“Alle die so jnn und kreiß der Mauren wonen werden hermanstaedter genannt”: Neighbours and Neighbourhoods in Sixteenth-Century Sibiu

The article investigates the meanings of ‘neighbourhood' in the town of Sibiu during the sixteenth century. In the first section I provide a few cases of litigations, excerpted from the town protocols, derived from the need to define boundaries between properties and individuals. The second section illustrates the functioning of the organized neighbourhood in Sibiu, the ‘Nachbarschaft'. A dispute between two such neighbourhoods sheds light on the main values and concerns of urban life in the sixteenth century.

Key Words: neighbours, neighbourhoods, disputes, night-watch, civic duties, Sibiu, sixteenth century