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List I (Generalspecification) is part of the archives of the Historical Section of the Grand Ducal Institute and is located in the State Archives (AEL) as is the 1656 census (Reg.A.sect.III, bundle 1A) and list IX (Reg.A.sect.XVII, bundle 3). All other lists are kept in the Archives of the City of Luxembourg (AVL) in registers 39 resp.43. Apart from list IX. published by A. Steffen in Ons Hemecht 1934/III, pp.205-248, all these manuscripts are unpublished except for two excerpts. P. Margue published the text of nos. 244-246 and 336-364 of the Generalspecification (list I) in Hémecht 1975/II-III, pp. 19-43 and P. Wurth-Majerus fol. XXIII-XXXV of list X, including about a third of the upper town (the eastern part) in Novum Forum 1937, p.130-134. The National Library has a copy of list X (P. Wurth-Majerus Collection) but it contains many errors in reading family names. Some of the lists in register 43 bear Arabic numerals with numbers written in pencil but without regard to the date of their creation, just as their inclusion in this volume was carried out with total chronological carelessness. The interest that these documents aroused does not seem to have been very great; they were clearly the poor relations of the archives. This perhaps also partly explains the disappearance of a significant part of the collection that they must have constituted at the beginning.
Register 43 (AVL) also contains a list (no. 15 in pencil) of 200 houses in the upper town, probably dating from 1671/72. However, it could not be used for this work because, drawn up based on the quarters of military units, it would have been difficult to fit into the framework of the sequence of houses in the various streets. However, it deserves a separate study because, in addition to the billeted soldiers, it contains numerous names of "refugees" from the lower town whose houses had just been demolished and who have not yet found a permanent home in the upper town.
In the AEL, in addition to the list of June 13, 1684, there are also two other lists of military housing in the city of Luxembourg, each covering a part of the upper town (approximately 150 houses and 120 houses respectively). The first can be dated around 1680 and is of the same type as the present lists V and VI, the second, established after 13.5.1680, is more explicit than list VIII which it duplicates. As these fragments of lists do not provide new elements for the whole city, it did not seem necessary to me to publish them. In the registers of the Reinach Fund (P.S (P.S.H. XXXIII, p.794) N. van Werveke cites for his part at no. 4394 among the undated documents a list of bourgeois of Luxembourg from "ca. 1670" but which could not be found. From the documents of the Provincial Council it also emerges that in the 60s several "visits" for the purpose of military housing were carried out
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killed without any trace remaining. They must be considered lost. Thus, for this entire period, there remains a gap of almost twenty years, although not serious, because the major changes that transformed the face of the city only began in 1671/72 with the transfer of part of the population from the suburbs to the upper town. This is something that the lists, from 1675 onwards, largely take into account.
For the preparation of these lists, the city was divided into cantons corresponding more or less to the different districts, but neither the numbers nor the boundaries of these cantons are uniform. On the contrary, they often vary from one list to another. Only List I is numbered in the original, while the numbers in List IX are those added by A. Steffen (o.c.). The other lists have all been provided with numbers in this work with a view to establishing an index of persons, which constitutes the second part of the book The same applies to the numbering of lists I to X. The street names, given in the headings, are obviously not included in the lists. List X is the only one to give street names, although they correspond only more or less to those of today. By superimposing the lists, it was nevertheless possible to delineate with certainty the different current streets. Houses located on corners obviously remain subject to discussion because they are sometimes counted in one street and sometimes in another. This results in discrepancies with the street nomenclature that A. Steffen (o.c.) had added to list IX.
The initial project of designating each house's current location had to be abandoned. On the one hand, because only two lists (I and X) provide clear information about the houses. In the others, it is not always possible to determine whether a house is inhabited by one or more listed households. On the other, many small houses have been incorporated into larger dwellings over the past 300 years, not to mention those that have simply disappeared, such as in the once-populous Rue Large, Rue de la Congrégation and Rue du Séminaire, and others. Too many gaps would have provided only an imprecise picture at all. However, by proceeding in small increments, from one street corner to another, this diagram makes it possible to determine, in most cases, the current location of the houses of yesteryear. A cadastral map and a minimum knowledge of the area should be sufficient for this purpose
The "border" between the upper town and the lower town is not always the same in the different lists. The upper part of Rue Large between Rue de la Loge and the Grond drawbridge is considered to be part of both the upper town and the Grond. Things get even more complicated for houses overlooking both streets at the same time. For greater clarity, Rue Large has therefore been included in
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its entirety counted uniformly as an integral part of the Grond suburb. This is also the point of view of lists I and X.
On the other hand, it was not easy to find the dates of the lists that do not have them in the original. The parish registers of St-Nico-las were a valuable contribution here. By knowing the date of death of the various people, it was indeed possible to establish cut-off dates for the lists, either because a particular bourgeois still appears there, or because his wife is listed as a widow. In this context, it should be noted that, now having more extensive documentation, I was led to correct certain datings of lists published in my article on the houses of the Grand-rue (Hémecht 1979/1).
The spelling of the original text has been respected for both proper names and remarks, except for the summarized parts of List I. Since most of the inhabitants could neither read nor write and the census agents recorded the names by ear, one can sometimes observe amusing, if not grotesque, onomastic differences, which the index of names will take into account. It should also be noted that the Latin "v" is often used in place of the "u" and vice versa, while in some names the Spanish "b" is used for a "v."
In two places, a line (---) indicates a break that is not found in the lists. In Rue Philippe II, this refers to the part of Rue de la Poste between the current Rue Philippe II and Rue Aldringen, and in Avenue Monterey, it refers to the southern part of Place d'Armes between Rue Chimay and the current Rue Philippe II. As for the Town Hall, this refers to the 17th-century building, and therefore the current Grand Ducal Palace.