Urbs - Magyar várostörténeti évkönyv 8. (Budapest, 2013)
Recenziók
322 Abstracts representation implemented by the Transylvanian peerage, and at last but not at least organisational mechanisms used for managing the city as well. Furthermore the latter testifies the strength of the community and the efficiency performed by the leaders of Brassó in case of such an enormous challenge that the princely visit meant for them in Transylvanian Saxon Land in the early 17th century. ANDRÁS PÉTER SZABÓ The City of Beszterce and the Visits of Courts of the Princes of Transylvania The present paper of ours is an attempt to review those sources of Beszterce - the centre of the Northem-Transylvanian Saxons - which are concerned with the princely court. Furthermore it deals with visits of the Princes of Transylvania in Beszterce and focuses on the interaction between the Princes and the town rather than the travelling court. (The court is defined here as a social group and it is not related to the most important residence). In the 17th century the reason of the Prince’s travels was first the ravages of war affected the seat: Gyulafehérvár, then he travelled more often than before because the role of the secondary residences increased. While these visits in case of Szeben and Brassó, the biggest Saxon cities in Transylvania, were limited usually three days - since the cities, according to a medieval legal custom should cater the Prince for the said days for free - the Prince stayed longer in towns, such as Beszterce. If that happened, in principle, the Prince of Transylvania covered the costs of his visit (except the three days), but he reimbursed subsequently and incidentally just in form of tax credit. Through studying the books of account of Beszterce created in the 16-17th century (among them one that was kept 1615-1668 and registered especially the costs resulted by the debts of the Prince) and the town’s rich correspondence 27 visits have been identified surely with reference that period. Furthermore, other 8 occasions have been found in the sources but these cannot be proved unambiguously. The reason for six visits was the diet, in other six cases during the 17th century the one month autumn law-terms, sessions, sittings organized for the Transylvanian nobility in Beszterce. The course and organization of the visits can be reconstructed by the sources which complement the details known through the examples of Brassó and Kolozsvár. As the gradually increased visits proves, the autonomy of Beszterce and the Saxons significantly weakened against the Prince during the 17th century. Despite the historical cliché, that
