oa Burgerspiegels in de premoderne stad - Introductie

This special issue of Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis is dedicated to processes of civic education in the cities of pre-modern Europe. We suggest that civic education often relied on what we might call ‘civic mirrors’, i.e. texts, images, monuments, and rituals that offered instruction to citizens about acceptable and expected styles of citizenship and civic leadership, by presenting them with a (positive or negative) ideal type. The introduction aims to locate this notion in the wider bibliography of premodern citizenship and civic education.