Piti Ferenc - C. Tóth Norbert - Neumann Tibor: Szatmár megye hatóságának oklevelei (1284-1524) - A nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum kiadványai 65. (Nyíregyháza, 2010)
Előszó
period, parallel to the increasing role of the alispán in the county.22 In the early 15lh century, it was replaced by a new, occasional forum of justice, that is, the interrogation of witnesses in the form of a proclaimed assembly (proclamata congregaţie). In practice, the neighbours and abutters of a given piece of property under dispute, and the nobles of the county in general, were questioned under oath, in the presence of a royal man a nd a witness sent by one of the places of authentication, about the case in point. The other type of assembly has traditionally been refered to in historiography as palatine assembly, but I would rather propose the term of judicial assembly. On these occasions “one of the chief judges of the country, another baron or ispán, having summoned the population of several counties upon royal order or without it, settled legal disputes locally”.23 As for the community (universitas) of the nobility of Szatmár county, in our period their judicial assembly was always held together with the nobles of Ugocsa County.24 The leader of the assembly was helped in jurisdiction by the county authorities and by 12 jurors elected from the ranks of the nobility. On the form of publication of the documents. In the present collection of documents we intended to publish all the documents issued by the authorities of Szatmár county, whether exactly dated or lacking the indication of the year. Alongside the documents issued by the county, we also publish the written orders addressed to the county as well as other charters transcribed by and organically connected to the charter of the county, always in strict chronological order. Yet those orders to which the county’s answer is not known (because it has been lost or the order remained unexecuted), were left out of consideration. The volume starts with a list of abbreviations used in the abstracts and the bibliography, followed by the complete archontology of the county authority (ispán, alispán, noble judges, notaries and jurors elected after 1486). The abstracts are written in Hungarian, but the texts that appear to be important from a certain aspect and the documents issued by the county universitas are published in Latin, the original language of the sources. Under the text of the source, information concerning the material of the document and the way of sealing is offered, and the notes found on the backside of the document, outside the address, are given, all in small letters. Finally, there follows the archival registry number of the document. Although many of these documents have already been published in abstract or in extenso, we have prepared similar abstracts of them as of the rest of the documents, because of the character of the present publication. The relevant publications are always given at the end of the apparatus. In order to enhance its usefulness, the volume is provided with a detailed index of personal and geographical names, as well as a general one. An index of archival registry numbers is also offered at the end. Norbert C. Tóth 22 Comp, in Szabolcs county. C. Tóth: Szabolcs megye működése 142 23 Tringli IstvAn: Pest megye a késő középkorban. Pest Megye Monográfiája 1/2. A honfoglalástól 1686- ig. edited by Attila Zsoldos with István Torma’s co-operation. Budapest, 2001.75-194.; 172 24 Gábor Gyula: A megyei intézmény alakulása és működése Nagy Lajos alatt. Budapest, 1908. 127-139 20
