Letter of Governor János Géczi
We rarely mention the document collection of the Ferenc Nádasdy Museum. Our collection features manuscripts from the 16th to the 20th century, which are not only about Sárvár, but of the other parts of Hungary as well.
We first present the letter of the Governor János Géczi.
I, János Géczi, the Governor of Transylvania, hereby remind everybody in my letter, the Ecellencies, knights, clergymen, the noblemen, my peasants all men following me that András Sinka found me through János Gálfi regarding a house. I should give him a house in Farnas, located next to Cluj and I should put peasants into the house. For this reason I gave András Sinka the house below my mansion next to Bodonkutt. The house comes with all forests, meadows taxes and freedoms. This shall apply from father to son just like with noblemen in this country, as their predecessors were no peasants either and I also did not want to hide my name. For their humble services all coming after me and owning Farnas should pay for those belonging to my house, even though they would not pay for a freedom. They are free to serve another man and I seal this letter with my seal to undermine this. Should András Sinka alter this then he and his successors have to pay 100 Forints. Datum Alba Julia Die Prima Octobris Anno Domini Millessimo quingentesimo octuagesimo Septo
Joannes Geczi mn
The back-side says: Letter of András Sinka about the Farnasi house / Nr. 33.
The manuscripts of the FerencNádasdyMuseumhave so far seldom entered the main focus of research. Our document collection gives an insight into the written materials of the 16th – 20th centuries, which contain documents not only from Sárvár, but also from the area of the historic Hungary.
The following source in Hungarian is published in its original version. The letter of János Géczi speaks of a house donated to András Sinka, who asked János Gálfi, to be given this house. Gálfi was a counsellor of Kristóf Báthori and was forced into exile following the death of his patron.
Captain János Géczi, who was named in the source work, is the governor of Transylvaniafrom 1st May 1585. This source dates back to 1st October 1587 in Gyulafehérvár. He was governor in the period between the reign of Kristóf Báthory of Somlya and Zsigmond Báthory of Somlya. Following the death of Kristóf Báhory a three head strong council took over the leadership of Transylvania because of the underage of Zsigmond Báthory. Later on one person was in charge of governing: from 1st May 1585 János Géczi governed Transylvania. (rg)
Literature
Köpeczi Béla (ed. in chief): Erdély története– a kezdetektől 1606-ig, I. kötet,Budapest, 1986. 522-532.
Asztalos Miklós: A történeti Erdély, Bp., 1936.