Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 52. (2007)

LINDQUIST, Thea: Clement von Radolt (1593–1670): A Multifarious Career in the seventeenth-century Imperial Service

Clement von Radolt (1593-1670)

the University consistory and electing the rector.17 In 1631, Radolt’s colleagues elected him dean of the law faculty.18 Although he was not a professor, his election was not an unusual occurrence. By the early seventeenth century, deans were often doctors who held prestigious positions, including those in Imperial government. Indeed, in the years between 1626 and 1740, only twenty professors were deans of the law faculty. The vast majority were high-ranking government officials like Radolt, who, as described below, was employed in the Imperial treasury (Hofkammer) at the same time that he held many of his University positions.19

In 1625, Radolt began his long career in government service in the Hoflcammer. The Hoflcammer was the highest financial authority, and as such it was ultimately responsible for the management of the emperor’s revenues.20 These funds were principally derived from two sources - the crown domains and regalia (ordinary revenues) and grants made by the local estates of the hereditary lands (extraordinary revenues). The Hoflcammer administered the revenues generated by the former, which provided the primary funding for the Imperial court and central government, as well as indirect taxes and grants periodically made by the Imperial estates. The grants of the local estates, on the other hand, mainly financed the military, and as such the war council and chancelleries disbursed them, though often in consultation with the Hoflcammer. In spite of its seemingly wide purview over Imperial finances, the Hoflcammer was not a central treasury in the modem sense, that is, capable of completely surveying and controlling all government income and expenditures. Its functions were in fact restricted throughout much of the seventeenth century.21

A hierarchy of specialized personnel ran the Hoflcammer. The president, who usually was a member of one of the prominent families of the Austrian-Bohemian

17 The Austrian procurator was the most influential of the four because he held the tie-breaking vote in a rectorial election. (Goldmann, Artur: Die Universität, 1529-1740. In: Vom Ausgange des Mittelalters bis zum Regierungsantritt der Kaiserin Maria Theresia, 1740, ed. Anton Mayer, vol. 6, Geschichte der Stadt Wien, Vienna 1918, pp. 90-92).

18 Locher: Spekulum Academicum Viennensis, vol. 1, pp. 108, 187-188, 229, and vol. 2, p. 43.

19 Goldmann: Die Universität, pp. 88-89. Since the usual term for a dean was one year, twenty professors over almost 115 years is not many.

20 Fellner, Thomas - Kretschmayr, Heinrich: Von Maximilian I. bis zur Vereinigung der österreichischen und böhmischen Hofkanzlei (1749), pt. 1, Die Österreichische Zentralverwaltung, Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für neuere Geschichte Österreichs, vols. 5-7, Vienna 1907, vol. 1, pp. 78-79. The Hofkammer consisted of four divisions responsible for the business of the Empire and Hungary; Bohemia, Silesia, and Moravia; Upper and Lower Austria; and the mining towns (Bergstädte), along with matters of war and military supply. (Fellner: Von Maximilian I.,

p. 86).

21 Schwarz, Henry Frederick: The Imperial Privy Council in the Seventeenth Century, Harvard Historical Studies, vol. 53, Cambridge 1943, pp. 29-30. The restriction of the Hofkammer’s functions was due mainly to the disruption of its administrative unity after 1564, when Inner Austria and Tyrol came under the rule of cadet branches of the Habsburg family. These provinces developed their own administrative bodies, including separate treasuries in Graz and Innsbruck, thus their revenues no longer fell under the Hofkammer’s purview.

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