy and Burgundy. The Tafelgüterverzeichnis lists lands in both Germany and Italy.

The Tafelgüterverzeichnis is found, alongside ten other documents pertaining to the Kornelimünster in Aachen and dating to the last quarter of the twelfth century, in manuscript "Bonn S. 1559" in the library of the University of Bonn. It is a "draft of a letter sent by a canon of Aachen to someone of high rank in the king's entourage, perhaps his chancellor[, and] not really part of a survey policy [nor] an administrative document in the strict sense of the word." It is nevertheless the closest thing to a fiscal record of the German monarchy in the twelfth century.

The date of the Tafelgüterverzeichnis has been a matter of debate for over a century. It was probably drawn up after the first coronation of a king (as "King of the Romans") and before his imperial coronation, since the compiler is uncertain about the Italian estates: "How much they give no one can relate or find out unless we come to Lombardy." The use of the "Roman" title precludes its being earlier than the reign of Henry IV, leading to an earliest dating of 1064/5. Most commonly it is dated either to the first year (1152) of the reign of Frederick I or to the eve of his fifth visit to Italy (1173/4). It has been dated as late as 1185/9 by Wolfgang Metz, who argues that the Tafelgüterverzeichnis was compiled in three phases and only took on its final form through the work of a ministerialis, perhaps William of Aachen, under Henry VI.

...
Wikipedia