letters patent of arms and ennoblement, Bohemian Court Chancellery, Bohemian Crown Lands, diplomatics, sigillography/sphragistics, bureaucracy, Early Modern Period, Habsburgs

The study deals with the issue of the development of early modern letters patent of arms and ennoblement, which were issued by the reigning kings and thus produced by the Bohemian Court Chancellery. The period examined is primarily defined by the ascension of the Habsburgs in 1526 and the administrative and chancellery reforms from 1749 and 1752, which brought a uniform appearance of the letters patent for the newly created hereditary lands (they merged the until-then independent Bohemian and Austrian Lands). The main subject of the study is the typological development of the issued letters patent of arms and ennoblement because this type of document at the same time represents the general development of deed production both in the Bohemian lands and the other parts of the monarchy or to a significant also in the Holy Roman Empire.