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00:06 Aug 25, 2010
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German to English translations [PRO] Social Sciences - History / 17th-century office
German term or phrase:Verortender des Rentamts
Describing the sitter of a 17th-century painting: 'Weiter wurde er kurbairischer (sic) Kämmerer, Hofrat und Hauptpfleger in XX, 'Verortender' (sic) des Rentamts YY des hochfürstlichen Domstifts ZZ.
The term Verortender appears with a capital 'V' and with apostrophes around it.
Can anybody come up with the correct historical term please? And also explain the significance of the way it is written? Many thanks in advance.
What I found:
tax assessor, -gatherer, -collector, administrator, administrator of taxes, receiver of customs or contributions, commissioner of taxes. Occasionally "excise" pops up but I reckon that would be out here. All in dics between 1850 and 1885.
as I said in the beginning, a related modern German term would be Markscheider (for mines) or Steuereintreiber (umgangssprachlich). Apart from my then suggestions "tax accessor" I don't have any other present-day or historic English term at hand but will check with historic dics this afternoon and come back.
I have now heard back from my client who tells me that this is the correct spelling. This is then based on the verb 'verorten', 'to locate' - is this some sort of chief debt collector (obviously I jest with the modern terminology, but what was a person charged with bringing in the income, the tithe collector, though I doubt tithe is correct, be called in such a case? I would be grateful for further inspiration if anyone has any thing that might help here.
Personally I'd hesitate to use Palatinate alone as it is also used for today's Pfalz within Rheinland-Pfalz, which is incongruent with the historic area. Your longer term would avoid such misinterpretation.
Yes, there seems to be an accepted translation for Kurpfalz, 'The Palatinate', but what about Bavaria? Perhaps I should just say 'at the Electoral court of Bavaria'. Not snappy, but would be a shame to put 'Bavaria' alone.
Thank you to you both. I think I will query the spelling with my client since the text in itself is modern - the inverted commas may indicate a quote from older German though. Yes, exchequer sounds good. Given the other inflated titles, I suspect that he was probably something like a chief secretary to the treasury, or in that sort of vein.
my mid-19th cent. dic gives "board of revenue" or "exchequer" for Rentamt; it also supports your rendereing of Kurpfalz. Verortender I could not locate. So I guess that it may indeed be a misspelling for "Verordneter" in the sense of authorized representative, as suggested by J. Streitparth. Sorry I can't really help much. M.
@H.S. What you have so far looks good, in this context I would translate "Verordneter des Rentamts" maybe to " Appointed official of the treasury" , because the word "Verordneter" which I believe is what the source text implies , in old German often had different spellings
re Domesday: it only sprang to mind in connection with land/tax assessment; its one-off status will not match this source text's context, if only because here we're talking about a permanent position I would guess. With "Electoral Bavaria" I'd only use it if the region in question actually did consent to be ruled from afar, which I doubt. But there may be a historic term for Kurpfalz that remains to be dug up. The rest of your rendering sounds good to these nonnative ears.
Since this spelling, which I have also seen elsewhere, differs from the spelling in the rest of the text I am translating, I am presuming that this is a paraphrase of a quote, which hasn't been properly indicated as such. Not that I can render the alternate spelling in EN, but interesting nonetheless.
Thanks very much Michael for your assistance. At the moment I have: He was further appointed chamberlain of Electoral Bavaria, privy councillor and chief superintendant at XX, ‘Verortender’ of the Treasury at YY for the royal cathedral chapter at ZZ.
one attempt off the cuff: He also was to become Bavarian cashier, court counselor and principal caretaker in XX, domesday assessor of the YY Church revenue office of the royal cathedral chapter at YY.
only saw your question now; I shall look it up tonight and get back to you. Best. Rentamt ist übrigens im MA das kirchliche Finanzamt gewesen, so daß "Verortender" eine Art Markscheider oder Landassessor gewesen sein könnte.
probably erroneous spelling for “kurbayrisch”, which is short for “kurfűrstlich bayrisch” (Kurfűrst=Prince elector); “kur” < middle high German “kure”=Wahl)
The translation workplace 
