The National Archives of Hungary (Budapest, 2006)
Recommendation of the President of the Hungarian Republic
A MAGYAR KÖZTÁRSASÁG ELNÖKE RECOMMENDATION T he use of written records marks the beginning of a new era in history as man was able to stop time by the act of writing. He recorded the past and made it knowable for the generations to follow. Notes recorded on papyrus, membrane or parchment by our ancestors made it possible that thousand-year-old information remained available in its original form irrespective of the natural changes arising from speech. Authentic data were handed down from generation to generation by deliberately preserved documents, without which the functioning of our society for over a thousand years would have been unthinkable, and functioning of the society without these documents has been unthinkable. At an early stage only distinctly important facts were recorded, later on, more and more, sometimes seemingly irrelevant data and notes took lasting form. Preserving and processing this rich heritage of mankind is an imperative necessity, not just in studying history but also in our everyday life. It makes our self-knowledge more objective, keeps alive our memory and broadens our knowledge coming from other historical sources. Documents preserved by the archives are the embodiment of historical remembrance. In the case of a nation, this is the nation's remembrance. For example, we are able to have knowledge of the Admonitiones (Admonitions) by Saint Stephen, who founded the Hungarian Kingdom on the basis of European values, or one of the oldest constitutions, the Golden Bull from the beginning of the 13th century, carefully preserved from archival documents. At the same time, the collected material about seemingly quotidian events are similarly of great value for scientific research since they can recreate an authentic picture of everyday life of earlier centuries. At an early era, clerks working for the offices of the main secular dignities of local communities and institutions affiliated with the church recorded
