C. Tóth Norbert (szerk.): Documenta ad historiam familiae Bátori de Ecsed spectania I. Diplomata 1393-1540 - A nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum kiadványai 67. (Nyíregyháza, 2011)
Előszó
Preface CHARTERS OF THE BÁTORI FAMILY OF ECSED 1393-1540 There are serious debts to be paid by the Hungarian late medieval research, the most important of them being the lack of political biographies. Moreover, the comprehensive exploration of the history of noble families playing decisive role in the kingdoms government has been neglected, too. Before the Reader would think that our goal was to emphasise especially the political history, the genealogy of the noble families and the history of their possessions, we have to declare: this is not the case - despite to all of our intentions. Instead of the researchers, the structure of the sources itself allows the prevalence of these themes. Whether our age likes it or not, the overwhelming majority of the medieval Hungarian sources are the charters, especially the documents preserved in the archives of noble families. The potentials and, of course, the limits of our studies are determined based on this latter fact. In lucky cases, as is in the present volume, the recognition of the research limits is followed by the exploration and exploitation of potentials. Therefore, the authors of this chartulary - and especially Péter Németh who intensively inspired them - decided to research systematically the medieval history of the Ecsed branch of the Bátori family. Considering the huge amount of their estates, their political and spiritual role, and - last but not least - the architectural heritage linked to them, the Bátoris belonged among the most important families of Hungary during the 15th and 16th cc. The publication of the present volume marks a decisive moment of the more than five years old research on the history of the Ecsed branch of the Bátori family. Interested readers could get an idea on this research reviewing a number of books and studies published in the recent years. The series of works on the Ecsed branch of the Bátori family, originating from the Gutkeled kindred, started in 2005 when Péter Németh dealt with the origin of the Bátoris in two of his articles.1 A new impetus on this research was given by the art historic analysis by Szilárd Papp who studied the St. George church of Nyírbátor. He suggested several hypotheses including new elements on the construction of the church.2 The first partial results of research on Bátoris were published in the quarterly Szabolcs-szatmár-beregi Szemle (2006:3), in a jubilee edition dedicated to this family. In this issue, István Draskóczy wrote about the privileges of market-town Nyírbátor; Richárd Horváth examined the origin of the castle estates of the family; while Tibor Neumann studied the fight for the estates of the Meggyesaljai Móroc family, which went on with the Somlyó branch of the Bátori family and with the Perényis and the Drágfis. Based on later events, the author of this preface outlined the state of possessions of the Ecsed branch after the death of István Bátori Senior, iudex curiae regiae (the supreme judge of the Royal Court). Finally, we should mention the comment on Szilárd Papp’s article written by Péter 'A Bátori család eredetéről. In: Hagyomány és változás a népi kultúrában. Tanulmányok a hatvan esztendős Dám László tiszteletére. Nyíregyháza 2005. 21-33. and Egy hős és felmenői. In: Szabolcs-szatmár-beregi Levéltári Évkönyv 17. (2006) 292-305. 2A királyi udvar építkezései Magyarországon 1480-1515. Balassi Kiadó, Budapest, [2006.] 194-200.
