Bratovščinska pisma marijanskih kongregacij v 18. stoletju kot spričevala in sredstva korporativne reprezentacije

A small collection of certificates of Marian sodalities from Austria and South Germany is preserved in the Archives of the Austrian Jesuit Province. These engraved documents were mainly used by wandering fellow guild members as passports. They complemented customary guild documents, as they testified to the reliable confessional character of their holder. Though the certificates preserved in Vienna were mostly issued and sealed only in the second half of the 18th century, research has shown that the copperplate matrices that were used are significantly older, partly going back to the third quarter of the 17th century. In an iconographic sense they are rich sources because they show city views and frequently interiors, altars, and liturgical furnishings that no longer exist. The certificates served not only their owners, but also as a pictorial representation of their place of origin and of the actual congregation.V arhivu avstrijske jezuitske province se je ohranila majhna zbirka bratovščinskih pisem iz avstrijskih in južnonemških marijanskih kongregacij. Gre za dokumente v tehniki bakroreza, ki so jih predvsem potujoči pomočniki uporabljali kot »potne liste«. Dopolnjevali so običajne cehovske papirje, ker so dokazovali zanesljiv konfesionalni značaj njihovih imetnikov. Čeprav so bili na Dunaju ohranjeni dokumenti izdani in žigosani večinoma šele v drugi polovici 18. stoletja, je raziskava pokazala, da so uporabljeni bakrorezni formularji bistveno starejši; deloma segajo nazaj do tretje četrtine 17. stoletja. Ikonografsko so to dragoceni viri, ker kažejo mestne vedute in velikokrat ne več obstoječe interierje, oltarje in kose opreme. Služili so ne le lastniku listine, ampak tudi kot slikovna predstavitev kraja, od koder je izhajal, s tamkajšnjo konkretno bratovščino