Acta Papensia 2002 - A Pápai Református Gyűjtemények Közleményei 2. évfolyam (Pápa, 2002)
1-2. szám - Műhely - Varga J. János: Batthyány I. Ádám és az írásbeliség
Műhely SUMMARY JÁNOS VARGA 1. The state-of-the-art demesne administration of the Batthyány-famíly possessing land-property in Central and West Transdanubia was created by Ádám I. Batthyány in 1633-1634. The tasks of the officials — bailiffs, stewards, intendants, overseers, wine-buttlers, warders, scribes and agents — in the allodial estates were determined by detailed economic instructions. The annually — twice or three times — recorded lists of muster inform us of the armed support of the large estates, the members of the baro- nial private army. Their study can bring light to the economic and military organizations of large estates together with their operations. Other types of records, like the Correspondence with Officials, the County Squire’s Family and the Documents of the Household and the Book of Contracts (Liber Conventionum) together with the Bailiffs’ Accounts and the Payment Rolls form a rich store of information relating to the support, financial and in-kind payment of the more than half a thousand strong personnel and almost 2,300 strong military employed in four estate centres (Dobra- Rakicsány, Körmend, Németújvár and Rohonc-Szalonak). The petition-abstracts of the Batthyány Archives (Supplicationum merita) create a unique series of documents. About five and a half thousands of genuine data of serfs and estate-employees and soldiers were collected by the bailiffs, through recording the names and the addresses of the petitioners briefly summarizing the cases and the justification of the petitions. The landlord put his personal standpoint below the remarks, or asked his officials for further information in order to bring a just decision. These sources are documents of unparalleled value in connection with the everyday lives and problems of baronial subjects together with the relation of the lord and his subjects. The first practical classification of the documents of the large estate of the Batthyány family goes back to the beginning of the 16th century, but it dealt with the charters only. By the beginning of the 17'1' century the corvée-documents may have been systematic, the account books of the estate at Dobra and other records of economic nature. The first comprehensive classification correspondence and account materials kept in Németújvár, Rohonc and Szalonak can be linked to Ádám I. Batthyány, who arranged the records in chronological and internal thematic order. Westem-Transdanubian barons were in lack of „scribbbling fellows” who were familiar with penmanship. In the large estate centre of Németújvár, for example, there were only 6-7 scribes to correspond in Latin, German and Hungarian languages in the 1640s. The slowly modernizing demesne administration, however, was in urgent need of employing more and more agricultural engineers who were equally able to read and write to handle the fairly essential and growing amount of documents. The educated officials employed by Ádám I. Batthány could only meet these Acta Papensia II. (2002) 1-2. 69
