Trust, Authority, and the Written Word in the Royal Towns of Medieval Hungary

438 Pages·2018·7.106 MB·English

by  Katalin Szende

TRUST, AUTHORITY, AND THE WRITTEN WORD
IN THE ROYAL TOWNS OF MEDIEVAL HUNGARY
UTRECHT STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL LITERACY
41
UTRECHT STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL LITERACY
General Editor
Marco Mostert (Universiteit Utrecht)
Editorial Board
Gerd Althoff (Westfälische-Wilhelms-Universität Münster)
Michael Clanchy (University of London)
Erik Kwakkel (Universiteit Leiden)
Mayke de Jong (Universiteit Utrecht)
Rosamond McKitterick (University of Cambridge)
Arpád Orbán (Universiteit Utrecht)
Armando Petrucci (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa) †
Richard H. Rouse (UCLA)
TRUST, AUTHORITY,
AND THE WRITTEN WORD
IN THE ROYAL TOWNS OF
MEDIEVAL HUNGARY
Katalin Szende
H
F
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
© 2018 – Brepols Publishers n.v., Turnhout, Belgium
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.
D/2018/0095/205
ISBN 978-2-503-57881-1
e-ISBN 978-2-503-57882-8
DOI: 10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.114658
ISSN: 2034-9416
e-ISSN: 2294-8317
Printed on acid-free paper
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Abbreviations xi
List of Figures and Tables xv
Introduction 1
On This Volume 1
Trust and Authority 5
Literate Mentalities 16
European Frameworks 20
1. Setting the Scene 25
Whose Literacy? Urban Development and Urban Society in
Medieval Hungary 25
Pragmatic Approaches to Pragmatic Literacy 44
Sources and Scholarship 49
2 In the First-Person Plural: Civic Literacy and Communal Identity 61
Royal Charters and Urban Identity 62
The Beginnings of Civic Literacy 67
Civic Literacy and Places of Authentication 72
Formulae and Community 84
The Municipal Seal: The Matrix of Identity 87
Communal Concerns: The Contents of Early Municipal
Documents 107
Conclusions: Trust in Charters 115
vi Contents
3. From Charters to Books and Back 121
The Institutionalisation of Writing Offices 121
Municipal Books as Instruments of Civic Governance 134
The Material of Town Books: The Use of Paper
in Administration 140
The Contents of Municipal Books: Thematic Differentiation 148
Miscellaneous Books 149
Financial Registers 157
Court Books and Judicial Administration 164
Municipal Books for Property Administration 176
Town Books and Testamentary Practice 181
Outlook 1: The Beginnings of Pragmatic Literacy in
Craft Guilds 185
Outlook 2: Town Chronicles and Municipal Literacy 189
Conclusions: Trust in Municipal Books 197
4. Language and Literacy 203
Language on the Research Agenda 203
Why Not Monolingual? 206
Areas of Urban Life Where Language Became an Issue 218
Administration and Justice 218
External Relations 223
Trade and Accounting 225
Pastoral Care and Preaching 229
Medieval Urban Language Use in the Light of
Sociolinguistic Research 234
Conclusions: Trust in Language 244
5. “in cartula scribere faciat” – The Uses of Writing between
Christians and Jews 249
Legislation on Jews and Literacy – A Chronological Overview 250
Records of Urban Administration as Sources on Jewish-Christian
Coexistence 259
Normative Legislation – Local Statutes 259
Contents vii
Administering Justice 262
Real Estate and Moneylending 266
Conclusions: Trust in Writing between Christians and Jews 279
6. From Charters to Archives 287
Variations on Archives 288
The Advent and Advantage of Civic Archives: Storage
and Safekeeping 292
Binding Records: The Example of Sopron 306
Using Civic Archives 314
Conclusions: Trust in Archives 318
Final Conclusions 323
Appendices 335
Appendix 1: Gazetteer of Names of Towns in the Medieval
Kingdom of Hungary Discussed in the Book 336
Appendix 2: Regnal Years of the Kings of Medieval Hungary 339
Appendix 3: Documents Issued by Civic Authorities
in Hungary, (1244) 1255-1305 340
Appendix 4: Earliest Mentioning of Municipal Notaries
(up to 1400) 352
Appendix 5: The Earliest Preserved Charters of Bishops’ Towns
(Issued by the Municipality) 357
Appendix 6: Municipal Books Started before 1500 359
Bibliography 365
Index 407