The National Archives of Hungary (Budapest, 2006)

NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL ARCHIVES OF NATIONAL COLLECTION - Hungarian National Archives by Géza Érszegi and István G. Vass

of the parliament and instituted the collection of the documents so as to ensure the laws of the country. Authentic copies of these laws can be found up to present day. The Archives of the courts, (1869 - O section) were formed from the documents of the courts of Hungary. Some go back to the 16

th and 17

th centuries but become continuous mainly from the beginning of the 18

th century. The Hungarian Royal Court Forum includes two higher court bodies: at the highest level the Septemvirate and under it the Royal Court of Appeal. The Archives of the Chief Justice include the documents of the royal chief justice prothonotary and of the seat of chief justice.The palatine and lord chief justice prothonotary archives include the documents of verdicts of palatines and those of the lord chief justices. The seat of the 'harvest' treasurer seat was of the high court of citizens to royal free boroughs. Originally the 'harvest' treasurer was the treasurer of the king in the 13

th century. His task was divided into two in the 14

th century The tasks of the treasury were done by the treasurer and from that point on the 'harvest' treasurer became the chief justice of the towns. After the battle of Mohács, 1526, the 'harvest' treasurer tribunal became a fixed institution in the second half of the 16

th century. The main architects of its design and management can be said to be a permanent institution at the beginning of the 17

th century. Its operation up to 1848 was decided by the 'harvest' treasurer section of 1602. The lower sentencing was done by district courts of appeal, the seats of which were located in the towns of Nagyszombat, Kőszeg, Eperjes and Debrecen in 1723. The archives of families, bodies and institutions, (1526 - P section), were continuously incorporated to the Hungarian National Archives. The one-time archives of the Hungarian National Museum were incorporated, too, but they have increased greatly since then. The archives of major landowners figure prominently above the other hundreds of family archives: Balassi, Batthyány, Bethlen, Csáky, Dessewffy Esterházy, Festetich, Forgách, Hapsburg, Károlyi, Orczy, Széchényi, Teleki, Zichy etc. The archives of middle landed and small landed nobility also include significant and important data: Berzeviczy Kállay Lónyay, Máriássy etc. The archives of small landed nobility are also significant: Almássy, Antos, Ányos, Balassa, Becsky, Békássy, Bezerédi, Blagay Bogyay, Dőry Gál, Gyulay Horváth, Kapy Pelethey, Viczay and Khuen-Héderváry Kisfaludy, Kossuth, Kölesei, Kubinyi, Mérey, Nényey, Ostffy Perényi, Semsey, Szulyovszky, Tallián, Thaly Újhelyi, Vécsey, Wattay etc. The row of institutions is long and varied. The archives of counties: Szatmár, Szilágy, Udvarhely, towns Besztercebánya, Eperjes, Késmárk, Korpona,