FUN LEARNING WITH HUNGARICANA #2 : URBARIUM : CENSUS/ INVENTORY OF LIKAVA SAINT SOPHIA CASTLE IN LIPTO COUNTY - AN INVENTORY CIRCA 1674

URBARIUM means census but it also means count or inventory.  Therefore, in this category you won't just find a count of people, but also possessions.

For this example, we will be linking to the following link which is found in the Hungaricana - Archives - Urbarium category: 

Archives Hungaricana Urbarium Lipto Search Castle  

The year on this archival document is 1674.

IN LATIN and then HUNGARIAN IT SAYS: 

Inventarium

A likavai vár és birtokbeli tartozékai inventariuma, melyet Schultz György, Turanszky Gábor, Haassaeus Fülöp és Rady László kamarai megbízottak vettek fel a fenti napi, rózsahegyi kelettel.

(NB! A leltár érdekessége az, hogy – eltérően a kor és a kamara szokásától – először a leltározott tárgyat nevezi meg, s utána sorolja fel, hogy ebből az adott tárgybólhol, mennyi van. Ez tárgyi szempontból áttekinthetővé s lényegesen rövidebbé is teszi az inventariumot.)

TRANSLATION TO ENGLISH (You can find the extensive Hungarian at the link.)

INVENTORY

The inventory of the Likava castel and its belongings, which was taken by chamber commissioners Gyorgy Schultz, Gabor Turanszky, Fulop Haassaeus and Laszlo Rady, with the above daily east from Rossahegy. (NOTE! The interesting thing about the inventory is that - unlike the customs of the age and the chamber - it first names the item being inventoried and then lists where and how much of this particular item it has. This makes the inventory clear and significantly shorter.) My remark: daily east means about a day's travel by horseback from Rossahegy.(Rossenberg). Notice the Germans into Hungary here with both the name Gyorgy Schultz and the place name Rossenberg. Also the castle is named after Saint Sophia, who's Greek Orthodox. It turns out Saint Sophia was a member of the Royal Family of Hungary. Also Fulup Haassaeus, who appears on the last page with his seal, along with the others, as Phillip Jacob Haas, may have been Jewish.

Saint Zsofia Castle in Likava.

First the inventory examines the grain crops: wheat, barley, double wheat (It also notes the Slovak name of the double wheat "Polovina," oats, millet, and then flour (measured in lukna and korec.) Then: construction materials: “Tegulae cauae pro lectis circiter No 30 – Asseres teneus No 50, Crassiores No 24 – Asseres ex rubro ligno No 21” = Caucus tiles for beds about 30, Thin planks 50, Thicker planks, 24, Red wood planks, 21. Then: flank bacon, smoked pork loin and head, shoulder blades skin bundle (by number of pieces), honey (in a barrel), a cup measure.  - Various animal skins (cow, sheep, calf, old goat, goat skins, finally in general "pelles elaboratae" = worked skins by number of pieces. Then cheese curds (in a jar), cheese (by the number of pieces), butter (in a box.) Afterwards: wine (in barrels), empty barrels, icces half and quarter-iccces measures made of wood.  Wooden ? also in the cellar: sauerkraut (in barrels.) - Salt (in glaze), flour boxes (by number of pieces) - Stones for construction ("Lapides quadratae" - according to the number of pieces; deposited; in several places of the castle.

Hollowed out pumpkin. Iron bars. Furnaces (both in the new castle and the old castle).  My note is that this must refer to the castle that existed there before 1674. Iron doors and windows (same: according to location and number of pieces) Then - Tables, chairs, window frames, stools, locks, pans.  Carriages, cabinets, auger, grape press, tubs - Flax sheaves  Board cutting saw. Large drills suitable for drilling wooden pipes.

Carriages, cabinets, auger, grape press, tubs. - Flax sheaves. – Board cutting saw. – Large drills suitable for drilling wooden pipes. "Libra." (NB!  The location is only very briefly defined everywhere:  "In novo Castello."  "In area Inferior: - etc.  So as I mentioned above, the emphasis is on the objects in the inventory, and not where they are.) - Furnace stone plinths ("Pedes lapidea pro appondendis fornacibus"), water barrels ("Urnae aquaticae:) hen cages - Then there will be allodial sheep and goat herds grazing on two larger mountain pastures (old and young sheep, old and young rams, old goats, young goats, old and young goats - according to number.

Then flows the Liskofalva allodium : Cereals (rye, barley, spelt, oats - in husks.) - After, the numerous livestock of the same place (dairy cows, pea cows, barren cows, old sheep, young sheep, plow oxen - "Arabiles Boues" - five - four - three - and two year old bulls.  Also "Vaccae inutiles, nullius valoris, one piece, as well as : "Graudida juuenca No1, Juuencula anni No 2" otherwise" young, one-year-old bulls; pigs, boars, piglets, geese, hens with a rooster)

Agricultural tools, tools, in the same allodium: plows (completely equipped), hay cart, with all accessories, yokes for oxen, a chain of 60 links.  

Smaller and larger jugs, pewter spitting dish, water barrel with iron tires. (NB!  After each group is finished, the doors and windows of the buildings visited are listed one by one, briefly stating whether the door and window structure in question is made of iron, and if it is a door or gate, what kind of lock it has. For these he names the building - e.g. "portae ad Horrea" but sometimes he doesn't...

(continued)

This inventory reveals that the castle was depending on farming and animal husbandry, which may have supplied the residents of the castle.  Let's do some more research....

Who was Saint Sophia of Hungary? 

There were three castles in Lipto. This one is in ruins but you can visit it:

SLOVAKIA TRAVEL : LIKAVA CASTLE (SLOVAKIA)

Excerpt: The Castle was referred to for the first time in 1315. Its construction started with the intention to have a guarding point over the passage across the river Váh and the trade route from the Váh Basin to Orava and further to Poland.

The Castle owners, the noble family of Hunyady, gradually reconstructed and widened the core of the Castle and built the part called the lower Castle in the second half of the 15th century. In the second half of the 17th century, the Thökölys' eventually finished the entire fortification system though it was of no use as it did not prevent the disaster at the beginning of the 18th century when the retreating troops of František Rákoczi completely pulled down the Castle in 1707.

Hungarian Genealogy and History Tips in this series can be viewed together by clicking on the tab Pro Tip Hungaricana Fun


C 2025 Magyar-American BlogSpot All Rights including International Rights and Internet Rights are claimed.

THE COUNTESS by REBECCA JOHNS

THE COUNTESS, a fictive novel which tells the story of Countess Elizabeth Bathory, who is supposed to have been the serial killer of hundreds of servant girls.  (I still think the numbers are exaggerated but even a dozen or two is extreme.)  Rebecca John's book was truly engaging. Reading his book and the Urbarium about the same time, though the events in this book took place more than a hundred years earlier, helped me understand better what life was for Hungarian women of the high nobility at the time when Bathory lived. Women like those married to the men who were counted in that census. 

Usually arranged to be married, never the less they still had poor relatives. They were often sent these poor relatives to work for them, to be educated a bit by working for the estate, or married off.  In this book the servant girls are often sexual before marriage, depicted as eagerly seducible, even promiscuous, and maybe that was a fact of class difference, or perhaps that is only in the viewpoint of a woman whose marriage is arranged,  but it is one of the reasons they are punished by her. 

Clearly increasingly sadistic, but with faithful servants also cooperating or punishing the girls themselves, the Countess thinks that it is completely in her right to be so punishing, but even the high nobility has its limits about what punishment is, and the torture and death of a servant, while not unheard of, is still not common. 

 

How long have the rumors been flying? 

How many good excuses, and bad ones, does the Countess have before she is walled up in a room, where she lives a couple years until she dies, visited only by a confessor, who can't actually get any sorrow out of her?

Is she a sympathetic character?  In my opinion, in some ways, she is. 

A countess of wealth had to be excellent at managing an estate and often spent months at a time - sometimes years - without seeing her husband and actually having a relationship with him.  The shifts of allegiances and power, at a time when Croation nobles are marrying with Hungarians and some Hungarians in Transylvania have a different notion of who should be ruling what, mean that a man really must be ready to battle physically if politicking isn't working in his favor.

There was a lot of research put into this book, so if you've been reading the Urbarium, or perhaps doing some personal family history or genealogy research, some of the noble surnames will sound familiar to you. Bathory's arranged marriage is history, as are the marriages of other nobles mentioned in the book.   

After the death of her husband, his best friend who had agreed to look in on her, did, but he also slept with her and then didn't marry her, choosing instead a much younger woman without a dowry to her name.  She is terribly embarrassed to have to beg money that was loaned by her husband to give her daughter a dowry and everyone suspects or knows that she has had this involvement and that the man will show off his new, nubile bride at the wedding.  Perhaps it's her husband's best friend who also, finally, puts a stop to her violent aberrant behavior.

C 2017  Magyar American BlogSpot  All Rights Reserved.

HUNGARIAN URBARIUM 1767 : RELIGIOUS PRIESTS and NUNS in 1767 - FEW LANDOWNERS and OFF TO THE CONVENT : GENEALOGY PRO TIP # 8

HUNGARIAN URBARIUM 1767 : RELIGIOUS PRIESTS and NUNS in 1767 - FEW LANDOWNERS and OFF TO THE CONVENT : GENEALOGY PRO TIP # 8

So many CONVENTS, MONASTERIES, SEMINARIES, and ESTATES OWNED BY DIOCESE and HOLY ORDERS are evident on the 1767 URBARIUM -  HUNGARIAN LANDHOLDER CENSUS. 

The Jesuits, the Paulines, the Benedictines...

Let me start with some Hungarian words translated so you'll be aware of what you're reading. I'm going to list these as a progression so you can see how the word meanings go. Sorry I don't have the keyboard to put in the pronunciation marks.

TELEK - property (Usually means equipment such as farm equipment rather than a house or estate.)

CSALAD - family home or stead. (On census csalad may imply a residence that is owned rather than rented or is considered the family stead.)

SZELLER - cottar (implies rented building such as a tradesman's workshop or store. Note that I recently learned that cottar indicates a house on a small plot of land only big enough for a family's own vegetable and herb garden. Consider profession of person who lives there as may tradespeople lived and worked in the same dwelling.)

HELY - place (geographic such as on map)

OHAZA - old country - home country
HAZA - house or home - HAZY - "house of" as in Eszterhazy "house of Eszter"
EGYHAZ - church
EGYHAZI - old church
EGYHAZATYA - church father
EGYHAZATYAK - church fathers
FOLD - land
EGYHAZI FOLDEK - church lands
EGYHAZI ANYAKONYV - church register (births, marriages, deaths)

TEMPLOM - church but best to think of this word used to say a spiritual worship place of any religion including Jewish or Muslim.

KOLOSTOR - monastery

TEMETKEZESI - burial place or grave

KAPOLNA - chapel (sometimes indicates place for Baptism)
KAPTALAN - charter house (indicates place to pay taxes or make payments.)

APATSAG - abbey
KONVENT - convent

BENCES - Benedictine
BENCESREND - Benedictine Holy Order  (Also called "Black Monks")
BENCESAPACA - Benedictine Nun

PAP - Priest

APACA - Nun

PALOS PAPOK - Pauline Priests (plural)

PALOS APACA - Pauline nun

PALOS KONVENT - convent of the Pauline Holy Order

GROF - Count (GR is abbreviation)
GROFNE - Countess or Wife of the Count
BARO - Baron (BR is abbreviation)
BARANO - Baroness or Wife of Baron
BAROKISASSZONY - Unmarried daughter of a Baron
EMBER - person
FONTOS EMBER - important person

SZENT - Saint

... So I want to write a bit about GOTHIC FICTION which I took a class on in college..  GOTHIC FICTION began with the REFORMATION.  Novels featuring lusty and bloodthirsty sinning monastics, priests, and nuns were popular. These fictional characters had sex, got pregnant, murdered people, were sadistic or mean.

You could say that these novels were media and they were a lot like FAKE NEWS today, in the case of GOTHIC FICTION intended to promote Protestantism. We know about them because so many were printed (the printing press having been invented and used primarily for printing Bibles) that some of these novels still exist in archives!  Were they based on true stories?  It's always possible some were but we don't really know for sure. Today GOTHIC FICTION is written by authors such as Anne Rice, who wrote pornography featuring castles and nobles and virgins and horses under a different name... but who is better known for her VAMPIRE novels, such as "Interview With A Vampire," which was made into a film. (In her book "Interview With A Vampire"  her characters search the world for others like them and stop in Central Europe where they are surprised to learn that People Actually Believe They Exist.) To be literary about her work, Rice is writing about Power being played out, about people who when told to jump say, "How high?" Rice has been known to have a personal struggle with Catholicism.

Women in the the mid-late18th century, when the Urbarium of 176,7 took place were present in religious contexts. We see that there are many places in the counties where there are parishes, churches, temples, retreat houses - and islands!, monasteries, schools, and convents. Most women had two choices, to be a wife and mother or dedicate her life to God or Jesus in a Holy Order. But convents were more like old YMCA with its inexpensive rooms for women who wanted to get way and go somewhere to grieve their widowhood, preserve their virginity until a marriage contract could be discussed, or hide away to heal a heart break and preserve or renew their reputation. 

Some convents were boarding schools, and some took in orphaned girls. (When the fashion designer CoCo Channel was a girl in France and their mother died, her father took her and her sister to a convent and then deserted them there.) So you see, there was much to learn besides prayers and needlepoint at the convent. Wealthy and noble women were often taught to read and do the math they would need to run large estates at the convent while their husbands went visiting their fellows or off to politics or battles. And on the Urbarium 1767 you will see quite a few women who were countesses or baronesses who were widowed.

We can assume these women were running the estates they inherited, at least temporarily, until a son came of age, the estate was lost in debt, or they remarried. 

YOU WILL ALSO SEE A FEW UNMARRIED DAUGHTERS OF COUNTS WHO HAD LAND OF THEIR OWN.  A WOMAN WITH LAND WAS A WOMAN WITH A DOWRY, a desirable marital partner.

To get to all the posts/genealogy tips regarding the NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF HUNGARY/ Hungaricana's URBARIUM 1767 you can search this BLOG by looking through my archives, through searching for the word URBARIUM using the Google Search Feature embedded in the blog, or by clicking on the link at the bottom of the post.

C 2017-2025 Magyar-American BlogSpot All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights

Addition of words and editing for clarity February 2025

This post is part of a series. To print up all posts, click on the tag Gen Tips: 1767 Hungaricana Urbarium