Literacy, Performance and Memory: the Áldomás (Trankopfer)
in Medieval and Early Modern Hungary and Transylvania

Abstract:

The ‘triumphalist’ model whereby memory is superseded by writing needs qualification. Cicero posited that memory was equal to writing, since memory acted in the manner of a wax tablet on which images were stored like letters. Although governments and clerics in the Middle Ages promoted the idea of verba volant, scripta manent, many communities and even churchmen continued to act as if recollection was equivalent to writing, and indeed in some ways superior to it. The spoken word retained an authenticity which meant that voice utterances were frequently reported verbatim in inquisition records. Recollection was also institutionalized to the extent that it became, along with other forms of oral communication, performative and governed by rules of its own. The paper examines the institution of the áldomás or Trankopfer (libation) in Hungary and Transylvania, which was used in conveyances of vineyards and movables, and which substituted for written proof until the nineteenth century. The áldomás is compared with other institutions, such as boundary-beating in England, and Lytkup in Poland. Some attention will also be paid to its use in the Transylvanian Saxonland, where it appears to have also become customary in land sales.

Keywords:

‘triumphalist’ model , writing, memory, communication, libation