Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 15. 1974 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1976)

Irodalom – Bescprechungen - Lukács László: V. Frolec, Tradieni vinařstvi na Moravě. XV, 1974. p. 255–257.

for the one-story press-houses in the Hodonin region in Moravia, since they are also built on banks or slopes. In Moravia the press-house in the vineyard often functions as a temporary residence. When the ripening grapes had to be guarded or later, during the vine-pressing, the vine-grower passed the night in the vineyard or eventually, when he was surprised by bad wheather. In wartime the whole family could use the press-house as shelter. It should be noted here that in September 1848 Croatian troops occupied the village of Pákozd (County Fejér) and most of the villagers fled into the press-houses of the so called outer vineayrds (Hung. Külső-szőlő) which was held by the Hungarian Army. Press-houses could be also used as shelter in the era of religious persecutions. In Zámoly (County Fejér) the babies were christened in the press-house of the Calvinist church when the Calvinists were persecuted. In Moravia people sometimes settled down in press-houses on account of housing shortage, a process that can be observed in Hungary too, and was described by A. V a j к a i in the vineyrads of Cserszeg tomaj (County Veszprém) and by L. Dám in those of Hajdúböszörmény (County Hajdu). The mediaeval vineyards of Székesfehérvár (Öreghegy = Hung, old hill) have also become a residential quarter during the last century. The second chapter of the volume deals with the unwritten laws and the customs of Moravian viticulture. Traditional viticulture was actually ruled by numerous legal customs, with an incontestable correlation existing between mediaeval laws and present customs. The decline of any given form of viticulture resulted in that region in the disintegration of legal conditions and customs. It may be noted here that in the Tokaj wine-district it was compulsory to hoe the vine four times before the vintage, a rule that was valid as late as the first decades of this century; any violation was fined. To-day there is no rule on hoeing for the small vineyards of that region. The Moravian vineyard statutes include the specification of labour, of taxes, of fines and punishments, the organizational rules, the rights and duties of the office-holders. V. F г о 1 e с mentions several coincidences and also some differences in these statutes. The differences permitted to distinguish two types of Moravian vineyrad statutes: 1. those of ^idlochovice and 2. those of Mikulov. The main difference can be observed in the punishments inflicted upon the trespassers. Capital punishment was practically non-existent in the Mikulov-type statutes, while those of Zidlochovice were characterized by corporal punishments including the penalty of death. There are several analogies to be found between Moravian vineyard statutes and the Bohemian, Lower Austrian, Slovak, Hungarian, German and Dalmatian statutes. The similarities were due to the identity of the working processes and to the ambition of securing a maximum yield. The Moravian vineyard statutes were probably the model for the Vine Law promulgated by Charles the Fourth in 1368 in Bohemia. The Slovak and Moravian vineyard statutes have developed in interaction with the Lower Austrian rules. It should be noted that the customs attached to the works of the crop year took their origin mostly from the obligatory and most often written rules with binding force for the whole community. Such rules could be framed by the community itself, by the landlord or the church. The Moravian vineyard statutes are a good example for the development of legal customs. On the one hand, the legal customs developed from the nation-wide laws ruling the production of the entire population and, on the other hand, from popular customs with regional differences. Z. Új vary has recently published vineyard statutes of the 19

th с from Nagycétény (Czecho-Slovakia, formerly County Nyitra) (Z. Új vary: Szőlőhegyi jogszoszokások Nagycétényben. Varia Folkloristica, Debrecen, 1975, 123-128). The possession of vineyards was no privilege of any social class in Moravia either; noblemen, clergymen, burghers and peasants had equally the right to possess a vineyard

. This right was notl imited to the inhabitants of a city or a village, residents of far-off districts could also be vineyard owners. The burghers of Brno possessed for instance many vineyards in the fine wine-growing areas. I. V i n с z e has observed in Hungary that there were more seignorial caves around a village in a fine wine-growing district than there were landowners living in that village, since some of the vineyards belonged to landowners residing for away. There were especially many foreign vineyard owners in the Tokaj district (extraneus) because the possession of a vineyard in this famous winegrowing area certainly enhanced the prestige of the owner. A. V a j к a i observed that the lower part of vineyards on the Balaton Highlands belonged to the villagers of the Balaton shores while the upper part belonged to inhabitants of rather distant villages. In Moravia the vineyards were guarded by the vineguards selected by the entire community. For the time of their appointment the vine-guards were invested with a rather considerable power (they carried arms), at the same time there were strictly controlled by the community. We might cite here an example of the control of vine-guards concerning in a way semiotics as well : In Sukoró (County Fejér) the vine-guards used to go the round of the vineyards by night too, drawing a line on the soil in front of the doors or leaning a stick against the door as an evidence of there presence there. At night the «vine-mayor» called the vine-guards with his three-toned pipe and they answered him also with their pipes. In Moravia it was the custom to close the vineyards («zarázeni hory») when the grapes ripened; this was to prevent unauthorized people from entering the vineyards immediately prior to vintage. The third chapter of the book is on the folklore of viticulture in Southern Moravia. The presence of many small owners was representative of Moravian winedistrict. Viticulture became the main occupation of peasantry, where the vineyards represented at least half of all arable land. In the first half of the 20

th с there were such zones in Moravia in the districts of Mikulov, Znojmo and, to a smaller extent, of Hustopeöe. In such regions the vineyard owners had a privileged position within the rural or urban community. Although the guild-type organization of vineyard owners was by far not as important in Moravia as it was in Bohemia, Slovakia and Lower Austria, there is evidence already from the 16

th e. that the Moravian vineyard owners also associated in guild-like corporations, each one with its own seal and emblem. According to V. F г о 1 e с the basic elements of folk culture and life-style are the same in the wine-growing villages as in those with no viticulture. It is mainly in the field of the working methods, the implements and the buildings where the elements of the material culture are different, whereas the differences in food and wearing are far less important. On the other hand, we may observe among the vine-growers the conscience of belonging to an enthnographical unit consisting of the vine-growing villages. As a matter of course, the customs related to viticulture play an important role within the annual cycle of customs in viticultural regions. According to V. Frolec the vine-growers practised these customs with the intention of securing the vine-harvest, dependent as it was from the vicissitudes of wheather, with irrational means as well. Such customs included the processions around the vineyards, supplications for successful vintage, the consecration of wine-casks and the invocation of patron saints. In Moravia the most popular patron saints of the wine-growers are St. Urban and St. Vincent others may the object of local veneration, such as St. John the Evangelist, St. John the Baptist, St. Bartholomew, St. Medardus, St. Donatus, St. Floianus, St. Lawrence, St. Hubertus and others. In the cult of these saints the folk creeds and customs include several elements which do not belong to the system of the official Catholic religion. Let us cite in this connection an example from Adony and another from 256