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The new burgher revolution in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century partitioned Hungary∗

2009; Routledge; Volume: 34; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/03071020902879663

1470-1200

Balázs A. Szelényi,

Financial Crisis of the 21st Century

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes ∗Research for this text was conducted in the Hungarian National Archive, the Hungarian National Library, the Municipal and District Archives of Levoča and Košice (Slovakia), the Municipal Archive of Spišská Nová Ves (Slovakia), the Sibiu Branch of the Romanian National Archives, and the Library of Congress. The stories of Daniel Fischer and Emmericus Sonntag appeared in my book Balázs A. Szelényi, The Failure of the Central European Bourgeoisie, 2006, Palgrave Macmillan reproduced with permission of Palgrave Macmillan. 1The list is endless, but for this article I am especially thinking of Alexander Cowan, The Urban Patriciate: Lübeck and Venice, 1580–1700 (Köln, 1986); Jan De Vries, European Urbanization, 1500–1800 (Cambridge, 1984); Christopher R. Friedrichs, Urban Society in an Age of War: Nördlingen, 1580–1720 (Princeton, c. 1979) and also by the same author, The Early Modern City, 1450–1750 (London, 1995); David Herlihy, Cities and Society in Medieval Italy (London, 1980) and also by the same author, Medieval and Renaissance Pistoia: The Social History of an Italian Town, 1200–1430 (New Haven, 1967); Paul Hohenberg and Lynn Hollen Lees, The Making of Urban Europe, 1000–1950 (Cambridge, 1985); Steven Ozment, The Bürgermeister's Daughter: Scandal in a Sixteenth-Century German Town (New York, 1996) and also by the same author, The Reformation in the Cities: The Appeal of Protestantism to Sixteenth-Century Germany and Switzerland (New Haven, 1975); Tom Scott, Freiburg and the Breisgau: Town–Country Relations in the Age of Reformation and Peasants' War (Oxford, 1986) and also by the same author, Society and Economy in Germany, 1300–1600 (Houndmills, 2002); Mack Walker, German Home Towns: Community, State, and General Estate, 1648–1871 (Ithaca, 1971). 2Maria Bogucka, Nicholas Copernicus (Wrocław, 1973) and also by the same author, ‘Between capital, residential town and metropolis: the development of Warsaw in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries’ in P. Clark and B. Lepetit (eds), Capital Cities and their Hinterlands in Early Modern Europe (Aldershot, 1996), 197–210; Erik Fügedi, ‘The demographic landscape of east-central Europe’ in A. Macak, H. Samsonowicz and P. Burke (eds), East-Central Europe in Transition, from the Fourteenth to the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge, 1985), 47–58; Jaroslav Miller, Urban Societies in East-Central Europe, 1500–1700 (Hampshire, 2008); Gernot Nussbächer, Johannes Benkner (Buçuresti, 1988); Maja Philippi, Kronstadt: historische Betrachtungen über eine Stadt in Siebenbürgen (Bukarest, 1996); Balázs A. Szelényi, The Failure of the Central European Bourgeoisie (New York, 2006); see also my article ‘The dynamics of urban development: towns in sixteenth and seventeenth century Hungary’, American Historical Review (April 2004), 360–86. 3R. J. W. Evans, The Making of the Habsburg Monarchy 1550–1700 (Oxford, 1979), 84–5. 4Bálint Hóman and Gyula Szekfu, Magyar történet[History of Hungary] (Budapest, 1943), vol. iii, 498–9, 584. This point was made by Iván T. Berend, in ‘Pach Zsigmond Pál. Egy nagyszabású tudományos életmű’ in Zsigmond Pál Pach, Szürkeposztó, szűrposztó, szűr[Undyed Cloth, Cheap Cloth] (Budapest, 2003), iii–xiv, v. 5Zsigmond Pál Pach, Hungary and the European Economy in Early Modern Times (Aldershot, c. 1994); see also by Pach, Levantine Trade and Hungary in the Middle Ages: Theses, Controversies, Arguments (Budapest, 1975) and The Transylvanian Route of Levantine Trade at the Turn of the 15th and 16th Centuries (Budapest, 1980). 6Ferenc Szakály, Parasztvármegyék a xvii. és xviii. században[Peasant Counties in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries] (Budapest, 1969) and also by the same author, Magyar intézmenyek a török hódoltságban[Magyar Institutions during the Turkish Occupation] (Budapest, 1997); István Rácz, Városlakó nemesek az Alföldön 1541–1848 között[Urbanized Nobles on the Plains from 1541–1848] (Budapest, 1988). 7Hermann Aubin, ‘The lands east of the Elbe and German colonization eastward’, Cambridge Economic History (Cambridge, 1941); Walter Kuhn, Geschichte der deutschen Ostsiedlung in der Neuzeit (Köln, 1955); Herbert Helbig and Lorenz Weinrich (eds), Urkunden und erzählende Quellen zur deutschen Ostsiedlung im Mittelalter (Darmstadt, 1968–70); Walter Schlesinger (ed.), Die deutsche Ostsiedlung des Mittelalters als Problem der europäischen Geschichte (Sigmaringen, 1975). 8Miller, Urban Societies, op. cit., 42. He points out on page 33 of his book that: ‘Historical demographers have suggested that, because of the high mortality rates caused by epidemics, wars, natural catastrophes, and continual problems with hygiene, the natural increase of the urban population was either moderate or nonexistent. Therefore, it was primarily immigration that either produced the rise or compensated for the population losses.’ 9Ozmant, Bürgermeister's Daughter, op. cit., 12. Royal free towns are also known as imperial towns, defended by the Crown. 10Max Weber, ‘Household, neighborhood, and kin group’ in Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich (eds), Max Weber: Economy and Society, trans. Ferdinand Kolegar (Berkeley, 1978), 356–69, especially 359. 11 ibid., 359. 12Henri Pirenne, Early Democracies in the Low Countries (New York, 1963), 53. 13Katalin Szende, Otthon a városban: Társadalom és anyagi kultúra a középkori Sopronban, Pozsonyban és Eperjesen[Home in the City: Society and Material Culture in Medieval Sopron, Pozsony, and Eperjes] (Budapest, 2004). 14Walker, German Home Towns, op. cit. 15In 1583 Matthias Fronius (1522–88) composed the Eigenlandrecht der Siebenbürger Sachsen, the book of law that governed the Transylvanian Saxon towns until 1853. 16Nussbächer, Johannes Benkner, op. cit.; Philippi, Kronstadt, op. cit.; see also Harald Roth (ed.), Kronstadt: eine siebenbürgische Stadtgeschichte(München, 1999). 17F. Teutsch, Die Siebenbürger Sachsen in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart (Leipzig, 1916), 74. 18Sándor Münnich, Melichior Genersich ein Schullehrerleben vor 400 Jahren (Igló, 1878); Kálmán Demkó, ‘A szepesi jog keletkezése és viszonya országos jogunkhoz és a németországi anyajoghoz’[‘The origins and relationship of Scepius law to Hungarian and German law’] in Értekezések Szepes Vármegye Múltjából [Essays on the History of Szepes County] (Levoca, 1891), 1–41. 19David P. Daniel, ‘Hungary’ in Andrew Pettegree (ed.), The Early Reformation in Europe (Cambridge, 1992), 49–69, especially 56. 20 ibid., 58. 21 ibid., 59. 22This was the famous Henckel family, known as the Henkels in the United States. On the US branch of the family, see Albert Sydney Edmonds, ‘The Henkels. Early printers in New Market, Virginia, with a bibliography’, William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, second series, xviii, 2 (April 1938), 174–95. 23Daniel Liechty, Andreas Fischer and the Sabbatarian Anapaptists (Scottsdale, 1988), 88 and 93. 24 ibid., 76. 25 ibid., 77. 26 ibid., 79. 27J. Hrandsky, xxiv Plébános testvérterület[The xxiv Pleban Brotherly Territory] (Leutschau, 1895); György Bruckner, A reformációés ellenreformáció története a Szepességben, 1520–1745[The History of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation in Scepius County, 1520–1745] (Budapest, 1922). 28See the excellent studies by Marian Hillar, The Case of Michael Servetus (1511–1553) (Lewiston, NY, 1997); M. Hillar, ‘Laelius and Faustus Socini: founders of Socianism, their lives and theology’, Journal from the Radical Reformation (Spring, 2002); see also Staniszlaw Lubieniecki (1623–1675), History of the Polish Reformation, trans. G. H. Williams (Minneapolis, 1995); George Hunston Williams, Radical Reformation (Philadelphia, 1962). 29Kenneth F. Lewalski, ‘Sigismund I of Poland: Renaissance king and patron’, Studies in the Renaissance, xiv (1967), 49–72, especially 49. 30Besides the work of Marian Hillar, see also Delio Catimori, Eretici italiani del Cinquencento. Ricerche storiche (Firenze, 1967) and Massimo Firpo, Antitrinitari nell'Europa orientale del ‘500: nuovi testi di Szymon Budny, Niccolò Paruta e Iacopo Paleologo (Firenze, 1977). 31Maria Bogucka, Nicholas Copernicus, op. cit., 50. See also the Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw (AGAD), Collection of Parchment Records, no. 5632. The laws were printed by Jan Haller and for his printing services he was given tax exemption for the remainder of his printing career (AGAD, Metryka Koronna, vol. 21, leaf 361). 32Christian Genersich, Merkwürdigkeit der königlichen Freystadt Käisermarkt (Kaschau, 1804); on the history of the Sonntag family, see Daniel Szontágh, Iglói és Zabari Szontágh nemzetség származási története és oklevelei[The History and Documentation of the Spišska Nová Ves and Zabar Sonntag Families] (Budapest, 1864); see also Johann Lipták, Alchimisten, Gottsucher, und Schatzgräber in der Zips (Kesmark, 1938), 28–31. 33Sándor Domanovszky, A szepesi városok árumegállító joga Lőcse és Késmárk, 1358–1570[The Staple Rights of Scepius Towns Levoča and Kežmarok from 1358–1570] (Budapest, 1922). 34Béla Iványi, ‘Késmárkt város lakói és azoknak vagyoni viszonyai 1541-ben’[‘The social composition and wealth of the population of Kežmarok in 1541’], Közlemények Szepes Vármegye Múltjából [Publications on the History of Szepes County] viii (1916), 68–86. 35Genersich wrote that in the House of Plebs, burghers remarked that Emmericus Sonntag spoke the ‘new language’, meaning he was university educated. Genersich, op. cit., 1804. 36Gy. Bruckner, ‘Késmárk és a Thököly család’[‘Kežmarok and the Thököly family’], Közlemények Szepes Vármegye Múltjából (1909), 23–76. See also V. Greschik, ‘Die Belagerung Käsmarkt durch Emmericus Thököly’[‘The siege of Kežmarok by Thököly’], Közlemények Szepes Vármegye Múltjából (1923), 123–40. 37John Dee, A True and Faithful Relation of What Passed for Many Years Between Dr John Dee and Some Spirits (London, 1659), Library of Congress Rare Books Collection, 17; see also Deborah E. Harkess, ‘Shows in the Showstone: a theatre of alchemy and apocalypse in the angel conversations of John Dee (1527–1608/9)’, Renaissance Quarterly, xlix, 4 (Winter 1996), 707–37; Walter I. Trattner, ‘God and expansion in Elizabethan England: John Dee, 1527–1583’, Journal of the History of Ideas, xxv, 1 (January–March 1964), 17–34. 38Lipták, Alchimisten, op. cit., 28–31. 39Genersich, op. cit. (1804); Gy. Bruckner, op. cit. (1909); Greschik, op. cit. (1923). 40Dee, op. cit., 381. 41Here an important qualification is in order. As Evans has observed, while in Dee's diary Kelley is said to have died in 1595, a great deal of ambiguity surrounds his death, and according to Evans he might well have been alive in 1598. See R. J. W. Evans, Rudolph and his World (Oxford, 1973; reprinted 1984), 227. 42Sándor Münnich, Igló királyi korona és bányaváros története[History of the Royal Mining Town of Spišska Nová Ves] (Igló, 1896). Daniel Szontágh, Iglói és Zabari Szontágh nemzetség származási története és oklevelei[The History and Documentation of the Spišska Nová Ves and Zabar Sonntag Families] (Budapest, 1864). 43Oszkár Paulinyi, A középkori magyar réztermelés gazdasági jelentősége[The Economic Significance of Medieval Hungarian Copper Production] (Budapest, 1933). 44Vera Zimányi, ‘Gazdaság és fejlődés Mohácstól a 16. század végéig’[‘Economy and society from Mohács to the end of the sixteenth century’] in Zsigmond Pál Pach and Ágnes Várkonyi, Magyarország története 1526–1686[History of Hungary 1526–1686], vol. iii (Budapest, 1987), pt 1, 285–392, especially 299. 45 ibid., 300. 46Adolph Münnich, A felsőmagyarországi bányapolgárság története[The History of the Mining Burghers of Upper Hungary] (Igló, 1895); S. Münnich, op. cit.; Szontágh, op. cit. On the humble state of the Sonntag family during this period, see the testament of Ludovico Sonntag, son of Christophorus, from 1611. Interestingly, although Ludovico was the head of the clan, there are no objects of gold in this testament. There are several objects of silver, but the fantastic wealth the family would possess a hundred years later is not yet apparent (City Archive of Spišska Nová Ves, Familiarum Index, Sonntag, 1611, May. 7. 220 (Ludovit Sonntag). 47S. Münnich, Igló királyi, op. cit.; Szontágh, op. cit. 48S. Münnich, Igló királyi, op. cit. 49Francis L. Carsten, ‘The origins of the Junkers’, English Historical Review, ccxliii (April 1947), 145–78, and also by the same author, ‘Medieval democracy in the Brandenburg towns and its defeat in the fifteenth century’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, fourth series (London, 1943), 73–92.