“Als fromme und getrewe Bürger…”: Designing Desired Social Behaviour in 16th- and 17th-century Fire Ordinances from Gdańsk Cover Image

„Als fromme und getrewe Bürger…” – projektowanie pożądanych zachowań społecznych w gdańskich ordynacjach ogniowych z XVI i XVII wieku
“Als fromme und getrewe Bürger…”: Designing Desired Social Behaviour in 16th- and 17th-century Fire Ordinances from Gdańsk

Author(s): Alicja Janusz
Subject(s): History, Language and Literature Studies, Theoretical Linguistics, Modern Age, Lexis, 16th Century, 17th Century
Published by: Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL & Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II
Keywords: fire ordinance; focal vocabulary; Early New High German; Gdańsk

Summary/Abstract: Fire ordinances, called Feuerordnung or Willkür in German, were quite early documents regulating fire prevention and showing how to act in the case of a conflagration. They were especially popular in German-speaking areas, although they have rarely been investigated from a linguistic perspective. In this article, the vocabulary concerning desirable and undesirable human actions in the time of a conflagration, as well as the consequences of such actions, was analysed in order to investigate the focal vocabulary of the authors of three fire ordinances from Gdańsk. The aim of this article is also to state clearly, through analysis, whether the authors of the ordinances believed punishment or reward to be a better motivation in fire prevention.

  • Issue Year: 70/2022
  • Issue No: 6
  • Page Range: 61-77
  • Page Count: 17
  • Language: Polish