Cseri Miklós, Füzes Endre (szerk.): Ház és ember, A Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum évkönyve 14. (Szentendre, Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, 2001)
SZABÓ SAROLTA: Szabolcs megyei kúrialeírások a 18. századból
DESCRIPTIONS OF MANOR HOUSES IN SZABOLCS COUNTY IN THE 18 th CENTURY There is an increasing importance of historical sources in the research of vernacular architecture, since they furnish data for the research of such periods, which are no more accessible for the present day ethnological research. The so-called testimony documents provide important data to the research of the architecture of the nobility and gentry in the 18 th century. We find in the Archives of Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county, among the documents of the feudal period, those testimonies, which describe the manors and other buildings on the same plot of land and provide also an assessment. The documents were written in the course of legal proceedings but they were removed from the original material at the end of the 18 lh century - for reasons unknown to us - therefore, it is not always clear, for what purpose they were made. We present hereafter 6 testimonies, written between 1773 and 1884 in former villages of Szabolcs county. The introduction was always in Latin, but the actual description was always drafted in Hungarian. The testimonies provide data on the walls of the dwelling houses and other buildings standing on the land, further, on the structure of the roof, on the material of the roof, on the characteristics of the heating system, of windows and doors, on the smoke lead, and we find references to the arrangement of the ground-plan. The assessors (mostly millers, joiners) defined exactly how much and what kind of wood was used for the rafters and the collar-beam, what covered the roof, what were the walls, the chimney, the floor, the doors and the windows made from and which kind of heating system was installed. The importance of the research of the architecture of the nobility in Szabolcs county is due to the fact that a considerable number of noblemen lived in this region at the end of the 18 lh century. The proportion of the nobles in Szabolcs county exceeded the average in Hungary, being 13% of the society of the county. The number of noble families was 1 434 in 1774. 206 of them had serfs and 905 families owned a manor and land. There are relatively few medium-estate owners and big landowners. Most of the noblemen were poor or had only modest property. Their proportion within the nobility was 61%. They enjoyed the advantages of their social status but their way of life didn't differ much from that of the peasants. The members of this extremely differentiated strata of society served as an example and as an intermediate for the peasants in every aspects of life. The word "curia" (manor) was used originally to refer to the land of a nobleman, later it was applied for the manor built on the land. With my lecture I want to draw the attention of the researchers to the use of the testimonies as complementary source. The collection and the sytematic examination of the testimonies can contribute to the better knowledge of the historical layers of the vernacular architecture.
