Levéltári Közlemények, 63. (1992)

Levéltári Közlemények, 63. (1992) 1–2. - Fügedi Erik: IV. Béla adományai és a szóbeliség / 39–52. o.

52 Fügedi Erik THE DONATIONS OF KING BÉLA IV AND THE PRACTICE OF WRITTEN RECORD KEEPING Erik Fugedi Erik Fügedi seeks here to illuminate the question of how King Béla IV was able to rule the Hungary of his time, whose population was almost completely illiterate. How was the high documentary quality of the Hungarian royal chancery compatible with the fact that it existed in an essentially oral culture? With regard to administrative procedure, an examination of the registers provides the best answer to this question: which matters were decided orally, which ones in writing, where was the border between written and oral culture. The temporal frame of the analysis is the quarter century of king Béla IV's reign between 1245 and 1270. The ten preceding years did not seem suitable because of the Tatar invasion. The author begins his study with a statistical analysis of the various forms of registration that appear in chancery terminology: assignare, introducere, statuere. Then, he presents in a table and evaluates the social status of the registering officials (the homines regit) and the place of registration by county. He concludes on the basis of the letters of presentation that during the examined period king Béla IV bestowed estates orally, but these acts were carefully recorded in writing by his chancery. Since the gift attained lasting legal validity only upon being registered on the spot, the king generally entrusted this registration to the local county comes, except when the ispán had to act in the case. But persons of high social station were invested with their new properties by high ecclesiastical or royal dignitaries. Clerics always reported on the act of registration in writing (at times examining the estate boundaries themselves). Among the secular officials, those of higher social status had an advantage, being able to employ a scribe or the services of a chapter or monastery for this purpose. To supplement the testimony of secular delegates reporting orally, the king sometimes called upon the nearest notary office. Its representative then confirmed the act of the homo regius. The most important characteristic of the estate were its boundaries, which the homo regius, witnessing neighbors and boundary registrars were obliged to bear in mind. The idea that this should be recorded in writing arose already in this period, giving a taste of later developments. That is: the division of labor between the king and his chancery concerning the act of donation repeated itself on the level of practical execution, between the homo regius and the literate representative of the notary office.