Piti Ferenc - C. Tóth Norbert - Neumann Tibor: Szatmár megye hatóságának oklevelei (1284-1524) - A nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum kiadványai 65. (Nyíregyháza, 2010)
Előszó
FOREWORDS This This volume contains more than four hundred documents issued by the authorities of Szatmár county.1 The present collection of documents is the final piece of a series which contains all the written sources which have come down to us from the medieval county authorities of the region; the documents of Szabolcs county in two volumes (until 1386 and 1387-1526)2 and the documents of Bereg3 (and Ugocsa4) counties in two separate volumes have already appeared. Despite significant differences, these counties share an important common feature: the only “place of authentication” on the territories of Szabolcs, Szatmár, Bereg and Ugocsa counties was the county court of justice, in Latin the sedes iudiciaria. On the territory covered by these four counties there was no locus credibilis, which of course does not mean that it remained outside the territorial competence of the neighbouring convents or chapters. In these four counties the convent of Lelesz and the chapter of Várad fulfilled the role of locus credibilis and these two ecclesiastic institutions were visited by the inhabitants of the region to have those affairs set in a written form which needed legal authentication.5 It was so before all because the county courts of justice (sedria) mostly dealt with the inquisitions and discussions of the minor disputes among the local nobility and the violent actions they committed against each other. From the middle of the Angevin period they also took part in the execution of judicial orders sent from the royal court. However, final decision was rarely reached, for one of the parties generally had the case transmitted to one of the forums of the royal court. What did a noble county look like? The change from royal counties to noble counties started in the last decades of the 13th century. This process naturally took years or decades in the particular counties to be completed.6 As far as it can be told, the idea of the establishment 1 The collection of the documents was enabled by the A középkori Magyarország levéltári forrásainak adatbázisa - Database of archival documents of medieval Hungary (http://mol.arcanum.hu/dldf/opt/ a091002.htm?v=pdf&a=start) of the Hungarian National Archives. 2 Pm Ferenc: Szabolcs megye hatóságának oklevelei I. (1284-1386) A nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum kiadványai 55. Ed.. Németh Péter. Szeged-Nyíregyháza, 2004. és C. Tóth Norbert: Szabolcs megye hatóságának oklevelei II. (1387-1526) Anyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum kiadványai 53. Ed. Németh Péter. Budapest-Nyíregyháza, 2003 3 Neumann Tibor: Bereg megye hatóságának oklevelei 1299-1526. (A Szabolcs-szatmár-beregi Szemle Füzetei no. 3.) Nyíregyháza 2006. 4 C. Tóth Norbert: Ugocsa megye hatóságának oklevelei (1290-1526) (A Magyar Tudományos Akadémia-Magyar Országos Levéltár Zsigmondkori Oklevéltár Kutatócsoport kiadványa) Budapest, 2006 5 C. Tóth Norbert: Adatok a megyék és a hiteleshelyek közötti viszonyra a 14. és 15. században. Századok 136. (2002) 351-364 6 On the working of the counties and its periodisation see Tringli István: Megyék a középkori Magyarországon. „Honoris causa.” Tanulmányok Engel Pál emlékére. (MTA TTI Társadalom- és művelődéstörténeti tanulmányok 40. - Analecta Mediaevalia III.) Budapest-Piliscsaba, 2009. 487-518. - Recently, the working of the county was illustrated upon the example of Hunyad county in W. Kovács András: Administraţia comitatului Hunedoara în evul mediu. Sargetia (Acta Musei Devensis) 35-36. (2007-2008) 203-240 17
