"Hic aliud registrum novum incipit..."

Absztrakt

The aim of this paper is to give the insight into our research project, which is dealing with the account books of the Polish prince, Zygmunt Jagiellonczyk( 1467-1548). Zygmunt was a member of the Jagiellonian dynasty, born in 1467 as the fifth son of the Polish king (1447-1492), and Lithuanian grand duke (1440- 1490), Casimir IV. His mother, Elisabeth of Austria was a grandchild of Sigismund Luxembourg, whose name was given to the newborn. Casimir consolidated his power and established the political position of his family during his reign. After the death of Casimir in 1492, the most prominent part of Central Europe has got into the hands of his sons. Zygmunt has had no heritage, which was a serious problem for whole his family, therefore his brothers gathered many times to straighten out the question and to provide land and financials for the satisfactory existence of the prince. Zygmunt's position and his subsistence were discussed by his brothers in different political meetings and was a recurrent topic, but they did not find the solution. He has received some financial support from his brothers, and was also supported by land donations. In winter of 1498 prince Zygmunt and his household arrived to Buda, where he lived until 1501 as the "guest" of his brother, Vladislaus II, the king of Hungary (1490-1516) and Bohemia (1471-1516). After the death of his brother John Albert (Polish King 1492-1501) and the coronation of his other brother Alexander (grand duke of Lithuania 1492-1506, Polish King 1501-1506) he moved to the Duchy of Glogów. He became king of Poland and grand duke of Lihuania after the death of Alexander in 1506. The princely years of his life is well-known from his account books. The Hungarian-related parts of the source were edited by Adorján Divéky in 1914. Divéky edited and dealt with only those parts, which were written in Hungary, in addition, he tried to collect those sentences which include relevant information in connection with the Hungarian Kingdom. This concerns the third part of the complete text. We have had the opportunity - supported by the Hungarian Scholarship Board - to study and transcribe the unedited part of the source and examine the manuscript in Warsaw. The philological elaboration of the complete written source and the edition of the whole Hungarian-related, translated text is in process. By studying the sources of this type, we can get a really close view to medieval everyday life. In the account books of the court treasury were recorded incomes and expenditures. The first volume was written between 1500-1504, the second volume was written between 1504—1507. The structure of the books is well perspicuous and consequent. Every period starts with the summary of revenues, which gives detailed data of the incomings. These records are followed by the accurate list of everyday expenses. When the money was spent and the next financial support has arrived, everything started again. In the accounts of Sigismund, notices were recorded chronologically according to the date they were received or spent. The short and informative notices allow us to become acquainted with everyday life of the prince and his court. Historical science can hope to achieve significant value through the critical edition of Sigismund's account books. As a result of the Jagiellonian dynasty's role in the 16th century Europe, with the publishing of the account books would provided useful information for researches of different European countries on various fields of history.