A Pest Megyei Levéltár. Levéltárismertető (Budapest, 2004)

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

1880-1960 practically completely. Starting from 1837 amongst the student registrations (progress reports, birth certificates) several volumes contain diaries of János Arany, the great Hungarian poet, who was later the denominator of the school and was teaching in this school for nine years. We consider the sell-study group records and competitive designs mainly written in the 19

th century as rare curiosities. The registered documents and records of the Nagykőrös Teachers' College, operating from 1837 until 1957 came to our archive incomplete until the end of World War II. The preliminary sources are substituted by the completely preserved series of school almanacs between 1858 and 1947. The town of Vác became a school town after the Ottoman occupation. In 1714 the Piarist Teaching Order, or Piarists settled here and run their grammar school until the nationalisation in 1948. Among the famous students of the school were the following: philologist Antal Bartal, politician Pál Hajnik, painter Károly Lotz, writer Imre Madách, heraldist Iván Nagy, historian Jakab Rupp, local historian Ignác Tragor and engineer Kornél Zelovich. The other nation-wide known institute of Vác town, established as the fourth one in Europe and the first in Hungary is the Vác Royal National Institute for the Deaf and Mute; its archive survived from the establishment in 1802. The institute also established a girl and boy occupational institute at the beginning of the 20

th century; their documents are also being kept in our Archives. Beside secondary schools, material from almost 200 state- and clerical- primary and civil schools came to the safekeeping of our Archives, but many times from one school only a few centimetres. These are mainly birth certificates, school entrance, progress and omission reports, almanacs, master books. Documents of economic public schools, farmer schools, apprentice schools, vocational sclwols and nursery schools can be found in this archive unit, but they are mostly very small. MAIN ARCIIIVH UNI'I IX - BODIHS Archives of guilds, hidustry associations, industrial bodies, pasturage, forest owners, water management associations, mountain settlements, and some public associations belong here. Their total length is approx. 150 linear meters. In the area of Pest County the craft union documents of two towns', Nagykőrös and Vác survived the best: we are keeping fragmentary documents of 13 and 15 crafts. The craftsmen of the same craft in order the save their interests, to keep themselves and their work appreciated, to utilise the power of unification for their craft and to eliminate competition united in guilds. They precisely defined their internal life by establishing and keeping their own rules. The documents of the guild used to be held in exquisite guild chests, which nowadays are precious treasures of the museums. The industry of Nagykőrös town started to boom due to the increase in the population during the Ottoman thraldom at the beginning of the 17

rh century. According to our sources, the earliest guild was that ol the tailors' in 1617, followed by the furriers' 184