Somogyi Múzeumok Közleményei 14. (2000)

Dátán Cecilia: A kaposvári Rippl-Rónai Múzeum céhes oklevelei

520 DÁTÁN CECÍLIA 2. ábra: Az iratok kiállításának helye és éve The guild document of the Rippl-Rónai Museum in Kaposvár CECÍLIA DÁTÁN The Historical Section of the Rippl-Rónai Museum possesses 29 documents connected to the guilds. These were acquired by the Museum in different periods. What is common in them is that to a greater part they originate from the territories of Western Transdanubian, and are related to the profession of the butchers. The documents can be dated between 16921872, so the material embraces a 180 years out of the 500 years long history of guilds, from the end of the Turkish rule until the abolishment of guilds. Bearing in mind their scanty number and accidental selection they are not suitable to conclude general deductions. It is however possible to classify these facts from different point of view according to their arrangement. Though the first documented occurrence of guilds in Hungary dates from 1367, the major part of artisans worked outside the guilds as late as the second half of the XV. century. Due to the Turkish rule and the Liberty movements, more definable development can be detected after the peace treaty of Szatmár (1711), as this fact can be read from our documents. In other countries by this time the guild industry already started to disintegrate. Due to becoming inheritable and the high prices, as well as the various measures, the guild industry gradually fell into the hands of the wealthy families. This is directly verified from the names enumerated in our documents. Due to the anti guild movements in Hungary, in 1872 the guilds were abolished. Our last document dates from the same year. We have only a few data about how these documents were acquired by the Museum. F. Gönczi collected a few. He turned to the industrial corporations as well, asking for guild material, but could not give an account of any result. The primary aim of the collection is to save the original text of these documents, - or at least what is left from them, - from final decay, and preserve them for possible future research and elaboration.