With their series ‘Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy’ the editors, Anna Adamska and Marco Mostert, are widening the horizon of urban history for mainstream scholars with command of only English, French, Italian and German languages. Edited volumes on ‘Literate Mentalities in East Central Europe’, ‘Writing and the Administration of Medieval Towns’ and ‘Uses of the Written Word in Medieval Towns’, and monographs on Scandinavia, Sweden, Serbia and Poland deal with or focus on urban literacy in regions which are neither marginal nor under-researched. However, publications in the regions’ own languages, or rather the ignorance of these even in neighbouring countries, for which the present reviewer admits being an example, have limited their impact. Thankfully, due to the Utrecht series, there is no excuse for that any more.
In the latest addition to the series, Katalin Szende, one of Hungary's leading medievalists, presents an in-depth overview on the uses of literacy in the government of royal towns in the kingdom of Hungary, including Croatia, Transylvania and present-day Slovakia. A recurrent theme throughout the volume is the concept of trust: trust that signs on parchment, paper or stone can replace the spoken word, and trust that the written word is as binding and secure as a promise, an oath or an order given orally, or even more so. Acceptance and ability to make use of writing had to be developed before it would become everyday practice. Szende sets out by explaining these basic preconditions in theory and in a European perspective, offers an outline of urban development in Hungary and assesses earlier and recent Hungarian studies and source editions. She does not join in the favourite German pastime of discussing how to define a town, as the topic of literacy becomes relevant only in the thirteenth century, when the status of a royal town is defined well enough.
The following five chapters are arranged thematically, starting with the process of townspeople getting used to literacy, first by receiving (and keeping) royal charters and then by issuing charters themselves, or having them written by ecclesiastical authorities entitled to issue ‘authentic charters’ on behalf of others. Privileges obtained, and elected councillors acting in writing on behalf of the community, and the use of seals as common symbols, are shown as playing their part in the forging of communal identity and autonomy. While I have sympathy with not explaining too closely what ‘identity’ means, the contents of the more down-to-earth autonomy might have deserved some discussion. However, the formulary of urban charters and their topics give an idea of its scope. The second pillar of urban literacy is the genre of legal and administrative manuscripts which were written, maintained and used in everyday practice. Their emergence was closely connected to the employment of scribes or notaries by the urban authorities, and finally by the emergence of urban chanceries. The development from a single miscellany containing everything considered memorable to different series of cartularies, protocols, registers and account books is well known from other parts of Europe, whereas there is hardly any medieval urban historiography in Hungary.
The languages used deserve their own chapter. The shift from Latin to vernacular occurred in Hungary just as everywhere else, but the vernacular chosen was chiefly German, even if people spoke Hungarian at least as a second language. Although there were conflicts between the ethnicities in Hungarian towns, the choice of language was a social rather than an ethnic matter. While Szende is rightly relieved that the nationalist biases of earlier research are no longer an issue, recent developments in Hungary cast a chilling doubt upon the future. Another language, Hebrew, appears in the following chapter, if only marginally. Royal privileges for and legal statutes for or against Jews were written as well as contracts between Christians and Jews, often bearing notes in Hebrew. Shared trust in written matter bridging the barrier between the religions was necessary in everyday communication. The last chapter draws the strands together and, after dealing with ‘making’ and ‘using’, concludes with ‘keeping’ of the products of literacy in urban archives, echoing Michael Clanchy's famous catchwords. Even with the book's focus on trust and authority, a chapter on epigraphic documents might have been an interesting addition.
The book closes with general comparisons and considerations, useful tables of early charters issued by royal and episcopal towns, first mentions of urban notaries and a list of medieval municipal books in Hungary, an ample bibliography and an index of names. It is safe to predict that it will remain a point of reference for Hungarian and international comparative research on urban literacy for a long time to come.
