Marcu-Istrate, Daniela - Rusu, Adrian Andrei - Szőcs Péter Levente (szerk.): Arhitectura religioasă medievală din Transilvania 3. (Satu Mare, 2004)
Alexandru Baboş: Invisible features in the Design of the Timber Curches of Maamureş
Alexandru BABOŞ The present practice in Maramureş, however, no longer provides information about the yearned old systems and the sizes of their units. In order to continue this approach, the research must be widened to the old Hungarian metrology, opening an intricate labyrinth of systems, units and sizes. The Romanian literature is sparse in this sense. The main unit to measure the length in Transylvania, during the 16lh and 17lh centuries, was the royal fathom, establ ished by the Tripartitum (1514) as 16 times a line of 18 cm, resulting 2,88 m.9 Another measurement-unit was mentioned as the Transylvanian ell, which was about 62,3 cm at the end of the 18th century.10 A century earlier, there were no less than 4 regional standards for the ell. One of these was the standard of Oradea, used in the Hungarian parts annexed to Transylvania {Partium), including Maramureş. The access to the old Hungarian metrology was considerably widened through the laborious research of the Hungarian historian: István Bogdán. In the centre of his work, stays the royal system,which, for a long time in the history of the Hungarian Kingdom, served as a reference length-measure against the various regional, local and trade specific systems. Apart from the royal system, there were used also the common system, the Transylvanian system, the Bratislava system, the Viennese (Austrian) system, the fortification system, the navigation system, the building system, the surveying system, the riding system, the road system, the mining system, the map-drawing system, the tailoring system, the textile system, the printing system and, not at least, a number of local systems. Within this large spectrum of systems, there were chronological and geographical changes. Moreover, the information about each of these systems ranges from complex descriptions to simple notices of their existence. In the attempt to determine the length-units, used by the carpenters in Maramureş, it appears as the most tempting the building-, the Transylvanianand the royal system. Unfortunately, the first two systems are not known too much. In addition, the building system belonged more to the Middle Ages, while the Transylvanian system was unified only in the 18lh century. On the other hand, the royal system presents several unique advantages: it was used during a long period, in the entire kingdom, and repeatedly regulated by law. For this reason there is a great probability to find a relevant agreement between the dimensions of the wooden churches and the units of the royal system. The royal system (fig. 1) is said to be established by the king Saint Stephen, the ‘founding-father’ of the Hungarian Kingdom. The most important 9 N. Stoicescu, Cum măsurau strămoşii — metrologia medievală pe teritoriul României, Bucureşti 1971, 46, with references to David Prodan, Iobăgia din Transilvania, I, Bucureşti 1967, 176, footnote nr. 27. Prodan used an edition from 1899, of the Collection of Hungarian laws (Tripartitum) compiled in 1514. 10 N. Stoicescu, Cum măsurau strămoşii, 85—86. 290
