Herrschaftsgericht

17:47 Feb 8, 2009 

Webster New World College Dictionary says both spellings, seigniorial / seignorial, are correct. I chose the latter because I got more Google hits for it. (I too was surprised that the question was closed too early before all this interesting discussion.)

15:19 Feb 8, 2009 

Kim's spelling - at least my Concise Oxford dict. does. I would also ask that questions of this nature are not closed so quickly particularly where there are issues to sort out. There must be a reason, for instance, why my sources refer to 'honour courts' - before just dismissing things out of hand, it is always worth asking whether things were specific to a country or state or even particular lordship in some cases. I, too, was expecting to find seignorial (and spelt that way) to be the answer. But I felt duty bound to report on what I did, in fact, find. As a historian myself, I know how important it is to check and corroborate facts and sources, and as linguists we should all know this, too.

14:54 Feb 8, 2009 

I can see where Helen's dictionary is coming from: the Herrschaftsgerichte would also rule on questions of honour, therefore they were also - but not exclusively - functioning as honour courts.

Another sample of the tasks of a Herrschaftsgericht: "Das Herrschaftsgericht Krombach übte die Distrikts- und die Ortspolizei sowie die volle bürgerliche Gerichtsbarkeit aus, unterstand jedoch der Aufsicht des Landgerichtes (ä.O.) Kaltenberg. (Quelle: Historischer Atlas von Bayern. [Altlandkreis] Alzenau. München 1968. Seite 123 bzw. S. 186)."

http://www.gda.bayern.de/findmittel/pdf/stawu_pg-krombach_00...

14:31 Feb 8, 2009 

In the Holy Roman Empire, justice was administered at two levels: the manorial or seigniorial court, and the regional magistracies.

http://college.cengage.com/history/west/mckay/western_societ...

14:18 Feb 8, 2009 

I believe the spelling is seigniorial, not seignorial. And please don't close your question so quickly. This one deserved to be kept open to allow folks to contribute to the discussion. There are issues that should still be discussed, such as whether seigniorial and manorial are actually synonymous for Hofgericht and that we may need another term for Herrschaftsgericht as indicated here:
Das Herrschaftsgericht übte die obere Gerichtsbarkeit aus; niedere Gerichtsbarkeiten standen den Gerichtsherrschaften Greifenberg, Kempten und Wetzikon zu. Aus dem frühen Mittelalter stammten ausserdem noch die vier Hofgerichte von Dürnten, Mönchaltorf, Wald und Fischenthal sowie die Dingstatt Binzikon, zu der sieben Dörfer gehörten. Das Herrschaftsgericht verdrängte indessen zusehends die Hofgerichte.

http://www.grueningen.ch/xml_1/internet/de/application/d2/f4...