Griffierspost

Griffierspost is a term found in some German-language discussions of historical legal administration. It denotes the communication system by which court clerks, or Griffiers, prepared, posted, and transmitted official notices and case information within a legal bureaucracy. The word is a compound of Griffier (court registrar) and Post (mail or dispatch).

Scope and function: In various German-speaking jurisdictions from the late Middle Ages through the early modern period, clerks compiled judgments, summonses, procedural orders, and docket notes and circulated them among courts, judges, prosecutors, and attorneys. Griffierspost could refer to a physical posting of notices on courthouse boards, a standardized set of memoranda between offices, or a courier-based channel that moved documents between registries. Practices varied by region, institution, and period, and the term is not universally applied to a single formal system.

Relation to other systems: Griffierspost is related to, but distinct from, broader official gazettes (Amtsblatt) and to the general networks of correspondence used by legal administrations (Schriftgut, Kurierwesen). It is often discussed as an example of pre-modern procedural communication rather than as a formal postal service.

Modern reception: Today, Griffierspost appears primarily in historical analyses of legal administration and manuscript culture. It is not a standard term in contemporary legal practice and is often cited as a descriptive label for archival notes on how official information circulated within courts.

See also: Amtsblatt, Gerichtsbarkeit, Amtsgericht, Schriftgut, Kurierwesen. References: The concept is discussed in secondary literature on medieval and early modern German law and administration; primary sources include court records and registries that show how notices were circulated among officials.