Acta Papensia 2002 - A Pápai Református Gyűjtemények Közleményei 2. évfolyam (Pápa, 2002)
1-2. szám - Műhely - Benda Gyula: Írni tudás és iskola
Műhely SUMMARY GYULA BENDA Literacy and school The author elaborated the testaments (approx 300) as part of his social-historical monograph of Keszthely, assembled the list of the municipal magistracy (scrutinizing whether they could sign their names), and he also elaborated the secondary grammar school students’ register of Keszthely (establishing the parents’ social characteristics with the students bom in Keszthely). In the course of the analysis, he made use of the experiences of the micro-historical research work (family reconstitution, generation lineage, biographies.) The study sets out from the earlier analyses works written by Ferenc Király (Literacy in 1838) and Csaba Sasfi (Students from Keszthely) and used their conclusions. Results: the examination of the signatures of the taxpaying and noble heads of families could become possible with the help of the contract signed between the township and its squire (1838). According to these 53 per cent of the artisans signed their names. The degree of the literacy was the highest in smaller trades (79 per cent). Altogether there were 19 people who worked in the joiner’s, honeybread- baker’s, house-painter’s, chirurgeon’s, stone-cutter’s, tinker’s, locksmith’s, watchmaker’s, organ-builder’s, baker’s, gun-smith’s, sieve maker’s, giazier’s trade and 15 out of the 19 artisans could write. The rate was much worse among the most populous market-town trades (bootmaker, hatter, roper, cobbler, tailor, furrier, feltcloak maker, wehster) from among 39 artisans only 22 (56 per cent) signed their names. Literacy variances are not explained by pecuniary (taxational) differences, but there were more peasants with larger estates than smallholders to have signed their names. (27 per cent of the house-owners identified as peasants could sign their names.) Local Jewish traders and artisans from another group, from among whom 52 per cent could sign their names. Testaments (300 ones from 293 persons), on the one hand, confirm these deviations and rates, but on the other hand they show that there was a rapid increase between the second half of the 18th century and the years of 1830-1848. From among male testators, hardly a few signed their names before 1810 (around 5 per cent), but this rate jumps to 40 and 33 per cent respectively after 1810. Among those, who signed their names, we can mostly find artisans (18 out of 33.) Before 1810, every eighth person signed the signatures of their own, than more than 50 per cent (57 per cent after 1830). In contradiction to these, we can only find one or two men from among the ones engaged in family (farmers with work animals or vineyard- owners only) who are literate. Altogether, there were only two women from among half of the overall testators, who signed their own signatures. 180 Acta Papensia II (2002) 1-2.
