This is the website of Otto Vervaart (Utrecht 1963).

At Utrecht University I studied history, specializing in medieval history (M.Litt. 1988). The law faculty of the Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam supported my research for my Ph.D. In 1994 I graduated with a thesis on Nicolaas Everaerts (Nicolaus Everardi) (around 1462-1532) and his book on juridical argumentation [Studies over Nicolaas Everaerts (1462-1532) en zijn Topica (Arnhem 1994)]. I have been a post-doc at the University of Munich where I catalogued the books in the library of the Stephan-Kuttner-Institute of Medieval Canon Law, since 2013 housed at Yale University’s Lillian Goldman Law Library. Later on I have worked at the Centre for Dutch Monastic Archives, now the Center for the Heritage of Dutch Monastic Life at Cuijk-St. Agatha, and at the general library of a Dutch religious congregation, the Brothers of Tilburg.

From June 2016 until the end of 2019 I worked as a project archivist at Het Utrechts Archief, the combined municipal and provincial archives in Utrecht, in particular contributing to two new finding aids, for the medieval bishops of Utrecht (toegang 218-1) and for castle Hardenbroek (toegang 1010), the latter an uncommonly diverse conglomerate of a family and house archive, personal papers and archival collections from several families, with a total of nearly 7,000 items, dating from the fourteenth to the twentieth century. In Autumn 2020 I worked as a project archivist for the Special Collections at Utrecht University Library, dealing in particular with medieval and Early Modern charters and some family archives. From May to August 2021 a second phase of this project took place. The new inventories have been published at the repertory for special collections of Utrecht University Library. During the second half of 2022 I worked as a staff member at the Regionaal Archief Zuid-Utrecht, Wijk bij Duurstede.

Apart from my blog Rechtsgeschiedenis about legal history in general I created in 2013 a blog on medieval legal glosses, Glossae – Middeleeuwse juridische glossen in beeld. Digital projects around the First World War are since 2014 the subject of another blog, Digital1418.

Disclaimer

The inclusion of links to websites does not imply any involvement with them or endorsement of views expressed on them. I cannot take any responsibility for them and the information they provide. There is no intention of offering legal opinions or advice on this site.

Copyright

The information on this website has been brought together to help you getting information about legal history. You can use the information on this website freely. When you quote text fragments or commented link lists I expect you to acknowledge its source.

Photographs

I use my own photographs on my website. Only the image of a medieval legal manuscript (Henri Bohic, Distinctiones in librum primum Decretalium; Utrecht, UB, ms. 615, fol. 9r) is used by courtesy of Utrecht University Library.

In random sequence the banner shows a bridge near Utrecht, the former Main Guardhouse in Utrecht at the Janskerkhof, the Hofpoort at the Nieuwegracht in Utrecht, the two dovecotes at the former Voorn estate near the Leidsche Rijn river in Utrecht, the old city hall of Woerden with a pillory, the duck decoy at Breukeleveen, a statue with an allegory of Justice on a freeze of the mantelpiece at the old town hall of Kampen, the Gravensteen (County Prison), Leiden, the city hall of Vianen in Vijfheerenlanden, and cells in the seventeenth-century city prison at Enkhuizen. The image of a seventeenth-century Dutch court comes from Bernard van Zutphen, Nederlandtsche practycque van verscheyden daghelijcksche soo civile als criminele questien (Utrecht 1642). The mid 14th-century manuscript with the Rechtsboek by canon Hugo Wstinc is kept at Het Utrechts Archief, toegang 216, Domkapittel te Utrecht, inv.no. 67.