A Pest Megyei Levéltár. Levéltárismertető (Budapest, 2004)

Seventeen thousand meters of historical source/Introduction of the main archives

jurisdiction but from early years not only court cases were discussed at the meetings. The separation of public and small-scale meetings handling verdict lawcourt and other public administration cases took place in the 17-18

th century. Two sections were gradually formed within the lawcourt: one of them handled the civil, while the other dealt with the criminal cases. The civil servants of the county and the parliament ministers had been appointed at the time of the general assemblies. The ministers had been given important instructions regarding the standpoints to be represented by them during legislation at the meetings. The laws, royal orders and the governor council decrees were announced at the general assemblies. The prices of agricultural and industrial products were determined. Also the nobility awarding charters and other deeds were announced and acknowledged during these meetings. The arrangements of the associate authorities and the reports of civil servants were also discussed here. Stands were taken up in petitions submitted, and the taxes determined for the county were announced. The county has also the right to refuse execution of higher level orders, decrees that they considered unlawful, and they could explain the decision to the monarch. Since until the 19

th century the prevailing parliament did not rule the operation of the county government and the public administration issues, with the exception of some individual cases, these being handled by the municipal authorities, which had created their own regulations. Reports were made about the meetings but there was only a brief summary of the cases and the related adjudication contained in them. Therefore there is no vestige of the proceedings or debates in the reports. The adjudication was put onto the written document belonging to it. Later on these written documents were classified into different documentgroups based on formal characteristics and then their content, and they had been stored this way. The cases discussed at the so called small meetings had to be introduced at the next convention, therefore the convention written documents contain also the topics of the small meetings. Anyone interested in this age, the 17—18

th century, and would like to learn more about a specific topic or history of a settlement, has to review not only the report but also all the materials belonging to the reports. Before and during the Turkish invasion a considerable number of inhabitants together with the county authority had escaped. The public administration was operating first in Heves County, then in Nógrád County, in the town of Fülek. The documents were stored in the castle. That is the place where they were destroyed, as mentioned before, during the 1682 battle. Following chasing the Turks out and moving back, the documents had been stored first in the Buda, then in the Pest headquarters from 1697. The number of documents was significantly increasing from the middle of the 18

th century. The documents were organized and classified retrospectively to the order of Joseph II. The documents created before 1783 are still stored in the order made then, and their studies are being carried out according to the orders and indexes ofthat age. 162