This study offers a new view on public services in the early modern Low Countries and answers the following questions: who provided public facilities in urban communities and in which ways did public amenities change in the period between 1500 and 1800? It throws light on the ways in which responsibilities were shared between city dwellers and the factors which influenced the allocation and reallocation of public services between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. The present study looks at those who provided various services to their communities, the ways in which they were rewarded and...