(2009) Hospitals in Medieval and Early Modern H

Hospitals in Medieval and Early Modern Hungary
Judit Majorossy and Katalin Szende
Introduction*1
The concept of hospitals as shelters for travellers and others in need had its roots in the
institutional framework of Western Christianity in the tentheleventh centuries, almost at the
same time that the statehood of Hungary emerged and the Christianisation of its population
took place. The countrys first king, St Stephen (10001038), is said to have founded three
or four hospitals himself, but all of them served pilgrims outside his own country: in
Constantinople, Jerusalem, Rome, and perhaps Ravenna2. The emergence of hospitals in
the Carpathian Basin itself was a slower process, which bore its first fruits in the late twelfth
century, and reached the peak of its development about three hundred years later.
The framework of the comparative approach of the volume and the applied questionnaire
do not permit us to present a detailed analysis of the hospitals of medieval Hungary
as individual institutions. Instead, the focus will be on a general overview of some key
questions, to give an estimate of the approximate number, distribution and characteristics
of hospitals in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary and its successor states in the Early
Modern period. While relying on and summarising the results of the few works of earlier
*
The authors express their special thanks to gnes Flra for providing information on the Transylvanian
source material.
1
Medieval Hungary extended to the territory of several present-day countries in the Carpathian Basin, there-
fore the usage of geographical names (historical or modern) always poses a problem. For uniformitys sake the au-
thors have decided to use the Hungarian forms in the main text and the overview map (Fig. 9.), and provide a gazet-
teer at the end of this article with the various other forms (historical German and Latin denominations as well as the
modern toponyms). Abbreviations: AMB = Archv mesta Bratislavy [Town Archives of Bratislava]; Anjou.Okm.
= Anjoukori Okmnytr [Cartulary of the Angevin Era] 18, ed. Imre NAGYGyula TASNDI NAGY (Budapest
18781890, 1920); ANR Alba Iulia = Arhivele Nationale Romania [Romanian State Archives], Directia Judeteana
a Arhivelor Nationale Alba [Departmental Archives of Gyulafehrvr]; ANR Cluj = Arhivele Nationale Romania
[Romanian State Archives], Directia Judeteana a Arhivelor Nationale Cluj [Departmental Archives of Kolozsvr];
FEJR, CD = Georgius FEJR, Codex diplomaticus Hungariae ecclesiasticus ac civilis (Buda 18291844); HZI =
Sopron szabad kirlyi vros trtnete [The History of the Free Royal Town of Sopron], ed. Jen HZI (Sopron
19211943); MOL = Magyar Orszgos Levltr [Hungarian National Archives]; SVL = Gyr-Moson-Sopron Megye
Soproni Levltra [Town Archives of Sopron]; ZsO = Elemr MLYUSZ et al, Zsigmondkori Okmnytr [Cartulary
of the Sigismundian Era] (Budapest 19511958, 19932004; ongoing).
2
Gyrgy GYRFFY, Istvn kirly s mve [King Stephen and His Work] (Budapest 1977) 301304.
276 Judit Majorossy and Katalin Szende
Hungarian scholarship3 and some recent case studies4, our aim is to facilitate the exploration
of similarities and dissimilarities compared to other regions of Europe.
Sources on Hospitals: Legacy and Limitations

The historians knowledge of medieval hospitals is limited to those surviving pieces of
information that were considered worth noting down by contemporaries or can be gathered
through architectural, art historical, and archaeological evidence. The amount of sources from
Hungary is considered to be limited compared to most other countries of Western Christian-
ity. Then again, the uneven distribution of these documents makes the elaboration of a general
synthesis even more difficult. From some hospitals we have a relative abundance of data, while
the existence of others is only attested, for instance, by a passing mention of their priest or mas-
ter as a witness or actor in an otherwise irrelevant case5 or the mention of a hospital as point of
reference for another building/house or land6. The distorted forms of certain place-names in
the documentation of the central institutions of religious orders can cause problems, too7.
3
Lajos PSZTOR, A magyarsg vallsos lete a Jagellk korban [The Religious Life of the Hungarians in the
Jagellonian Age, 14901526] (Budapest 1940); Zoltn SOMOGYI, A kzpkori Magyarorszg szegnygye [Caring for
the Poor in Medieval Hungary] (Budapest 1941); Andrs KUBINYI, Orvosls, gygyszerszek, frdk s ispotlyok
a ks kzpkori Magyarorszgon [Healing, Apothecaries, Baths and Hospitals in Late Medieval Hungary], in:
Fpapok, egyhzi intzmnyek s vallsossg a kzpkori Magyarorszgon [Priests, Ecclesiastical Institutions and
Religiosity in Medieval Hungary] (Budapest 1999) 253267; Andrs KUBINYI, Ispotlyok s vrosfejlds a ks
kzpkori Magyarorszgon [Hospitals and Urban Development in Late Medieval Hungary], in: Vrak, templomok,
ispotlyok. Tanulmnyok a magyar kzpkorrl [Castles, Churches, Hospitals. Studies on Medieval Hungary]
(Analecta Mediaevalia 2, Piliscsaba 2004) 187195. For a short general overview see Marie-Madeleine de CEVINS,
Lglise dans les villes hongroises la fin du moyen-ge, vers 1320vers 1490 (BudapestSzegedParis 2003) 6375.
See also Enik RSZ-FOGARASI, Transylvanian Almshouses in the Early Modern Age. MIG 115 (2007) 290311.
4
E. g. Andrs KUBINYI, A pszti Szentllek-ispotly a kzpkorban [The Holy Spirit Hospital of Pszt
in the Middle Ages]. Magyar Zene 23 (1982) 8184; Katalin DANKIlona VALTER, A srospataki ks kzpkori
ispotly [The Late Medieval Hospital of Srospatak], in: Vndorutak Mzeumi rksg. Tanulmnyok BOD
Sndor tiszteletre, 60. szletsnapja alkalmbl [Wanderings Museum Heritage. Studies in Honour of Sndor
BOD on His Sixtieth Birthday], ed. Gyula VIGA et al. (Budapest 2003) 367384; Judit MAJOROSSY, A vros kzepn,
a trsadalom peremn. A szegnyek helye a kzpkori Sopron letben [In the Middle of the Town on the Fringes
of Society. The Place of the Poor in the Life of Medieval Sopron]. Soproni Szemle 57/3 (2003) 216233; Tams
PUSZTAI, A telkibnyai Szent Katalin-ispotly [The St Catherine Hospital of Telkibnya], in: Quasi liber et pictura.
Tanulmnyok KUBINYI Andrs hetvenedik szletsnapjra. Studies in Honour of Andrs KUBINYI on His Seventieth
Birthday, ed. Gyngyi KOVCS (Budapest 2004) 429436; Ilona VALTER, A gyngysi Szent Erzsbet volt ispotly
temploma [The St Elisabeth the Former Hospital Church of Gyngys], in: ibid. 607614; Judit MAJOROSSY,
unsere arme lewte ... Hospitals and the Poor in Late Medieval Bratislava. Chronica 4 (2004) 4156.
5
E. g. a charter from 1356 mentions the hospital master of Beszterce as the buyer of a piece of land. MOL,
DL 36408. In Kolozsvr a law-suit from 1467 mentioned one of the hospital masters and bath-keepers of the town,
see Zsigmond JAK, A kolozsmonostori konvent jegyzknyvei, 12891556 [The Registers of the Kolozsmonostor
Convent, 12891556] 12 (A Magyar Orszgos Levltr Kiadvnyai II/17, Budapest 1990) 1 644 no. 1742. The
hospital of buda is also only known from a single entry of an account book which mentions duo mendici rogantes
ad hospitale de veteri Buda, see KUBINYI, Ispotlyok s vrosfejlds (cit. n. 3) 189s., n. 13.
6
E. g. a mill beside the house of the poor in Vrad, in vico Venetis was the object of a dispute between the
local nunnery of St Anne and a private person (31 May 1455): MOL, DL 14961, while in Kassa a brewery and a hop
garden were located beside the hospital: brasiatorium penes hospitale pauperum situm (15 Febr 1401); uno hummuleto
penes hospitale pauperum sancti Spiritus extra civitatem situm (24 April 1402), Acta iudiciaria civitatis Cassoviensis,
13931405. Das lteste Kaschauer Stadtbuch, ed. Ondrej R. HALAGA (Buchreihe der Sdostdeutschen Historischen
Kommission 34, Mnchen 1994) 216 no. 3967; 246 no. 4599.
7
On the obscure lists of the institutions run by the order of the Holy Spirit see SOMOGYI, A kzpkori
Magyarorszg szegnygye (cit. n. 3) 4547.
Hospitals in Medieval and Early Modern Hungary 277
The density of the written evidence is dependent partly on the rate of survival of the
documents, and partly on the level of literacy that once characterised the institutions that
cared for the poor. Severe losses were caused by the discontinuity of several hospitals or the
change of their supportive background, which often resulted in discarding earlier documents.
However, much of the gaps in our knowledge are caused by the restricted use of literacy dur-
ing the contemporary activity of the hospitals. A brief survey of the types of available docu-
ments is intended to demonstrate the limitations that one has to face when trying to provide
comparative material for researchers of similar questions in other regions.
Following the general trend in Hungarian medieval literacy, written evidence concern-
ing the hospitals was primarily engaged with legal issues, and in particular with proprietary
rights. Therefore most of the information on hospitals is connected to their properties: how
they were acquired, how they were protected from outside claims and, to a lesser extent, how
they were managed. A prime document for such issues is the foundation charter issued by the
founder and confirmed by ecclesiastical (the pope, the bishop or their representatives) or lay
(the ruler) authorities8. These charters, which have been preserved for less than ten per cent of
the known medieval Hungarian hospitals, usually deal with the following issues: the place of
the hospital and its patron saint; the person of the founder and his or her right of patronage;
the donations and other revenues that secured the upkeep of the institution; the division of
these revenues between the hospital master, the chaplain, and the inmates; and with the place
of the hospital in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, especially in relation to the local parish and its
priest. The number of inmates was specified in a foundation document only in a single case9.
Similar documents are donation charters in favour of already existing institutions. In
most cases, such donations are incorporated in last wills or testaments, which were drawn
up by noblemen and by burghers alike, and which survived in fairly high numbers in certain
towns (Pozsony, Sopron, Eperjes). These sources contain information on the donations in
real estate (houses, plots, vineyards, orchards, mills, fishponds, shambles, or others), in cash,
or in material objects (textiles, blankets, beds, wine and other foodstuffs, and even building
materials), as well as on the way these donations were meant to promote the salvation of
the donors soul10. The least attention was paid to the recipients, whose person, number, or
standing was considered almost irrelevant.
The issue of patronage, the right for nominating and confirming the chaplain, the hos-
pital master or rector, as well as the situation of some hospitals within the ecclesiastical hierar-
8
Some examples of the foundation charter being preserved: the Telkibnya hospital, MOL DL 5783 (19 April
1369); the Szond hospital (1434), see KUBINYI, Ispotlyok s vrosfejlds (cit. n. 3) 191; the Debrecen hospital (6
March 1529), see Gbor HERPAY, A debreczeni reformtus ispotly 15291929 [The Calvinist Hospital of Debrecen
15291929] (Debrecen 1929) 16, text edition 22s. In spite of the title, the latter was founded before the Reformation;
its affiliation with the Calvinist church happened only during the seventeenth century.
9
The data are from Szakolca: duodecim in numero personis, pauperibus videlicet hominibus in prescripto hospitali
[scil. hospitalis sancte Elisabeth in civitate Szkalitz] perpetuo mansuris (12 Sept 1431), MOL, DL 12413. Later transcrip-
tions were edited in FEJR, CD X/7 405.
10
For the analysis of the objects given for such purposes in three royal towns see Katalin SZENDE, Otthon a
vrosban. Trsadalom s anyagi kultra a kzpkori Sopronban, Pozsonyban s Eperjesen [Home in Town. Society and
Material Culture in Medieval Sopron, Pozsony, Eperjes] (Trsadalom-s mveldstrtneti tanulmnyok 32, Budapest
2004). For the pious donations in Sopron: MAJOROSSY, A vros kzepn (cit. n. 4); in Pozsony: EAD., Church in Town.
Urban Religious Life in Late Medieval Preburg in the Mirror of Last Wills (PhD Dissertation, Budapest: Central
European University 2006). For Transylvania see Maria LUPESCU MAK, Death and Remembrance in Late Medieval
Sighioara (Segesvr, Schburg). Caiete de antropologie istoric 3 (2004) 93106; Maria LUPESCU MAK, Catholic
Piety in Transylvanian Towns on the Basis of Donations and Testaments (13001556), ongoing doctoral research.
chy was also fairly frequently debated, and therefore recorded. Especially the changes between
lay and ecclesiastical patrons, between the control of a religious order or that of a municipal
community had to be secured by written documents, as for example, occurred in Pozsony
between the order of St Anthony and the town in 130911. The unusual case of Nagyszeben,
where contrary to the general trends an early municipal foundation was handed over to the
order of the Holy Spirit in 1292 was also recorded precisely because of this transaction12.
The Early Modern period has produced more documents on issues of external admin-
istration such as visitation protocols, reports of missionaries, and correspondence between
central and local, lay and ecclesiastical authorities. However, their survival was very much
endangered by the conditions of constant warfare with the Ottomans and by the extensive
secularisation of several institutions after the end of our research period.
The hospitals own literacy started later and is preserved more sporadically than items of
writing concerning them but issued by other authorities. We have practically no such docu-
ments from the period while the hospitals were under monastic management; a greater need
for literacy, especially primitive forms of accounting, appeared only when they were taken
under municipal control. The documents committed to writing by the hospitals themselves
concern almost exclusively their economic administration, in the form of credit contracts,
accounts and inventories. Especially the latter sources contain rich information on the
hospital buildings and their repair works, the possessions of the hospitals in the form of
furniture, implements, livestock, and foodstuffs. The accounts shed light on the manage-
ment of the hospitals possessions, especially their vineyards and animal husbandry. Their
greatest drawback is their uneven survival: for the medieval period only Pozsony and Sopron
in Western Hungary, Selmecbnya, Brtfa and Eperjes in Upper Hungary as well as Brass
and Nagyszeben in Transylvania are provided with such sources. In the Early Modern period,
beside the aforementioned places and some other settlements (e. g. Srospatak), Kolozsvr
has the richest series of accounts13. However, one needs to be cautious when making general
11
24 June 1309: Ad universorum notitiam tenore presentium volumus pervenire, quod inter Hertlinum iudicem,
Hambatonem, Iacobum, Perichtoldum, ac universos cives civitatis Posoniensis ab una parte, ac virum religiosum fratrem
Lantelinum preceptorem ordinis Sancti Antonii in regno Hungarie ab altera contentio huiusmodi orta fuisset, sicut utraque
pars coram nobis asseruit, comparendo, quod hospitale existens in Posonio, non regimini fratris dicti ordinis, sed ad procuratorem
civium et regimen fuisset annexum, AMB, no. 24.
12
24 June 1292: quamdam domum cum suis attinentiis in Cibinio iacentem, et ad nos pertinentem, iam dudum a no-
bis pro hospitali habitam, et per nos manu seculari correctam, viris religiosis, ut pote Deo dilectis, fratribus cruciferis de ordine S.
Spiritus concessimus ... in dicta domo hospitalis divinum exerceant officium, et missarum celebrent solemnia, et ipsi pauperibus,
debilibus, advenis, et claudis de eleemosynis sibi a Christi fidelibus largitis, FEJR, CD VII/2 173;VII/3 159s.
13
E. g. for Sopron: 4 account books for the fifteenth century, reference in MAJOROSSY, A vros kzepn (cit. n.
4) 228; for the early sixteenth century: SVL, 1009/i Sopron Vros Krhznak szmadsai/Krankenhaus, Lazarett,
Versorgungshaus Rechnungsbcher, 12 books. For Pozsony: AMB, 1.B.s.c.1 (1441), B.s.1.a (1493), 1.b.B.s.4 (1503/
04), B.s.2 (150616), 1.c.B.s. (151216), B.s.3 (1517), etc. For Brtfa: Bla IVNYI, Brtfa szabad kirlyi vros levltra
13191526, 2 vols [The Archives of the Free Royal Town of Brtfa] (Budapest 1910) 2 97 no. 4133 (1510), 235 no.
5014 (152024). For Beszterce: Urkunden-Regesten aus dem Archiv der Stadt Bistritz in Siebenbrgen 12031570,
ed. Albert BERGERErnst WAGNER (Schriften zur Landeskunde Siebenbrgens 11/12, KlnWien 1986) 1 155 no.
554 (1512). For Kolozsvr: A Szentllek ispotly szmadsknyvei (16011650) [The Account Books of the Holy
Spirit Hospital (16011650)], ed. gnes FLRATnde MRTONgnes MIHLY (Kolozsvri ispotly-szmadsok 1,
Budapest 2006). For Nagyszeben: Rechnungen aus dem Archiv der Stadt Hermannstadt (Quellen zur Geschichte
Siebenbrgens aus schsischen Archiven I/1, Hermannstadt 1880); Das Archiv der Stadt Hermannstadt und der
schsischen Nation I. Brgerspital-Rechnungen 15021799, ed. Franz ZIMMERMANN (Nagyszeben 1901). For Brass
the edited general town accounts contain information on the hospital: Rechnungen aus dem Archiv der Stadt
Kronstadt 15031526 (Quellen zur Geschichte der Stadt Kronstadt in Siebenbrgen 1, Kronstadt 1886).
statements for the whole country on the basis of these important royal towns. Issues concern-
ing the inmates, their number and health condition are very seldom touched upon even in
the internal sources.
Some aspects of life in hospitals that are scarcely covered by written sources can be
demonstrated through the examination of still standing buildings or through archaeological
investigations. It is to be noted that from this point of view medieval Hungary is also very
poorly documented, as only a few medieval buildings (mainly chapels) are standing and have
preserved their medieval form (e. g. Nagyszombat) or were excavated and documented by
archaeologists. Due to favourable circumstances, however, in the last decade three hospital
churches were researched in present-day Hungary, all three in relatively small settlements in
the northeastern part of the country: in Gyngys, Pszt, and Telkibnya14 (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1. The Ground Plans of the Excavated Medieval Hospitals in Hungary
1. The St Helen hospital church of Nagyszombat 2. The building phases of the St Elisabeth hospital church of
Gyngys (Ilona Valter, 2004)
3. The excavated parts of the St Catherine hospital of 4. The ground plan of the St Catherine hospital of Telkibnya
Telkibnya (Tams Pusztai, 2000) (Tams Pusztai, 2000)
14
Exceptionally, in Telkibnya the charter which preserved the fact of foundation survived: MOL, DL 5783
(16 July 1367). It informs us that the urburarius and the councillors requested King Louis I to promote the estab-
lishment of a hospital, which was built on the site of an old wooden chapel on the edge of the town. During the
excavation this chapel was also found (Fig. 1., third image).
Two of the three excavations yielded remains of fairly small Gothic churches, where the
absence of emphatic triumphal arches was supposed to facilitate eye-contact between the in-
mates and the altar in the choir. Beside or attached to the churches, smaller outbuildings were
also observed, which probably served as dwelling places of the personnel. In spite of these
important new results, the problem of generalisation needs to be taken into account. The site
of the St Elisabeth hospital in Kolozsvr was also identified through archaeological finds,
although in this case parts of the cemetery, and not the hospital building were uncovered15.
In case of Szeged, the exact site of the St Peter hospital has not been found, but its high qual-
ity Romanesque stone carvings have been uncovered from the building of its successor, the
Observant Franciscan friary16.
Furthermore, some monastic sites were excavated where, in spite of the lack of written
documentation, it seems that a hospital building or room was attached to the monastic
complex where certain care was also offered to the general public (e. g. BudapestMargit-
sziget, Lvld). Finally, the research of a modest small building in Srospatak yielded unique
evidence of a sixteenthseventeenth century Protestant (Calvinist) almshouse (Fig. 2). It was
transformed from a private house, thus creating small private rooms, which allowed for a
more individual care of the inmates17.
Fig. 2. The Srospatak Hospital Founded in a Private House
1. The first greater alternation works on the 2. The second larger construction works on the Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi hospital of Srospatak, ca. 1561 hospital of Srospatak, late 16th17th century
( Katalin DankIlona Valter, 2003) ( Katalin DankIlona Valter, 2003)
A further group of sources which can be utilised for research on internal life in hospitals
are images on panel paintings or frescoes, showing scenes of hospital interiors. A relatively
rich stock of such images has survived especially from northeastern Hungary (present day
15
PUSZTAI, A telkibnyai Szent Katalin-ispotly (cit. n. 4); KUBINYI, A pszti Szentllek ispotly (cit. n.
4); VALTER, A gyngysi Szent Erzsbet (cit. n. 4); Elek BENK, Kolozsvr magyar klvrosa a kzpkorban [The
Hungarian Suburb of Kolozsvr in the Middle Ages] (Erdlyi Tudomnyos Fzetek 248, Kolozsvr 2004) 47.
16
Zsuzsa LUKCSMikls SZNOKYrpd HADNAGY, A Szeged-alsvrosi ferences kolostor kfaragvnyairl
[On the Carved Stones of the Franciscan Friary of Szeged-Alsvros], in: HORLER Mikls hetvenedik szletsnapj-
ra. Tanulmnyok, ed. Pl LVEI [For Mikls HORLERs Seventieth Birthday. Studies] (Budapest 1993) 155172.
17
DANKVALTER, A srospataki ispotly (cit. n. 4).
Slovakia), from Kassa, Lcse, Brtfa and Szmrecsny18. In all the cases these representations
are parts of fresco-cycles on the life of St Elisabeth of Hungary. In a few other cases art his-
torical analysis or references to art pieces can add to our knowledge about these institutions.
In the St James parish church of Lcse on the northern wall of the side aisle, above the door
of the present sacristy, the seven deeds of mercy as well as the seven deadly sins were depicted
around 1400. The chapel behind the wall is believed to have once been a detached build-
ing19. The latest art-historical analysis of the murals discussed the possibility that the seven
deeds of mercy cycle might once have been above the entrance of the Holy Spirit hospital
church, to draw the burghers attention to the sick and old, or pilgrims housed behind the
walls20. Probably some of the painted altars in hospital churches, which were mentioned, for
instance, in connection with pious bequests, depicted the deeds of mercy, but other saints
also appeared21. Such an example was Eperjes where in 1502 several donations were given for
the hospital church pro tabula on which the Virgin Mary was depicted22.
Especially scenes from the life of St Elisabeth are very rich in details connected to
hospital interiors23. In spite of the existence of standard patterns and international trends in
such depictions, these images in medieval Hungarian churches provide information on such
details that are otherwise concealed in the written or archaeological evidence. They show the
presence of a larger number of female personnel, the placement of the inmates, their daily
care and material surroundings (Fig. 3). Comparative research on visual materials concerning
hospitals in different parts of the continent may reveal how much these pictures had to do
with local features. In any case, they must have depicted a scene familiar to the viewers. At
the same time, by conveying a positive image they influenced the perception of institutions
that care for the poor among the members of the local community.
18
St Elisabeth parish church of Kassa: high altar with the St Elisabethan cycle (14741477). St Egidius parish
church of Brtfa: St Elisabeth altar (around 1480), the altar of the tailors guild which originally stood in the St Elisabeth
chapel above the main entrance of the church. Virgin Mary parish church of Szmrecsny: a piece from a winged
altar (1510) done by the master of the Okolicsn workshop. St James parish church of Lcse: the cycle of the seven
deeds of mercy on the northern wall of the aisle (1380/1400).
19
In the nineteenth century a ciborium was found here with the inscription stating that it belonged to the
leper hospital: ad capellam leprosorum pertinet, Wenzel MERKLAS, Die katholische Pfarrkirche St. Jakob zu Leutschau
in Ober-Ungarn. Mittheilungen der k. k. Central-Commission fr die Erhaltung und Erforschung der Baudenkmale 3 (1858)
4143, 6472, cit. 69.
20
Dun BURAN, Studien zur Wandmalerei um 1400 in der Slowakei: Die Pfarrkirche St. Jakob in Letschau
und die Pfarrkirche St. Franziskus Seraphicus in Poniky (Weimar 2002) 6670, and for illustrations see 267 (ill.
2627), 275 (ill. 42), and 341 (ill. IV). Over the depictions one can read: durch got wyr dich begraben got mus deyne zele
habe / deyn gevenknus tut uns we ach got culdestu myt uns gen / ach du nactir krankyr man durch got zo czeuch du cleydir an /
eya no bystu alzo krank durch got zo trynk desin trank / durch gotis lybe speyse wyr dych das her uns gebe sein hymelrich / gank
her yn daz haws meyn durch got du ellend ir pylgerym / uns ist leyd dy krank hey deyn gehabe dich wol in dyser peyn.
21
altare sanctorum Nicolai et Catherine in Lewtscha in hospitali, BURAN, Studien zur Wandmalerei (cit. n. 20) 68.
22
Bla IVNYI, Eperjes szabad kirlyi vros levltra / Archivum liberae regiaeque civitatis Eperjes, 12451526,
2 vols (Szeged 1931) 2 328 no. 863: ad structuram thabule beate Marie virginis ad hospitale (1502); 2 337 no. 872: pro
tabula gloriosissime Marie virginis (1503); 2 375 no. 915: ad tabulam beate Virginis hospitalensis (1506).
23
See Ott GECSER, Aspects of the Cult of St Elisabeth of Hungary with a Special Emphasis on Preaching
(PhD Dissertation, Budapest: Central European University 2007), ch. 4: Visual Representations, 103144. In general
see also Burkhard HOFMANN, Kranker und Krankheit um 1500: Die Darstellung des Kranken im Zusammenhang
mit den sptgotischen Bildnissen der heiligen Elisabeth (Studien zur Medizin-, Kunst- und Literaturgeschichte 3,
Herzogenrath 1983).
Fig. 3. The High Altar in St Elisabeth Parish Church, Kassa (1474/77): Elisabeth Caring for the Poor
Urbanisation and Hospitals

In 1349 a village called Galgc in Nyitra county of northwestern Hungary, at the
crossing of the River Vg (Vah) along the road from Pozsony to Trencsn was donated by
King Louis the Great to the nobleman Nicholas Kont24. The settlements economy was based
on the bridge-tax collected from those crossing the river, which was also royally granted to the
lord. Additionally, due to his activity, Galgc soon received the right to hold annual fairs. By
1400 it already had its own hospital founded by the local lord and his wife and later again
24
Erik FGEDI, Koldul bartok, polgrok, nemesek. Tanulmnyok a magyar kzpkorrl [Mendicant
Friars, Burghers, and Noblemen. Studies on the Hungarian Middle Ages] (Budapest 1981), ch. 2: Koldulrendek s
vrosfejlds Magyarorszgon [The Mendicant Orders and Urban Development in Hungary], 8086; Anjou.Okm.
5 339 no. 196; FEJR, CD IX/1 652.
lavishly endowed by the lady25. By that time the settlement had risen to the level of being a
relatively significant market town, with a Franciscan friary established in 1465.
The Hungarian medievalist, Erik Fgedi stated that besides the piety that manifested
itself in the foundation and support of the hospital, the act of the local lord must have been
inspired by the fact that there were people who needed such an institution. According to
Fgedis argumentation, the existence of the hospital in the above-mentioned settlement
pointed to a certain level of social differentiation and thus reflected an ongoing urbanisation
process26. Though in his study he focused on the correlation between the presence of
mendicant orders and urban development in medieval Hungary, he concluded that in case
of smaller market towns, the existence of a hospital was a more indicative criterion of rise
from the status of a bigger village to that of a market town, than the right to hold fairs or
the presence of the friars.
Along this line, Andrs Kubinyi devoted further attention to the question of hospitals
and urbanisation, and compiled a list of hospitals in fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century
Hungary27. His list contains with some further modifications and corrections by the
authors of this article the hitherto available references to any medieval hospital once in
existence (see the map in the appendix, Fig. 9). However, certain disclaimers need to be made
here. Firstly, the map on the geographical distribution of the hospitals would benefit from
further temporal refinement concerning the time limits of the existence of the institutions
displayed. Some of them were already founded in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century
and may not have survived until the late Middle Ages, while others were established only in
the fifteenth or early sixteenth century (Table 1).
Table 1. The Intensity of Hospital Foundation in the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary

Foundation Interval Number of Hospitals Founded
Second half of the twelfth century 4
First half of the thirteenth century 3
Second half of the thirteenth century 6
First half of the fourteenth century 6
Second half of the fourteenth century 17
First half of the fifteenth century 10
Second half of the fifteenth century 3
First half of the sixteenth century 1
Unknown Date 77
In some cases the foundation dates or any hints to an approximate timing of foundation
need further investigation. A case in point is the already mentioned St Peter hospital in
Szeged, for which the first piece of written evidence dates to 1458, but the stylistic features of
its carved stones, re-used in the building of the Franciscan friary, point to the first third of
25
18 Oct 1400: capella et domus hospitalis in civitate nostra Freistoth in strada publica versus fluvium Vagh olim
per nos et prefatum magnificum virum pie memorie dominum Nicolaum Konth palatinum dominum, dominum et maritum
nostrum charissimum ad honorem s. Spiritus fundata received the exclusive right for having a bath (balneo ex opposito
dicte domus hospitalis) and was given a house (domo lapidea ... penes eadem domum hospitalem), lands, shambles and
vineyards, MOL, DL 8588.
26
FGEDI, Koldul bartok (cit. n. 24) 85s.
27
KUBINYI, Orvosls (cit. n. 3) 263267.
the thirteenth century28. However, due to the high percentage of those cases when the above-
described source conditions provide little hope of clarification, a substantial refinement
of the map would still not be possible. Secondly, it should also be noted that the monastic
institutions have not been surveyed thoroughly enough until now from the particular point
of view of public hospitals. Even if the issue of infirmaries operated to cover the internal
needs of the monks or nuns falls outside the scope of the present study, the monastic
involvement in the care for secular inmates will need to be reassessed. As some examples
of archaeological excavations (e. g. BudapestMargitsziget, Lvld, and perhaps Esztergom)
indicate, this might modify our present knowledge of the available hospital institutions and
their housing capacities in medieval times.
In light of the traceable dates of foundation, it can be observed that the majority of
the hospitals in medieval Hungary were founded during the second half of the fourteenth
and the first half of the fifteenth century (Table 2), corresponding to the more intensive
development of the urban network29.
Table 2. Hospitals with an Approximate or Definite Foundation Date

Foundation Interval Percentage of Hospitals
Second half of the twelfth century 14 %
First half of the thirteenth century
Second half of the thirteenth century 24 %
First half of the fourteenth century
Second half of the fourteenth century 54 %
First half of the fifteenth century
Second half of the fifteenth century 8%
First half of the sixteenth century
By the end of the Middle Ages this network consisted of thirty royal towns (tavernical,
mining, Saxon towns), twelve episcopal cities, and according to the estimation of Andrs
Kubinyi, approximately one hundred and twenty market towns30. Almost all royal towns
(25) and episcopal centres (11, with the exception of the least significant Nyitra as well as
the second archiepiscopal see, Kalocsa, which shared its ecclesiastical central functions with
the more favoured Bcs) housed one or more hospitals, and such institutions were also to be
found in 49 market towns. Thus, out of the 128 hospitals known so far (in 92 settlements)
53.5 % were in royal or episcopal centres, 41 % in market towns, and only 4.7 % in villages31.
Concerning the five village hospitals, one of them might have belonged to the neighbouring
28
LUKCSSZNOKYHADNAGY, A Szeged-alsvrosi (cit. n. 16) 159s.
29
See in general the chapter on Trade and Towns, in: Pl ENGEL, The Realm of St Stephen. A History of
Medieval Hungary, 8961526 (London 2001) 244266, bibliography 417421; Andrs KUBINYI, Einige Fragen zur
Entwicklung des Stdtenetzes in Ungarn im 14.15. Jahrhundert, in: Die mittelalterliche Stdtebildung im sdstli-
chen Europa, ed. Heinz STOOB (Stdteforschung A/4, KlnWien 1977) 163183.
30
Andrs KUBINYI, Vroshlzat a ks kzpkori Krpt-medencben [Network of Towns in the Carpathian
Basin in the Late Middle Ages]. Trtnelmi Szemle 46/12 (2004) 130; KUBINYI, Ispotlyok s vrosfejlds (cit. n. 3) 187.
31
0.8 % stands for an unidentified place called Azra. Thanks to the information provided by a Czech scholar,
Jan Hrdina, another hospital could be added to our list: capellam hospitalis sancti Gregorii in Rest, Jauriensis diocesis,
received indulgence with a document issued under Pope Boniface IX (presumably on 5 Aug 1399), ASV, Registra
Lateranensia 72, fol. 124v. The settlement might be identified with Ruszt. However, it was counted among the
villages, since it was raised to the level of a market town only in 1470.
market town (Alms village near to the market town called Neszmly), two were only
founded but there is no proof of their existence (Barc and Bot) and the remaining two were
the houses of the order of St Anthony (Darc) and that of the Holy Spirit (Kirlynmeti)32.
Thus, the existence of a hospital can really be considered as a sign of urban status, and those
market towns with hospitals were on a higher level of urban development than those which
did not house such an institution.
Number of Hospitals in a Town

Another characteristic phenomenon of medieval Hungary is that in the majority of cases
one town housed only one hospital (68; 73.9 % of all the settlements with hospitals). On the
one hand, this is to be connected to the fact that as we have seen almost half of medieval
hospitals were in the smaller market towns for which one such institution sufficed. On the
other hand, the relatively small number of hospitals should not necessarily be regarded as
a symptom of underdevelopment33, but more as an indicator of a different urbanisation
process compared to Western Europe. The population figures even in most of the royal
towns except for the capital did not exceed 3,0005,000 inhabitants34. The immigration rate
of persons without any family ties was fairly low, because the mass of new settlers moved
to the towns from the neighbouring villages. Consequently, the number of those absolutely
rootless poor people who lacking any other kind of social support and assistance needed
institutional care in hospitals was also lower. Additionally, as for example it is detectable in
the case of Pozsony, the network for supporting the household poor (hausarme leute) those
impoverished people who lived at home was also significant. This form of charity could be
an effective and perhaps more human alternative to institutional care35.
Nevertheless, there were some major towns with two (15; 16.3 % of all towns with
hospitals) or more (8; 8.7 %) hospitals, but a higher number in any case did not mean more
than four. Accommodating two hospitals (15 towns)36 often included one hospital and one
32
KUBINYI, Ispotlyok s vrosfejlds (cit. n. 3) 188, 190.
33
As opposed to CEVINS, Lglise dans les villes hongroises (cit. n. 3) 75.
34
Some population figures from the late fifteenth century: Buda with its suburbs 13,500; Szeged 9,500;
Brass 6,0007,000; Pozsony 5,1005,600; Sopron 3,2003,500; Eperjes 2,9003,000; Brtfa 3,000; Kassa, Kolozsvr
and Nagyszeben 4,0005,000 each. See ENGEL, The Realm (cit. n. 29) 260; Gyrgy GRANASZTI, A kzpkori magyar
vros [The Medieval Hungarian Town] (Budapest 1980) 157; Andrs KUBINYI, A Magyar Kirlysg npessge a 15.
szzad vgn [The Population of the Kingdom of Hungary at the End of the Fifteenth Century]. Trtnelmi Szemle
38 (1996) 135161, esp. 149s.
35
MAJOROSSY, Church in Town (cit. n. 10), ch. 4: Charity and the Pauperes Christi, 217284.
36
The following list includes all those towns where more than one hospital existed during the Middle Ages
and corrections were indicated in those cases where new data were found by the authors: Brtfa (2), Brass (2), Eger
(2), Eperjes (2), Lcse (2), Medgyes (2), Nagyszeben (2), Pozsony (2 and not 3 as in old literature, see MAJOROSSY,
unsere arme lewte [cit. n. 4]), Segesvr (2), Szeged (2), Szombathely (2), Trencsn (2), jlak (2), Veszprm (2), and
in addition to Andrs Kubinyis list: Besztercebnya (2 and not 1 as stated by earlier scholarship; for the data on
St Anne hospital we are thankful to Dra Kuzma), but Pcs should be excluded (1 and not 2 as stated by earlier
scholarship, see Tams FEDELES, Gilebertus ispotlyos mester. Az ispotlyosok kzpkori pcsi rendhznak krdse
[Gilebertus Hospital Master. The Issue of the Medieval Hospitaller House in Pcs]. Pcsi Szemle 6 [2003] 1017). More
than two hospitals were identified in the following towns: Buda (4, in addition: a domus animarum, and probably
Margitsziget), Esztergom (3), Kassa (probably 3 and not 2 as stated by earlier scholarship, as an additional leprosarium
is attested by a document dated to 2 March 1453: in domo pauperum leprosorum, MOL, DL 14645), Kolozsvr (3 and
not 2, for an additional hospital entitled St Job was founded in around 1559 see Elek JAKAB, Oklevltr Kolozsvr
trtnete els ktethez [Cartulary to the First Volume of the History of Kolozsvr/Klausenburg] [Budapest 1888]
1 389s.), Krmcbnya (3), Szkesfehrvr (3), Vrad (3), Zgrb (4). See Fig. 9.
leper hospital (7), while in cases of more hospitals (8 towns) half of the towns had among
those a house for the lepers (4)37. The leprosaria in Europe often ceased to exist in the fifteenth
century, due to the disappearance of leprosy. In Hungary, however, in some cases it might
be supposed that the victims of the late-fifteenth-, early-sixteenth-century plague epidemics
were cared for in the institutions named in the sources as hospitale leprosorum. The great wave
of European plagues in the fourteenth century (1348 and after) affected the territory of the
Kingdom of Hungary to a much lesser degree than Western Europe38. Consequently, no
special plague hospitals were founded during this period. However, as the example of Brtfa
indirectly supports39, an institution named as leprosarium appeared in the sources of that
town in the early sixteenth century, when other sources testify to a pestilencia that ravaged
in the northern parts of the kingdom40. In other cases, like in Kolozsvr, the leprosarium was
later transformed into a normal hospital dedicated to the Holy Spirit41. During the time
of need, yet another hospital institution was founded in Kolozsvr, which was dedicated to
St Job the Patriarch. A last will dated to 1559 mentions its existence, stating that the named
hospital was pro tempore constitutum and, indeed, some years before there had been a plague
epidemic in the town42.
When two formerly separate hospitals came under urban governance as it was the case
with Pozsony in the fifteenth century they were often handled as one institution even if the
two houses were physically never united43.
The most important old centres, the towns of the medium regni had probably three
hospitals each in the course of the Middle Ages. The coronation town of Szkesfehrvr
was served by the St Nicholas hospital founded by the collegiate chapter and the St Stephen
hospital outside the town itself (apud Albam) run by the Hospitallers, whereas a third
37
At present leprosaria are known altogether from 13 towns: Brtfa, Brass, Eperjes, Kassa, Kolozsvr, Krmc-
bnya, Lcse, Medgyes, Nagyszeben, Rozsny, Segesvr, Tvis, Zgrb.
38
Erik FGEDI, A kzpkori Magyarorszg trtneti demogrfija [The Historical Demography of Medieval
Hungary] (A KSH Npessgtudomnyi Kutat Intzetnek trtneti demogrfiai fzetei 10, Budapest 1992) 860,
for plagues in Hungary esp. 2831.
39
IVNYI, Brtfa (cit. n. 13) 2 9 no. 3627: ad hospitale leprosorum (1501).
40
As for example a charter dated to 13 Oct 1496 written in Lcse: IVNYI, Brtfa (cit. n. 13) 1 485 no. 3282;
or another one from 1 January 1509 written in Nagyszombat: ibid. 2 86 no. 4067. In Ppa such an epidemic was
documented in 1508: Tanulmnyok Ppa vros trtnetbl, a kezdetektl 1970-ig, ed. Andrs KUBINYI [Studies
from the History of Ppa, from its Beginnings until 1970] (Ppa 1994) 97. In Sopron there was a detectable plague
epidemic in the 1495: HZI II/4 391; or in Pozsony in 1494/1495 as well as in 1501/1504: MAJOROSSY, Church in
Town (cit. n. 10) 45s.
41
Enik RSZ-FOGARASI, Kzponti helyek az erdlyi kzpkori vrmegykben [Central Places in the Me-
dieval Counties of Transylvania], in: Erdlyi vrostrtneti tanulmnyok [Studies in Transylvanian Urban History]
(Cskszereda 2001) 2047, esp. 3536. An indulgence was issued for it still as a hospital housing lepers, 25 April 1430:
Supplicatio de indulgentiis hospitale Sancti Spiritus pauperum leprosorum extra muros oppidi Clawsenborg, Pl
LUKCSICS, XV. szzadi ppk oklevelei [The Charters of the Fifteenth-Century Popes] 12 (Olaszorszgi Magyar
Oklevltr 12, Budapest 19311938) 1 257 no. 1409. In the 1450s and later donations were bequeathed pauperibus
in ecclesia S. Spiritus, BENK, Kolozsvr magyar klvrosa (cit. n. 15) 49.
42
1559: pauperibus leprosis et aliis valetudinariis in hospitalibus in memoriam Sancti Spiritus et Beati Job Patriarche
fundatis in fine suburbii, JAKAB, Oklevltr Kolozsvr (cit. n. 36) 1 389s.; BENK, Kolozsvr magyar klvrosa 50. The
latter author connects the St Job hospital and the choice of its patron saint with persons suffering from scabies and
suggests that it might have existed already in the 1530s. For the plague in 1553/1554: Ist durch ganz Siebenbrgen grosser
Viehe-Sterb gewesen darauf grosse Pest erfolget ist, Gregorius KRAUSS, Schaessburger Chronik aus den Zeiten tiefster Not
(Schssburg 1926) 22. See also Joannes GOEBELGeorg WACHSMANN, Chronica Civitatis Schaesburgensis 15141663,
in: Jzsef KEMNY, Deutsche Fundgruben der Geschichte Siebenbrgens 2 (Klausenburg 1840) 85140, cit. 93.
43
MAJOROSSY, unsere arme lewte (cit. n. 4) 44s.
almshouse under the patronage of St Anthony cannot be localised and connected to a

founder at the present state of research. The royal and archiepiscopal city of Esztergom
had one institution dedicated to the Holy Spirit and another to St Elisabeth. Besides,
the presence of three different Hospitaller orders that of St John, King St Stephen (a
Hungarian foundation)44 and St Lazarus is also attested, but it is uncertain how many of
these maintained hospitals or almshouses, and for how long45. The order of St John operated
at least a bath in Esztergom46. Only Buda, the newly founded capital from the thirteenth
century, boasted four or five hospitals: the St Elisabeth and St Gerhard hospitals south of
the Castle Hill, by the hot water springs (de inferioribus calidis aquis); the St Lazarus hospital
(originally a leprosarium) in the northwestern suburb and a so-called domus animarum on
the castle hill. Even if some doubts may be cast on the purpose of the latter institution, the
number of hospitals at the disposal of the inhabitants of the capital was augmented by the
Holy Spirit hospital in Felhvz (in superioribus calidis aquis Budensibus). This settlement was a
legally separate market town, but its hospital, originally founded and run by the order of the
Holy Spirit, was administered by the council of Buda in the late Middle Ages47.
Besides the above-mentioned Kolozsvr, one of the mining towns (Krmcbnya), a
prosperous merchant town (Kassa) and two of the episcopal cities (Vrad and Zgrb) also
joined the circle of towns with three charitable institutions48. The higher number of hospitals,
especially in episcopal cities, is due to the parallel foundations by several ecclesiastical bodies,
cathedral and collegiate chapters, various religious orders as well as the bishop himself.
There was one group of settlements where hospitals occurred more frequently and in
greater number than one would expect judging simply by the population figures, namely
the mining towns49. These settlements played a prominent role not only in Hungarian
economy, but also on a European scale: in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, they pro-
vided almost ninety per cent of the gold and about two-thirds of the silver production of
the continent. Beside the more populous Selmecbnya, Zsolna, and Nagybnya, even such
fairly small places as Korpona, jbnya, and Telkibnya had a hospital, Besztercebnya had
two and Krmcbnya three. This frequency can be explained with the special constitution
of the population: mines attracted a higher number of migrants, both skilled workers and
marginal elements of society, who often left their family and relatives behind. Furthermore,
the unhealthy working conditions and a presumable male majority also contributed to the
number of persons who needed institutionalised care. It is telling that in almost all mining
towns where data about the foundation or patronage of the hospitals survive, the rectors of
the mines (urburarii) were actively involved.
44
Kroly-Gyrgy BOROVICZNY, Cruciferi Sancti Regis Stephani. Tanulmny a stefanitk, egy kzpkori mag-
yar ispotlyos rend trtnetrl [Studies on the History of the Stefanites, a Medieval Hungarian Hospitaller Order].
Orvostrtneti Kzlemnyek / Communicationes de Historia Artis Medicinae 133140 (19911992) 748.
45
KUBINYI, Orvosls (cit. n. 3) 260264. He forms a sceptical opinion about the hospitals run by the
Hospitaller orders.
46
Zsolt HUNYADI, Cruciferi domus hospitalis per Hungariam et Sclavoniam ... A johannitk Magyarorszgon
a 14. szzad vgig [The Order of Saint John in Hungary Until the End of the Fourteenth Century]. Aetas 17 (2002/
4) 5276, 61. See also n. 50, below.
47
Andrs VGH, Buda vros kzpkori helyrajza [The Medieval Topography of the Town of Buda] (PhD
Dissertation, Budapest: Etvs Lornd Tudomnyegyetem 2002) 2 94102.
48
In case of Esztergom and Zgrb, part of the settlement was under royal jurisdiction.
49
ENGEL, The Realm (cit. n. 29) 247249, bibliography 417421; in general: Ian BLANCHARD, Mining,
Metallurgy and Minting in the Middle Ages 3: 12501450 (Stuttgart 2005).
Degrees of Ecclesiastical Involvement and Hospital Types:

Variations or Unity?
Besides the guest houses and infirmaries of the bishoprics and chapters, surprisingly few
traces of hospitals run by certain monastic or Hospitaller orders can be detected. For example,
the Hospitaller order of St John, otherwise known for its activity in the field of caring for the
poor and sick, operated several houses in the country, but the most recent research on all its
establishments in Hungary (until 1387 altogether 41 houses, including those acquired after
the fall of the Templars) could prove that only about two or three (Sopron, Szkesfehrvr,
and perhaps also Esztergom) ran a separate hospital for the public50. These hospitals most
probably mainly served the pilgrims passing through, especially during the early years of
their existence51. In Sopron, even later, after the order had reduced its presence in the town
and handed over the control of the hospital to the municipal administration, a distinct room
was reserved in it for the pilgrims; later, at the end of the fifteenth century, a separate house
was established for that purpose opposite the hospital building52.
The other religious order involved in caring for the poor in Hungary, the order of St
Anthony, possessed three hospitals: in Darc, in its principal monastery; in Segesvr; and in
Pozsony53. The latter, however, was soon handed over to the town: already after 1309 only the
spiritualia were kept by the order. In 1429, after the Hussites destroyed the area around the
hospital, the members of the order left their house behind and requested that the town take
care of the spiritual life of the inmates as well. Consequently, this institution ceased to be a
monastic hospital; although around 1505 the brethren wished to return, they did not manage
to do so54. The Anthonites tried to (re)gain their involvement in urban hospital management
already in the course of the fourteenth century with reference to the bull of Pope Urban V
issued in 1364, which stated that the archbishop of Esztergom and his suffragan bishops
should make sure that the hospitals were run according to their original purpose55. However,
50
Zsolt HUNYADI, Hospitallers in the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary, c. 11501387 (PhD Dissertation, Budapest:
Central European University 2003), ch. 6: The Preceptories, 106184. A hospitale was noted with the following settlements:
Esztergom (?) + balneum, Gyr (?) + balneum, Sopron (until 1346), Szkesfehrvr, Ljuba (?). However, the author could
prove their long-term existence with the help of additional information only in case of Szkesfehrvr and Sopron.
51
It is supported by the existence of the pilgrims room in the Sopron hospital (see also below), or by the
location of the hospital in Szkesfehrvr, Erik FGEDI, Szkesfehrvr kzpkori alaprajza s a polgrsg kezdetei
Magyarorszgon [The Medieval Ground Plan of Szkesfehrvr and the Beginnings of Bourgeoise in Hungary].
Teleplstudomnyi Kzlemnyek 20 (1967) 3145, esp. 3536.
52
22 Jan 1477: im spital ... die pilgerain, die nicht herbrig habent, ein kammer und ein stbl zwrichtten, das die beherb-
rigt werdenn uber nacht und also gestift werd auff ewig, HZI II/1 124. For the separate house (4 Nov 1491): Item mer des
pilgrm hawss wegen in der Schrippergassen von der stat gegen der burger spital ubergelegen ... zu ebigen czeiten zu aim haws
da di pilgrm inn beherbergt gestifft unnd geordent werden unnd bei dem spital beleiben. Gedenkbuch / Feljegyzsi knyv,
14921543, ed. Kroly MOLLAYKroly GODA (Sopron vros trtneti forrsai / Quellen zur Geschichte der Stadt
denburg A/3, Sopron 2006) 50.
53
SOMOGYI, A kzpkori Magyarorszg szegnygye (cit. n. 3) 2837; Gedeon BORSA, A Szent Antalrl
nevezett ispotlyos rend Magyarorszgon terjesztett nyomtatvnyai (15051506) [The Printed Leaflets of the St
Anthony Hospitaller Order Circulated in Hungary]. Az Orszgos Szchnyi Knyvtr vknyve, 19611962, 223232.
54
MAJOROSSY, unsere arme lewte (cit. n. 4) 48s.
55
5 Sept 1364: Nos igitur talium negligentium animarum periculis obviare ac leprosorum et aliorum pauperum debitis
eis alimentis fraudatorum indempnitati pietatis studio providere prout nobis ex apostolice servitutis incumbit officio intendentes
omnes collationes et provisiones, confirmationes, commissiones seu commendas de huiusmodi xenodochiis, leprosariis et eleemo-
synariis seu hospitalibus, que tamen de militaribus ordinibus aut aliis religionibus non existant ... nisi in illorum fundatione
secus constitutum extiterit seu per electionem sit de erectionibus priorum locorum huiusmodi providendum, eadem authoritate
apostolica revocavimus. FEJR, CD IX/3 436s.
the towns or the local priests opposed these claims. In certain towns in the northern part of
the kingdom, such as Kassa, Igl, and Vralja, their attempts had failed and control remained
with the respective towns56. In Segesvr the development took a similar course, as in Pozsony,
namely that the town succeeded in restricting the authority of the order over the hospital in
several steps, though the process started somewhat later, until the institution was completely
secularised during the Reformation57.
The activity of the order of the Holy Spirit was most significant in the country with
its at least five hospitals (Budafelhvz58, Fldvr, KirlynmetiBeszterce, Nagyszeben,
Szkelyvsrhely)59. As this list indicates, four of them were located in Transylvania. The
earliest of them was probably in Nagyszeben, where in 1292 the town community donated
the house which they used as a lay hospital to the order of the Holy Spirit to aid the poor
(pauperibus), the cripples (debilibus), the lames (claudis), and the newcomers (advenis)60. The
order operated this institution until the beginning of the sixteenth century, when the town
regained its control over the hospital. Concerning Beszterce and Kirlynmeti, since the two
settlements were less than ten kilometres from each other, the Holy Spirit hospital might
have been a common one. In Segesvr, although some sources indicate another hospital
or leprosarium besides the one operated by the above-mentioned order of St Anthony, its
affiliation cannot be ascertained61.
A manuscript kept in the central archive of the order makes it clear that around the
turn of the fifteenth century (1503) the Hungarian province of the order consisted of three
56
For Kassa: Bla DRAGNER, Adalkok a kassai Szent Llekrl nevezett srgi krhz trtnethez
[Contributions to the History of the Ancient Holy Spirit Hospital of Kassa]. Magyar Sion 18 (1904) 524531. For
Igl: Mt PAJDUSSK, Az igli rgi vrosi krhz trtnete [The History of the Old Hospital of Igl]. Scepusia
vknyve 1 (1912) 7389. For Vralja: hospitale pauperum Sancte Elisabeth in dicto suburbio [montis Scepus]: ZsO II/1 no.
1505; and for the document dated to 1401 on the issue: FEJR, CD X/4 9597.
57
Friedrich MLLER, Geschichte der siebenbrgischen Hospitler bis zum Jahre 1625, in: Programm des Evan-
gelischen Gymnasiums in Schburg zum Schluss des Schuljahres 1855/6 (Wien 1856) 165, cit. 3038, 5560. As
opposed to Pozsony, the hospital in Segesvr in 1511 was still partially controlled by the order. KUBINYI, Orvosls
(cit. n. 3) 261.
58
Andrs KUBINYI, Budafelhvz topogrfija s gazdasgi fejldse [The Topography and Economic Develop-
ment of Budafelhvz]. Tanulmnyok Budapest mltjbl 16 (1964) 85180, esp. 123129: in superioribus calidis aquis
Budensibus infra scilicet hospitale ecclesiam Sancti Spiritus. The hospital was located next to the source of the thermal
waters.
59
In the international history of the order Paul Brune listed the Hungarian houses without providing
references: Buda, Bulgarum, Marienburg (Castrum Marie), Glurni in Hungaria (?), Hermannstadt (Cybinium),
Littau, Lucania in Moravia, Maros Vasarhely (Vasabrcher, dioc. Transylv.), S. Hypollyte proche Vienne, Vienne, Paul
BRUNE, Histoire de lordre hospitalier du Saint-Esprit (Paris 1892) 407. According to Lajos Psztor, in Hungary at
the end of the Middle Ages Beszterce, Buda, Fldvr, Kirlynmeti, Nagyszeben, Pcs, Segesvr, Szkelyvsrhely,
and the unidentified Azra belonged to the order, PSZTOR, A magyarsg vallsos lete (cit. n. 3) 53. However, the
existence and the affiliation of the Holy Spirit hospital in Pcs and Segesvr is quite problematic. For a more detailed
history of the listed houses: SOMOGYI, A kzpkori Magyarorszg szegnygye (cit. n. 3) 3748.
60
24 June 1292: quod nos quondam domum cum suis attinentiis in Cybinio iacentem et ad nos pertinentem iam
dudum a nobis pro hospitali habitam et per nos manu saeculari correctam fratribus cruciferis de ordine Sancti Spiritus con-
cessimus, contulimus et donavimus, MOL, DF 244566; FEJR, CD VII/2 173, VII/3 159.
61
Tum vero ad id pia intentione inducti, volentes sustentacioni pauperum, praecipue leprosorum, in xenodochiis Sancti
Spiritus et Beati Anthonii confessoris, cibitatis Segeswariensis, existentium prospicere, Mric VRADY, A nagyszebeni s a se-
gesvri ispotlyok trtnetbl a XV. szzadban [From the History of the Hospitals in Nagyszeben and Segesvr in
the Fifteenth Century]. j Magyar Mzeum 6 (1856) 540553, cit. 552. A charter of Stephan Bthory dated to 2 May
1575 mentions a Holy Spirit xenodochium, see MLLER, Geschichte der siebenbrgischen Hospitler (cit. n. 37) 61s.
Paul Niedermaier, on the other hand, mentioned a Siechhof together with a small church, Paul NIEDERMAIER, Stdte-
bau im Sptmittelalter (13481541). Siebenbrgen, Banat und Kreischgebiet (KlnWeimarWien 2004) 156s.
main centres (Buda, Fldvr, Nagyszeben), headed by the house in the capital, Buda, which
was affiliated with Vienna62. Even though the number of houses under the orders control
was not too high, their popularity seems to be reflected in the fact that many other hospital
institutions were dedicated to the Holy Spirit, too63. The high number of Hungarians who
became members or financially supported the confraternity of the Holy Spirit hospital in
Rome (between 1446 and 1523, in 1253 entries altogether 3833 Hungarian names were
listed) certainly shows an interest in their activity64. For instance, although the hospital of
Brtfa dedicated to the Holy Spirit was not officially affiliated with the order according to
the hitherto known sources, there are documents which testify to alms-collections for the
orders hospital in Rome65. The first such fundraising campaign took place right after issuing
the bull of Pope Eugene IV dated on 25 March 1446 about the indulgence for the members
of the confraternitas Sancti Spiritus de Urbe 66.
Supposedly, the order of St Lazarus was the founder of some of the leprosaria, but given
the lack of sources no relevant list can be compiled about them. The orders role in the
foundation can only be stated in the case of Buda and Esztergom, and at the end of the
Middle Ages for which period most of the data fall these leprosaria were definitely not in
the hands of the order anymore67.
Additionally, in exceptional cases, monasteries or friaries of other orders were involved
or charged with running a hospital. For example, in the case of the hospital founded by the
archbishop of BcsKalocsa at Bcs, in 1234 two Cistercians from Got (Honesta Vallis)
were ordered by Pope Gregory IX to move in as rectors, but this seems to have been an ad
hoc arrangement68. The secondary literature mentions the existence of a hospital within the
Benedictine monastery of Kolozsmonostor which might have been open also to outsid-
ers69. In Lelesz and Lvld the Premontratensians may have taken over the task of caring
62
1503: 3um membrum est domus, seu hospitale s. Spiritus de Buda in Vngaria, cum suis membris solvere tenetur priori et
magistro Viennensi marcas duas, quae sunt ducati octo. 4um membrum est domus seu hospitale s. Spiritus de Septem Castris, cum
membris suis solvere tenetur unam marcam, seu quatuor ducatos, et vocatur domus de Cibinio et est membrum de Buda. 5um
membrum est domus, seu hospitale s. Spiritus de Castro Mariae in provincia Bursiae Strigoniensis dicti ordinis s. Spiritus, quod
recepit pauperes de novo, Beda DUDK, Iter Romanum I (Wien 1866) 89s.; also in: Trtneti Tr 4 (1866) 237239.
63
E. g. Brtfa, Gyulafehrvr, Kassa, Leibic, Lcse, Pszt, Szcsny, Vc, Vrad, SOMOGYI, A kzpkori
Magyarorszg szegnygye (cit. n. 3) 101s.
64
See the figure on the patron saints of the hospitals below. For the Holy Spirit hospital visitors in Rome
see Enik CSUKOVITS, A rmai Szentllek-trsulat magyar tagjai, 14461523 [The Hungarian Members of the Holy
Spirit Confraternity in Rome, 14461523]. Szzadok 134 (2000) 211244; Gedeon BORSA, A Szentllekrl elnevezett
ispotlyosrend bcslevele Esztergomban [A Printed Indulgence Letter of the Holy Spirit Hospitaller Order in
Esztergom]. Az Orszgos Szchnyi Knyvtr vknyve, 19821983, 207220.
65
17 April 1446 Georg Stock notary wrote about the goods collected in the town for the Holy Spirit Hospital
of Rome. IVNYI, Brtfa (cit. n. 13) 1 77 no. 446. Cardinal Angelus, the commissioner of Rome, on the other hand,
wrote a letter to the town council dated 26 Sept 1489 ordering that the money collected for the above-mentioned
institution should be given to Johannes Hirk, whom he appointed to prevent the money going to a false collector,
IVNYI, Brtfa 1 401 no. 2726.
66
Liber Confraternitatis Sancti Spiritus de Urbe / A Rmai Szentllek-trsulat anyaknyve, 14461523, ed. Vince
BUNYITAI (Monumenta Vaticana historiam regni Hungariae illustrantia I/5, Budapest 1889, reprint 2000) XVIII.
67
PSZTOR, A magyarsg vallsos lete (cit. n. 3) 57s.
68
15 May 1234: hospitale in territorio Bachiensi ad receptionem infirmorum et pauperum de propriis bonis construxerit
... duos conversos vestri monasterii [scil. conventus Vallis de Posega cisterciensis ordinis] viros ydoneos ad dicti hospitalis regimen
cum necesse fuerit concedatis, FEJR, CD IX/3 436s.
69
Bborka HALSZ, Adatok a marosvsrhelyi krhz trtnethez [Contributions to the History of the
Hospital in Marosvsrhely], in: A hazai orvostudomny trtnetbl [From the History of Local Medical Science]
(Bucharest 1957) 3665, cit. 37.
for the poor70. Though in Lvld the infirmarium of the Premonstratensian monastery was
fully excavated, the assumptions about its openness to the general public could not be fully
confirmed by the archaeological evidence71. In Szeged the Franciscans took over the St Peter
hospital complex, but it is unlikely that they continued to operate these institutions for their
original purpose72. Recent excavations in Szombathely, in the Franciscan friary revealed the
same process. The Franciscans, who settled down in the market town in 1360, occupied and
used the former hospital building, a fairly spacious undivided hall, and later rebuilt it as the
southern wing of their friary73. The St Catherine hospital in the rich mining town of Tel-
kibnya, founded in 1367 by the local judge and the rector of the mines (Georg Kuprer and
his brother), was first bequeathed to their relative, a priest named Matthias. He then commis-
sioned the Pauline brothers in Gnc, outside the town, to take care of the institution and cel-
ebrate masses for the founders and for him. It seems from the exceptionally copious archival
material, that the Paulines continued to operate the hospital and to care for the poor74.
However, the majority of hospitals did not belong to any order or confraternity. It
is especially conspicuous how little the nunneries were involved in the care for the poor.
This may be explained by the low popularity of female monasticism in Hungary, the small
number of nunneries and the rules of conduct that forbade nuns to communicate with
laypersons. However, there was one institution, the Dominican nunnery on Rabbit Island
(today Margitsziget), an island in the Danube just north of medieval Buda and Pest, which
may be an exception to this rule. It is mainly on the basis of archaeological evidence that
two parts of the nunnery complex have been identified as hospitals: a spacious, two-floor
building in the western courtyard and a smaller one attached to the cloister (Fig. 4).
Both of them contained a two-floor chapel as well. The excavator of the nunnery
suggests that patients were taken here by boats from all over the country, partly with the
additional aim of a pilgrimage to the grave of Margaret of Hungary, the daughter of Bela IV
who was once a nun there and was later canonised for her pious life. Unfortunately, the
existence of such a hospital is not supported by any written evidence75.
70
Jnos DANIELIK, A premontreiek [The Premonstratensians] (Eger 1868) 288; SOMOGYI, A kzpkori
Magyarorszg szegnygye (cit. n. 3) 17s.
71
Beatrix F. ROMHNYIGbor SARBAKPter CSENGEL, Lvld/Leweld, in: Monasticon Cartusiense 2
(Analecta Cartusiana 185/2, Salzburg 2005) 102113, esp. illustrations 250257; Pter NMETH, A vrosldi kart-
hauzi kolostor trtnete s rgszeti emlkanyaga / Die Geschichte und archologische Fundgrube der Kartause zu
Vrosld/Lvld I. Veszprm Megyei Mzeumok Kzlemnyei 1920 (19931994) 367382.
72
LUKCSSZNOKYHADNAGY, A Szeged-alsvrosi (cit. n. 16) 159s. The authors assert on the basis of the
architectural investigation of the friary, that first the friars used the hospital as their dwelling, but then it was succes-
sively pulled down between 1497 and 1503, as the building of the Franciscan friary and church advanced. See also
Istvn PETROVICS, Vrostrtneti tanulmnyok. Fejezetek Szeged, Temesvr s Pcs kzpkori trtnetbl [Urban
Historical Studies. Chapters from the Medieval History of Szeged, Temesvr, and Pcs] (PhD Dissertation, Szeged:
Szegedi Tudomnyegyetem 2005) 7173, 76s.
73
See the short excavation report by Erika HAJMSI, Szombathely, Ferences kolostor [Szombathely, Franciscan
Friary], in: Rgszeti kutatsok Magyarorszgon / Archaeological Investigations in Hungary 2000 (Budapest 2002)
213s. The takeover was probably facilitated by the fact that the founder of the friary was the bishop of Gyr, who
was also the owner of the settlement and the patron of the hospital. There are data about one more hospital in
Szombathely, see KUBINYI, Orvosls (cit. n. 3) 266, and Antal Tibor HORVTH, Szombathely a XVXVIII. szzadban
[Szombathely in the FifteenthEighteenth Centuries] (Szombathely 1993) 391.
74
MOL, DL 5783 (16 July 1367); DL 11976 (8 May 1428); DL 13819 (22 Nov 1444); DL 14390, 14391, 14392
(29 June 1450); DL 14396 (18 Aug 1450); DL 15368 (9 June 1459); DL 13819 (12 April 1479). Short summaries were
published by Zsuzsanna BNDI in Borsodi Levltri vknyv 5 (1985) 582s., 588, 590595.
75
See the short excavation report by Katalin IRSN MELIS, Budapest XIII., Margitsziget, Domonkos apca-
kolostor [Budapest 13th district, Margaret Island, Dominican Nunnery], in: Rgszeti kutatsok Magyarorszgon /
Fig. 4. The Ground Plan of the Dominican Nunnery on Margaret Island (Budapest)
1. The medieval ground plan

of the Dominican nunnery on
Margaret Island with the sites
of excavated pottery
( Katalin Irsn Melis, 2003)
2. Some of the scratched pottery

patterns found in the Dominican
nunnery on Margaret Island
( Katalin Irsn Melis, 2003)
There were hospital institutions that were not affiliated with any religious order, but
were founded and run by clerics (mainly canons and parish priests). One of the two hospitals
of Veszprm dedicated to the Virgin Mary was founded by the chapter, while the other one
seems to have been attached to the bishopric76. The above-mentioned hospital in Bcs was
Archaeological Investigations in Hungary 1999 (Budapest 2002) 186s. According to personal communication of
Mr. Ivn Petrik (Budapest City Archives), neither donation charters, nor charters issued by the nunnery itself testify
to this activity, and the canonisation protocols of Margaret of Hungary do not contain any reference to a hospital
on the island either.
76
capella hospitalis annunciate B. Marie virginis ... in civitate Wesprimiensi in loco capitulari fundata, Veszprmi
kptalani levltr [Archives of the Veszprm Chapter], cap. 8 (1486) and cap. 4 (1512); Dezs CSNKI, Magyarorszg
trtneti fldrajza a Hunyadiak korban [The Historical Geography of Hungary During the Reign of the Hunyadi
Family] 14 (Budapest 18901913) 3 217: Demetrius de Lad lector ac canonicus et magister hospitalis capelle annuntiationis
Virginis Marie (1532). For the St Catherine hospital (pro capella hospitalis S. Catherine in civitate Vesprimiensis) in 1475
the bishop asked for an indulgence, SOMOGYI, A kzpkori Magyarorszg szegnygye (cit. n. 3) 76.
founded by the archbishop of BcsKalocsa, while the Holy Spirit hospital of Vrad some
two hundred years later by Petrus Wep, lector et concanonicus in Vrad. Seeing the great need
and probably its fruitful function, the canon not only kept supporting the almshouse that he
had earlier endowed in Gyulafehrvr77, but in 1446 he also decided to establish a similar one
in Vrad in his own house78. As lector-canon, he must have been familiar with the needs and
problems of the poor students who are begging or would do so if others by pious instiga-
tion had not come to their aid, directly or indirectly79. In this case the whole administration
was surely in the hands of clerics, or more precisely in the hands of Petrus Wep himself. He
administered the whole institution: appointed the master of the hospital, acted in court for
its property rights, and interceded with the king on behalf of the institution80. The above-
mentioned Holy Spirit hospital of Gyulafehrvr was founded and built by Stephan, bishop
of Transylvania, who in 1418 requested an indulgence for the institution81. There were other
places where the chapter and the canons controlled the hospital in the town: in Szkesfe-
hrvr the St Nicholas hospital, in Pcs the St Bartholomew (later St Elisabeth) hospital82,
and in Zgrb the St Elisabeth hospital also belonged to the chapter and the canons were
the masters. The latter was handed over by Pope Nicholas V to the Cistercians of the town83.
In Eger it is known from a document dated to 1240 that the St James hospital was founded
already in the late twelfth century by the bishop together with the chapter, but then it was
donated as a prebend to secular priests. Bishop Cletus with the confirmation of Pope Gre-
gory IX, however, reformed the institution and later it appeared as a separate parish church
in the sources84. Other hospitals or almshouses were established by local priests, belonged to
the parish church of the settlement and/or had parish priests as masters (e. g. Leibic, Eperjes,
Miskolc, Pszt, Olaszi, Vralja, Beregszsz, Pest)85.
77
3 March 1446: pro recreatione et nutrimento scolarium ibidem degentium, MOL, DL 13914.
78
11 Nov 1446: honorabilis vir dominus Petrus de Wep lector et concanonicus noster, ac fundator hospitalis Sancti
Spiritus iuxta scolas civitatis Waradiensis fundati, MOL, DL 30184; see also Vince BUNYITAY, A vradi pspksg trtne-
te [The History of the Vrad Bishopric] 2 vols (Nagyvrad 1883) 1 254; ex dictis quatuor curiis (canonicalibus) in quarta
curia constructum est hospitale, ANR, Alba Iulia, Batthny-kdex I.4, passim; BUNYITAY, A vradi pspksg 2 23.
79
In an undated document one reads: de pauperibus scholaribus qui mendicant vel mendicarent si ab aliis pietatis
intuitu non subveniretur eisdem, directe vel indirecte, The Archives of Gyulafehrvr, Batthny-kdex II.8, passim; BUN-
YITAY, A vradi pspksg 1 154, 2 23.
80
BUNYITAY, A vradi pspksg 2 23.
81
Supplicatio Stephani episcopi Transilvanensis de indulgentiis ecclesias domus pauperum S. Spiritus ac
parochialem beati Nicolai confessoris in Albagyula, per ipsum constructas, visitaturis, LUKCSICS, XV. szzadi ppk
(cit. n. 41) 1 62 no. 72.
82
SOMOGYI, A kzpkori Magyarorszg szegnygye (cit. n. 3) 77s.; Ede PETROVICH, Pcs kzpkori krhza
[The Medieval Hospital of Pcs]. Janus Pannonius Mzeum vknyve (1960) 271274. According to Tams Fedeles
who could identify thirteen hospital masters between 1320 and 1532 76.9 % of them were surely canons before
having been elected as beneficiaries in the hospital and the other hospital masters were also priests, Tams FEDELES,
A pcsi ispotly igazgati a 1416. szzadban [The Masters of the Hospital in Pcs During the FourteenthSixteenth
Century]. Orvostrtneti Kzlemnyek / Communicationes de Historia Artis Medicinae 182185 (2003) 117126.
83
Johannes B. TKALI, Monumenta historica liberae regiae civitatis Zagrabiae 111 (Zagreb 18891905) 1
267; 2 73, 234; 4 298; 9 17, 22; FEJR, CD X/7 438.
84
7 March 1240: hospitale S. Iacobi Agriense ... eisdem exclusis exinde a quibusdam episcopis Agriensibus qui fuere pro
tempore in beneficium secularibus clericis concessum fuerit, venerabilis frater noster Cletus episcopus Agriensis pie considerans
quod ex refectione pauperum retributio proveniat celestium premiorum ... deliberatione provida reformavit, FEJR, CD IV/1
190; Gza Balzs NAGY, Iratok az egri gygyts trtnetbl [Documents Concerning the History of Healing in
Eger]. Agria 39 (2003) 377400, cit. 377s.
85
SOMOGYI, A kzpkori Magyarorszg szegnygye (cit. n. 3) 5860, 8185.
Finally, during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, burghers and noblemen also
took their share from urban hospital founding. Institutions that owe their existence to civic
initiative include Besztercebnya, St Elisabeth (around the 1330/50s)86, Krmcbnya, Vir-
gin Mary (before 1382)87, Pozsony, St Ladislas (around the 1370s)88, jbnya, St Elisabeth
(around 1393)89, Galgc (before 1400), Szakolca, St Elisabeth and Beck, Holy Spirit (before
1431) by the same person90, Szond, All Saints (1434)91, Srospatak (before 1494)92, Debrecen
(1529)93. However, in case of these civic establishments often quite soon after their founda-
tion mainly due to financial reasons the town took over the governance. In 1397 the St
Ladislas hospital in Pozsony, approximately thirty years after its foundation was donated
to the urban community, stating that the town judge and the council is more able to benefi-
cially and usefully take care of the hospital and the poor living inside94. The same happened
in 1511 in Szkelyvsrhely when the hospital was on the verge of bankruptcy95. In 1529 in
Debrecen the founder of St Elisabeth hospital already in the foundation charter requested
that the town take over the responsibility of his foundation after his death96.
By the end of the fifteenth century, the majority of the hospitals, whatever background
they may have had, were completely or at least partially drawn under urban administration.
Thus, hospitals were not only concomitants of the urbanisation process as earlier, but more or
less became par excellence urban institutions, even though in certain cases the towns shared their
control with the parish priest or some other clerics. The only issue open to discussion was that
of the burial rights of the hospital chapels, which could deprive the local parishes of significant
86
The agreement between providus vir Petrus Caroli civis de Novisolio (as founder) and Stephanus plebanus de
Novisolio (parish priest) was wrongly dated to 1303, FEJR, CD VIII/1 140142. It was most probably signed either
around 1330s or the 1350s, SOMOGYI, A kzpkori Magyarorszg szegnygye (cit. n. 3) 61. On the history of the
hospital, with some mistakes, see Emil JURKOVICH, Besztercebnya szabad kirlyi vros monogrfija, kziratknt az
Orszgos Szchnyi Knyvtrban [Monograph of Besztercebnya Free Royal Town, Manuscript in the Hungarian
Szchnyi Library] (Budapest 1922).
87
Johelinus urburarius et civis de Chrempnicia ductus devotione spirituali quamdam domum hospitalem ad repicien-
dum pauperes Christi et debiles in ipsam confluentes in eleemosynam perpetuam in ipsa civitate nostra Crempniciensi construxit,
FEJR, CD IX/5 588s.
88
MAJOROSSY, unsere arme lewte (cit. n. 4) 41s., 46.
89
providi viri Henchmani, Izienkel dicti, comitis urburarum nostrarum de Kremniczia ... ad beatam Elisabeth in cuius
nomine ecclesia hospitalis de Knigsberg infrascripta constructa, FEJR, CD X/2 106s.
90
Nos Stiborius de Stiborich dominus et heres de Bolondocz ... in hospitali S. Elisabethe in civitate nostra Szkalicz per
magnificum condam D. Stiborium felicis recordationis patrem scilicet nostrum charissimum a novo fundatum, erectum et
constructum, FEJR, CD X/7 400405; SOMOGYI, A kzpkori Magyarorszg szegnygye (cit. n. 3) 56s.
91
Norbert C. TTH, Szond (egy dl-alfldi mezvros a kzpkorban) [Szond. A Medieval Market Town of
Southern Hungary], in: Quasi liber et pictura (cit. n. 4) 589600, esp. 595.
92
DANKVALTER, A srospataki ispotly (cit. n. 4) 368. The founder was most probably the Plczi noble family.
93
HERPAY, A debreczeni reformtus ispotly (cit. n. 8) 1518.
94
17 Aug 1397: legitimi patroni et heredes fundatorum hospitalis sancti Ladislai regis extra muros Posonienses per
predecessores eorundem edificatorum et constructorum ex certis et rationabilibus causis ipsos ad hoc moventibus et considerantes
quod prefati judex et jurati dictaque communitas melius, salubrius et utilius dicto hospitali et pauperibus in ipso degentibus, de
universis necessitatibus eorundem ... ac edificia necessaria struere et ruinosa reformare; AMB no. 619. For the approximate
foundation date around the 1370s, see MAJOROSSY, Church in Town (cit. n. 10) 266.
95
1 Febr 1511: attente considerans defectus et penuriam hospitalis Sancti Spiritus de Zekelvasarhel quibus ipsum hos-
pitale plus in anihilacionem tendit quam in edificationem, quodque pauperes et proiecti infantes in eodem existentes commode
non possent nutriri, per simplicem mendicacionem. MOL, DL 74339; Szkely Oklevltr, ed. Kroly SZAB [Szekler
Cartulary] (KolozsvrBudapest 1890) 3 177s.
96
6 March 1529: Ladislaus Boncz concivis ... personaliter constitutus ... super hospitale beate Helisabeth quod ipse
fundavit in medio civitatis ... ut scilicet post obitum ipsius Ladislai Boncz perpetuis semper duraturis temporibusque judex huius
oppidi ... cum suis juratis et senioribus ... unum virum in magistrum et directorem dicti hospitalis eligere et substituere debeant.
The whole text is edited in HERPAY, A debreczeni reformtus ispotly (cit. n. 8) 22s.
income. The question was usually settled in the way that those who wished to be buried in such
chapels were only allowed to do so after having paid the fees to their own parish97.
As to the specialisation of these institutions, one can state that with the exception
of the above-mentioned few leprosaria they were not more than simple shelters. This fact
was explicitly worded, for instance, in a letter dated to 1459, which explained that the basic
function of the Holy Spirit hospital of Brtfa was to lodge and feed the poor98. Most of the
foundation charters described the hospital as a place ad receptionem infirmorum et pauperum or
ad repiciendum pauperes Christi et debiles99. There were only a few exceptions when a special or
additional function was mentioned in the sources, such as in case of Szkelyvsrhely, where
orphans or foundlings were also included among the inmates100, or, as it was discussed ear-
lier, in Vrad the poor students received accommodation in the hospital which was founded
beside the school. Here the students lived according to fixed rules, and had to earn some of
their food by singing at public events, or at funerals of well-to-do burghers101.
In the early sixteenth century, as mentioned above, some of the leprosaria probably func-
tioned as special plague hospitals. In the St Anne hospital of Besztercebnya poor people
who suffered from the French disease were also separately mentioned102, just like in the Holy
Spirit and probably also the St Job hospital of Kolozsvr103.
97
E. g. in Pozsony a serious conflict about funerary rights burst out in 1384 between the parish priest of the
St Lawrence suburban parish and the order of St Anthony that ran the older hospital, Judit MAJOROSSY, I wish my body
to hallowed ground. Testamentary Orders of the Burghers of Late Medieval Pressburg about Their Own Burial, in: De
Senectute et Morte Ideals and Attitudes towards Old Age and Death in Antiquity and Middle Ages, ed. Jussi RANTALA
(Turnhout 2007, forthcoming). For a similar example in Besztercebnya: SOMOGYI, A kzpkori Magyarorszg szegny-
gye (cit. n. 3) 85. In rare cases, like in Sopron, the hospital priest had an exempt right for acting as a parish priest, Jen
HZI, Sopron kzpkori egyhztrtnete [The History of Church in Medieval Sopron] (Gyregyhzmegye mltjbl IV/
1, Sopron 1939) 157. A similar case occurred in Cszma, where the hospital of Sts Cosmas and Damian was exempted in
1415, and accordingly the dead were to be buried in basilica seu capella ipsius hospitalis, MOL, DF 257006 (18 Sept 1415).
98
5 Nov 1459: behawset und behaldet unsere arme lewte, MOL, DF 213848.
99
hospitale in territorio Bachiensi ad receptionem infirmorum et pauperum (1234), FEJR, CD III/2 382; hospitale S.
Iacobi Agriense ... usibus infirmorum et pauperum deputatum (1240), FEJR, CD IV/1 190; domum hospitalem ad repicien-
dum pauperes Christi et debiles ... in eleemosynam perpetuam in ipsa civitate nostra Crempniciensi (1382), FEJR, CD IX/5
589; hospitale in honorem Sancti Spiritus in dicta civitate nostra Cassoviensi pro sustentatione et alimento debilium et miser-
orum (1392), FEJR, CD X/2 60; hospitale pauperum Sancte Elisabeth Quinqueecclesiensis ... in sustentationem pauperum et
infirmorum (1393), FEJR, CD X/2 125s.; pauperibus, egenis et infirmis in eodem hospitali Beati Nicolai [in civitate Rivuli
Dominarum = Nagybnya] existentibus (1430), FEJR, CD X/7 222; pro nutrimento pauperum hospitalis beate Virginis dicte
civitatis Eppries (1447), IVNYI, Eperjes (cit. n. 22) 1 147.
100
A plot in a deserted village was donated to the Holy Spirit hospital of Szkelyvsrhely in order to help the
sick and the abandoned children, MOL, DL 74339 (1 Febr 1511).
101
BUNYITAY, A vradi pspksg (cit. n. 78) 2 24; see also n. 79, above. Later documents attest that mendicant
students were singing for money at the hospital funerals as well. See e. g. A szentllek ispotly szmadsknyvei, ed.
FLRA (cit. n. 13) 60 (1606), 138 (1626), 158 (1631). Participation of pupils or students at such services was conside-
red part of the curriculum of parish or chapter schools all over Europe, see Martin KINTZINGER, Varietas puerorum.
Unterricht und Gesang in Stifts- und Stadtschulen des spten Mittelalters, in: Schule und Schler im Mittelalter, ed.
Martin KINTZINGERSnke LORENZMichael WALTER (Beih. zum AfK 42, KlnWeimarWien 1996) 299326.
102
Item armen leutn geben in das spital und zu sand Anne in der fastn vor proth, fysch, l und holz dy in den franzosen
sind gelegen, sey den Demeter auch gespeyset mit aller notturft alles zu samen gerechnet thut fl. 6, JURKOVICH, Besztercebnya
(cit. n. 86) fasc. 344 no. 2.
103
1531: Magdalena confratrissa fratrum minorum Item pauperibus leprosis sed et mala scabie correptis et infectis in
hospitali Sancti Spiritus extra menia huius civitatis commorantibus, lego denarios quinquaginta, ita ut ipsis pauperibus equal-
iter dividantur, JAKAB, Oklevltr Kolozsvr (cit. n. 36) 1 373s. The donations to the three hospitals of Kolozsvr in
1557: in sustentationem pauperum in xenodochys dive Elysabeth, Sancti Spiritus, et morbo Gallico laborantium, ibid. 389s.
Item ut proventus domus pastorie ad hospitalia Sancti Spiritus ac Scabiosorum conventantur, BENK, Kolozsvr magyar
klvrosa (cit. n. 15) 50.
Concerning specialisation, the question might be whether the different types of hos-
pitals (plague hospitals or orphanages) were not present at all, or whether these functions
were merged within one institution104 and only the sources are silent. In our view, medieval
Hungarian hospitals were fairly uniform in their function. They were meant to offer relief to
that problem which could be solved by human means, but was beyond the abilities of the in-
dividual afflicted by it: the problem of poverty and need. The question of illness was handled
in a different framework: the wealthy were cured and cared for at home, whereas the poor
were left to Gods will and mercy, mediated by the hospital clergy or other priests. This way
of thinking may explain the fact that although physicians were present in some major towns,
none of them were to be found among the personnel of the hospital. Healing was arranged
on a different principle and was not the prime function of these institutions. Communities
often offered extra facilities in order to attract physicians to work in a given town, but not
explicitly in the hospital. For instance, a late sixteenth-century entry from the town protocols
of Kolozsvr emphasised that the town provided an office and paid the rent and the doctor
had nothing else to do but to cure the sick105.
Very little is known about the hospitals of other religious groups than Christians. The
only example of a Jewish hospital so far has been identified in Sopron, next to the old
synagogue in the Judengasse (today j utca no. 2224) in the inner town106. The so-called alte
Jdenspital occupied the northern side of the same plot as the synagogue, and it existed until
1526 when the Jews were expelled from the town. An entry in the local Grundbuch testifies
that the abandoned building was bought by a burgher couple107.
In a few cases it is known that confraternities existed beside or in the hospitals. For
example, in Eperjes a burghers wife called Christina Codatzin gave a hundred denars to
the Virgin Mary confraternity which was founded in the hospital108. In Brtfa it seems that
the Corpus Christi confraternity took care of the institution109. In Gyngys, a source
from 1568 refers to a certain coetus xenodochialis which by that time was not functioning any
more110. Since all of these examples pertain to fairly small settlements, targeted research may
reveal similar associations from other, more significant localities as well111.
104
E. g. the authorities of the Maros county seat in 1511 granted a possession to the Holy Spirit hospital of
Szkelyvsrhely for the help of the needy together with abandoned children, MOL, DF 74339; see n. 95, above.
From the inventory of the Pozsony hospitals it is also known that probably abandoned children were housed to-
gether with the adult poor. E. g. in 1506: Item meer in paiden spittalen xvij arme menschen und zwu suppen diern und zway
kinder, AMB, B.s.2., fol. 3r; in 1510: Item mer xxiiij arme menschen mitsambt den kindern, AMB, B.s.2., fol. 5v.
105
ANR Cluj, Protocollum Centumvirorum I/5, fol. 151v.
106
Ferenc DVIDJnos SEDLMAYR, A soproni -zsinagga. A soproni -zsinagga helyrelltsa [The Old
Synagogue of Sopron and Its Reconstruction] (Budapest 1978) 22, 36, 6367.
107
9 May 1530: Georg Lanng, sunst Wasserpauch genant, mitburger zu dennburg, Barbara sein hauswirtin und ir
erben haben nutz und gwer emphanngen des alten jden spitals zu dennburg, zwischen Steffan Gtringer schuester und wei-
lend Georg Spitzer heusern in der Negass gelegen, Els Telekknyv / Erstes Grundbuch, 14801553, ed. Kroly MOLLAY
(Sopron vros trtneti forrsai / Quellen zur Geschichte der Stadt denburg A/1, Sopron 1993) 79 no. 516.
108
1507: ad fraternitatem gloriosissime Marie virginis ecclesie hospitalensis den. Ic, IVNYI, Eperjes (cit. n. 22) 2 368.
109
Data from 1432 in: Gyula MAGYARY-KOSSA, Magyar orvosi emlkek. rtekezsek a magyar orvostrtnet
krbl. III. ktet: Adattr 10001700-ig [Hungarian Medical Records. Treatises From Hungarian Medical History
3: Repertory 10001700] (Budapest 1931) 85.
110
Antal MOLNR, Mezvros s katolicizmus [Market Town and Catholicism] (Budapest 2005) 109.
111
In Pozsony after the 1490s a zech der armen lewt appeared in the sources. However, so far it cannot be proved
whether this confraternity had been founded in the hospital or had any connection to it, MAJOROSSY, Church in
Town (cit. n. 10) 257260. It can also be an issue of further research concerning other similar confraternities of the
poor: PSZTOR, A magyarsg vallsos lete (cit. n. 3) 58s.
Patron Saints
If only one piece of information can be derived from the scarce sources about a hospital,
it is usually its patron saint. Nevertheless, this issue is not always unproblematic, either. For
example, in case of Pozsony the three patron saints who appear in the documents actually
denote only two hospitals. In some other towns it also happens that the number of patron
saints and that of the hospitals do not correspond to one another. Similarly to the case of
Pozsony, in Pcs two different saints in the documents refer only to one hospital which
changed its patron saint sometime around the second half of the fourteenth century. While
in the first case the withdrawal of the founding order might have played a role in the more
dominant usage of the St Elisabeth title instead of St Anthony, in the second case probably
the building of a new church or chapel caused the change112. In addition, admittedly, one
quarter of the hospital patron saints are still unknown, since merely the existence of a
caring institution can be asserted. However, in those cases when the church dedications
were identified, the dominance of the Hungarian saints and the Holy Spirit is conspicuous
(Fig. 5). St Elisabeth of Thuringia, daughter of King Andrew II was the most significant, but
her figure was strongly connected to care for the poor elsewhere, too. At the same time, the
appearance of the knightly saint King Ladislas in the case of three hospital dedications is an
interesting phenomenon.
Fig. 5. The Type of Patron Saints of the Hospitals in the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary
Older literature suggested that the patronage of St Ladislas was to be connected to the
fact that the given hospital was founded by King Ladislas I (10771095) himself. However,
this is quite improbable, due to the fact that during the eleventh and even during the twelfth
century, the function of the later urban hospitals was performed by monastic institutions.
It is more credible that such church dedication may have reflected the founders own name
and also that St Ladislas was a favoured saint in the kingdom in general. Nevertheless, why
a knightly saint was chosen for the patronage of a hospital is still interesting. The second
most frequent patrocinium was that of the Holy Spirit, while St Anthony appeared in six
cases. The popularity of these two titles might be connected to the activity of the two
112
The St Anthony hospital in Pozsony was also called the St Elisabeth hospital: MAJOROSSY, unsere arme lewte
(cit. n. 4) 47s. Similarly, in Krmcbnya parallel to the take over of the hospital by the town the Virgin Mary patrona-
ge might have been changed to that of the Holy Cross, KUBINYI, Orvosls (cit. n. 3) 263. In Pcs until 1365 the hospital
was titled St Bartholomew, but after 1393 it was St Elisabeth, FEDELES, Gilebertus ispotlyos mester (cit. n. 36) 17.
respective orders, but as was seen earlier not all of those hospitals bearing a title belonged
to the corresponding orders. The other patron saints even, for example, the Virgin Mary
appeared once, twice or a maximum of three times only (Fig. 6).
Fig. 6. Patron Saints of the Hospitals in the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary
Size, Personnel, and Equipment/Furnishing

The most difficult task is to gain insight into the inner life of the hospitals. Medieval
sources reveal precious little information on the inmates, personnel and equipment, and even
those data are mainly from the end of the fifteenth century or later. The number of inmates
is attested to have been between twelve and twenty-four per hospital. The Szakolca charter
(1431) is the only document for the medieval period which stated that there were twelve poor
people in the St Elisabeth hospital at the time of its foundation113. In Besztercebnya the
number of those accepted to the institution could not exceed twenty-four114. In Pozsony there
are two extant inventories from the beginning of the sixteenth century, which stated that the
number of inmates in both hospitals altogether was nineteen (1506) and later twenty-four
(1510). The account books of the same period show that the St Ladislas hospital could house
at least twice as many people as the neighbouring St Elisabeth. Around the middle of the fif-
teenth century a tradesmen of the town, an ex-councillor, donated in his will twenty beds for
the St Ladislas hospital115. In Sopron a similar donation of completely equipped beds was be-
queathed for eight people in St Elisabeths, where according to an inventory almost a century
113
MOL, DL 12413; see n. 9, above.
114
Joseph Tulth de Nagyselymecz, Deductio jurium et proventuum parochialium huius liberae, regiae ac
montanae civitatis Neosoliensis (s. l. 1818) 41, manuscript in MOL; quoted by SOMOGYI, A kzpkori Magyarorszg
szegnygye (cit. n. 3) 100. See also: et quocunque casu ad paupertatem devenientium sed nec ultra numerum viginti quat-
tuor personarum, MOL, DL 24381 (15 July 1520).
115
For the quotation from the inventory see n. 104, above. For the will of Andre Schnbach from 1442: Item
und mer hat er geschaft in daz new spital in czwainczig spanpett armen leuten in yeglichs spanpett ain halben koczen, AMB,
PT, fol. 41v (will no. 89).
later (1553) there were twelve to sixteen inmates116. Even in the late sixteenth century these
institutions might not have accommodated more than forty people117. From these scattered
data, it seems that taking into account the size of the towns and the number of hospitals
within there was roughly one institution for every 2,500 inhabitants. At the same time, the
intense connections between the towns and their surrounding settlements could also provide
a solution for the problems of old age, sickness, and poverty among the immigrants.
About the inmates practically nothing is known. In Besztercebnya it was clearly stated
that only the poor of the town can be accepted. In Debrecen the founders wish was that
the hospital master should take in only the God-fearing and devout poor (bonos, devotos et
deumtimentes pauperes)118. In 1525, the protocol of the Benedictine convent of Kolozsmonos-
tor recorded the will of a noble couple from the surroundings of Kolozsvr to move into
the St Elisabeth hospital of the same town and to serve God119. This is practically the only
known example from medieval Hungary when a couple secured a place for themselves of
their own free will in a hospital for their old age. Furthermore, the husband, named Antal
Desew, appeared in a document as the steward of the hospital twelve years later120. His wife
probably also undertook some responsibilities in running the hospital. Records from early
modern Kolozsvr indicate that this notion of the hospitals as retirement homes slowly
spread among the urban population, but rather in the Early Modern period than before121.
Scarcely one might find among the inmates former hospital masters, public office holders,
burghers widows, who, moved by several reasons, willingly or unwillingly chose this relatively
modest way of life122.
Later efforts were also made to institutionalise begging and provide shelter for the
poor in the street by moving them into the hospital. Due to a reference from Kolozsvr in
1571 besides the two church wardens their honour [council] elect two council members
to inspect the poor laying around the church, and send to the hospitals those who belong
there. [...] If a person in need does not want to enter the hospital, or is not satisfied with the
amount of money that he received from the princely donation, he should be chased out of
116
For the will of Nicholas Sarlabitz from 1477: Item ich schaff ... im spital hie sal acht pett mitt aller zuegehrung
und mit sponpetten stifftenn, also das die armen lewt die kranck sind darauff ligent, HZI II/1 124. For 1553: SVL, Lad. XX.
ut U. fasc. 1. num. 1, quoted by Katalin KINCSES, Termszeti krnyezet, kolgiai httr s gygyts Sopronban
a kora jkorban [Natural Environment, Ecological Background and Healing in Early Modern Sopron]. Debreceni
Szemle 4 (2000) 521543, cit. 535.
117
In Pozsony in the mid-sixteenth century forty, while in the seventeenth century forty-six inmates were
mentioned, Istvn VMOSSY, A pozsonyi katholikus polgri polintzet trtnete [The History of the Catholic
Civic Hospital of Pozsony] (Pozsony 1898) 5154. In Debrecen in the seventeenth century forty to fifty, HERPAY, A
debreczeni reformtus ispotly (cit. n. 8) 71.
118
For Besztercebnya: et quod in antefatum hospitale S. Elizabeth nullus pauperum vagorum et extraneorum, sed
duntaxat de ipsa civitate circadarum, MOL, DL 24381 (15 July 1520). For Debrecen: HERPAY, A debreczeni reformtus
ispotly 22.
119
9 June 1525: in perpetuum Dei servitium ad hospitale ecclesie Sancte Elisabethe vidue extra muros civitatis Koloswa-
riensis fundate causa mansionis perpetue, MOL, DL 36400; JAK, A kolozsmonostori konvent (cit. n. 5) 1 458 no. 4097.
120
15 April 1537; JAK, A kolozsmonostori konvent 2 596 nos. 4599, 4600.
121
E. g. from Segesvr there are data for using the hospital as a place of retirement from 1625: MLLER, Ge-
schichte der siebenbrgischen Hospitler (cit. n. 37) 63. From Pozsony from the mid-seventeenth century: VMOSSY,
A pozsonyi katholikus polgri polintzet (cit. n. 119) 5154.
122
Farkas Balogdy, an alderman of the town, who was charged with opening the new cemetery in 1585 and was
the towns trustee in different matters, at the end died in the hospital among the poor (9 July 1606). However, he is
the only named inmate, which proves again his higher status and common respect, see A szentllek ispotly szma-
dsknyvei, ed. FLRA (cit. n. 13) 60, 72s. (1606); Andrs KISS, A hzsongrdi temet [The Hzsongrd Cemetery],
in: Forrsok s rtelmezsek [Sources and Interpretations], ed. Andrs KISS (Bucharest 1994) 112119, 348357.
the town123. In this case, the measure must have also been part of the fight against the spread
of the plague in the community.
As for the personnel, the master of the hospital was always elected by the patron, be it a
church institution, a local lord, or the urban community itself. When a hospital was taken
under urban control, the position of the hospital master became an important function of the
councillors. In the urban law book of Krmcbnya dated to 1492 one can, for example, read
the following: was aber den herrn pergkmaister, hauptman, kirchenvatter, spitelmaister, viertelmaister,
unnd derglaichen officirn belangt, haben s ihr orndnung vnnd bephelh124. A court case from Koloz-
svr in 1467 also reveals that the magister hospitalis (and even the balneator) was subordinated
to the local council125. In the case of more institutions in a town, as the example of Pozsony
shows, there was only one hospital master elected who was responsible for both hospitals126.
The representatives of the urban community, especially during the late fifteenth century, ful-
filled a kind of supervisory position even in such cases when the hospital masters themselves
were priests and/or were appointed by the church (e. g. Eperjes, Beszterce, Miskolc)127.
The masters were primarily in charge of the financial matters of the hospital, whereas
the everyday operation of the institutions was in the hands of the stewards or house-keep-
ers, who most probably lived in or near the hospitals. As the above example from Kolozsvr
demonstrates, sometimes the stewards were chosen from among the inmates. In Debrecen
the foundation charter (1529) also sheds some light on the management of the hospital at
that time. In this case the hospital master (magister/director) was also elected by the judge
and councillors of the town from among the outer councillors. This master then elected the
priest (presbyter), who performed the liturgical functions and took care of the spiritual life
of the inmates. The master was the one who selected the inmates and from them also the
steward (procurator)128. Similarly, in Brass there was no strict dividing line between the cared-
for and the housekeeper129.
The number of permanent personnel, as most of the account books of Pozsony testify,
was between seven and nine. According to the accounts for the years 1513 to 1515, around
sixteen people were paid for serving in the hospitals. The staff members always present were
the matron (spitalmaisterin), usually one nurse in each sick-room (suttendiern), the alms-box
servant (zistelknecht), the scribe (spitalscreiber), and the priest or chaplain(s). The female house-
123
4 June 1571: kt egyhzfi mell eo kegelmk valazzanak az thanachbely uraim keozzul kettetot kik az templom alat
hevereo zegenyeket lassak megh es az kik az Espotalban valok rendelje oda az kik penigh giermekesek azoknak eo kegelmek rende-
lienek az quartabol valami zegitseget vagy d. 10 vagy 20 vagy teob illik, tellyen az espotalybeli es azon kiwl valo zegenyekre az eo
felsege donacioia hwl penigh kik az zegeniek keozwl sem espotalba nem akarnak menni sem az zegitseggel megh nem elegeznek az
mint eo felsegeteol informacionk vala, wzettessenek ki az varosbol, ANR Cluj, Protocollum Centumvirorum I/2, fol. 41r.
124
Paragraph no. 82. See Ilpo Tapani PIIRAINEN, Das Stadt- und Bergrecht von Kremnica/Kremnitz. Untersu-
chungen zum Frhneuhochdeutschen in der Slowakei (Studien zum Frhneuhochdeutschen 7, Heidelberg 1983) 73s.
125
1 March 1467 (ante datum), Urkundenbuch zur Geschichte der Deutschen in Siebenbrgen 6, ed. Gustav
GNDISCH (Bukarest 1981) 277s.
126
As early as 1398 Ulreich Kiczmagel was the master of the two hospitals in the suburbs of Pozsony: in dy
czwen spital vor der stat zu Prespurch in das new und das alde ... Ulreichen dem Kyczmagel dy czeit ainem gesworn purger zu
Prespurch und den wir der gancz rat zu ainem spital mayster und zu ainem verweser armer lewt, AMB no. 549.
127
In these cases there were secular wardens (vitricus) beside the clerics, SOMOGYI, A kzpkori Magyarorszg
szegnygye (cit. n. 3) 69s., 73.
128
Idem etiam hospitalis director pro suo arbitrio bonos, devotos ac deumtimentes pauperes ad hospitale moraturos
suscipiat, de quibus unum semper quem ad id aptum esse noverit, in procuratorem et administratorem proventuum sub fide et
juramento ordinare debeat, HERPAY, A debreczeni reformtus ispotly (cit. n. 8) 2325.
129
Carl Gllner quotes for Brass without any source reference the following: Die weiber, welche hier unterhalten
warden, pflegt man spitlerinnen zu nennen. Es mssen derselben nur acht seyn, Carl GLLNER, Siebenbrgische Stdte im
Mittelalter (Bucureti 1971) 254.
keeper (schafferin), who might have been essentially in charge of the kitchen, also figures in
the list. In some of the accounts where there was no schafferin, a female cook (kochin) was
listed instead. The employees of the hospital farm usually included at least two coachmen
(wagenknecht), a herdsman (halter, viechhalter, pastor), sometimes also an additional swineherd
(sawhalter) as well as a herdswoman (herterin), and from one to four girls as farm servants
(viechdiern)130. For seasonal work in the vineyards and on the land, day-workers were em-
ployed. Similarly, the priest, the students, and the school master were hired for certain festivi-
ties from the nearby parish church of St Lawrence131.
The late sixteenth-century account books of Kolozsvr hospitals indicated the presence
of two types of people: the visible ones, the poor servants of the town hired for certain du-
ties similarly to the above-listed example from Pozsony, and the invisible ones, the needy,
cripples or old persons lodged in the hospital. There was also a slight difference between
those who entered the hospital of their own volition, leaving some bequest to the almshouse,
or had some earlier connections to the institutions, and those who were commended by the
town council. Those who chose this retirement option benefited from some extra care, like
ready-made clothes or shoes, and they are usually named in the sources132. When a former
hospital master became ill or disabled, the hospital hired a man to look after him133. In the
St Elisabeth and Holy Spirit hospitals of Kolozsvr in the late sixteenth century usually two
maids and one female cook were hired as servants, in addition to three or four male servants
hired mostly for pastoral and farm activities134. Their payment was both clothes and cash.
The scribe had an important service in the hospital135. In exceptional cases a barber was called
to the hospital, as happened, for example, when a child-servant was bitten by a pig, but there
is no evidence of any doctors in the hospital136.
The main function of the hospitals was to shelter the poor and at the same time to
provide religious assistance to cure their souls (and not their bodies). In those houses
founded or run by priests, such assistance was evident, since the hospital had its own cleric
for celebrating the masses (e. g. Pcs, Veszprm, Sopron, Eperjes, Pszt, Olaszi, Vralja, Eger,
Segesvr, Beregszsz). In case of civic foundations, the founders or later the town as patron
hired a priest or commissioned the nearby parish to exercise the religious tasks.
As was seen above, the different functions of the hospitals were often merged in one
building. This meant that the poor with no relatives to care for them, abandoned children or
orphans, and poor travellers or pilgrims were practically housed in one building. In most of
the cases the nursed inmates must have lived in one bigger hall similarly to Gyngys, where
putting up the inmates in the nave of the church was suggested by the results of archaeo-
logical excavations (Fig. 1). In some other towns excavations (e. g. Srospatak) or rare written
130
For the personnel see the following sources: in 1493: AMB, B.s.1.a., fol. 17r18r; in 15031504: AMB,
1.b.B.s.4., passim, but esp. between fol. 13r16v; in 1506: AMB, B.s.2., fol. 3r; in 1510: AMB, B.s.2., fol. 5v; in
15121513: AMB, 1.c.B.s., fol. 32v33r, fol. 50r; and for das diennst volkh in 15131514: AMB, 1.c.B.s., fol. 69r70r,
while in 15141515: fol. 105rv, fol. 108r; MAJOROSSY, unsere arme lewte (cit. n. 4) 51.
131
For the priest and the students: AMB, 1.c.B.s., fol. 33r, fol. 65rv; for the school master: AMB, 1.c.B.s., fol.
70v, fol. 109r.
132
ANR Cluj, Town account books: the registers of the St Elisabeth hospital [henceforth: ANR Cluj, Registers
of St Elisabeth], 1587. These sources will be soon published by Enik RSZ-FOGARASI and Lszl PAK.
133
ANR Cluj, Registers of St Elisabeth, 1600, 7. E. g. in 15861587 Gergely Sveges was the hospital master
and in 1600 a man was trusted by the hospital to take care of him.
134
ANR Cluj, Registers of St Elisabeth, 1598, 19.
135
ANR Cluj, Registers of St Elisabeth, 1587, 53 and 59.
136
The barber charged one florin for his services, ANR Cluj, Registers of St Elisabeth, 15861587, 13.
documents (e. g. Pozsony or Sopron) revealed the existence of several rooms (Fig. 2). However,
some of these were most probably reserved for those working for the hospitals. In Pozsony,
the above-mentioned inventory from 1510 listed nine rooms: five for the different servants,
one for the priest and one for the scribe, and finally a sick room (sutten) in St Ladislas and a
similar one in St Elisabeth137. The furnishing of these rooms may be visualised with the help
of the several altar-paintings (Fig. 3). The most elusive pieces of evidence are those connected
to the daily provision of the inmates. The researcher of the Dominican nunnery on Rabbit
Island (Margaret Island) has recently reported on a distinct group of coarse grey pottery with
scratched X or square-shaped or other marks. She connected these features with the intention
to separate the dishes for the inmates of the alleged hospital from those used for others in the
nunnery138 (Fig. 4). The later account books from Kolozsvr listed mostly tools and implements
for certain economic activities (axes, hacks, spits, carts, etc.), but some pieces of furniture are
also mentioned. According to these data, the inmates ate from wooden plates, their bed-sheets
were kept in a chest, and they sat on benches139. The quantity of such hospital equipment can
be counted in the two hospital inventories from Pozsony. The table below also reveals that the
councillor Friedrich Voyt, who was the hospital master between the years of the two inventories
managed to enrich the hospital with new beds and numerous bedclothes (Table 3).
Table 3. The Number of Beds, Bedclothes, Chests and Plates in the Hospitals of Pozsony140
1506 1510
Feather-beds / strap-beds (+travel-bed) for the staff in both hospitals 16 / 14(+1) 19 / 13(+1)
Feather-beds / strap-beds for the poor in St Ladislas hospital 13 / 25 / 16
Feather-beds / strap-beds for the poor in St Elisabeth hospital 4/4 12 / 8
Total: 33 / 19 56 / 38
Blankets for the staff 4 7
Blankets for the poor in St Ladislas / in St Elisabeth hospital ?/4 14 / 4
Sheets for the staff 4 19
Sheets for the poor in St Ladislas / in St Elisabeth hospital ? 23 / 19
Pillows (small and big) for the staff 9 21
Pillows for the poor in St Ladislas / in St Elisabeth hospital ?/3 17 / 19
Total: 24(?) 143
Pewter plates (deep and shallow) altogether 19 19
Wooden plates (deep and shallow) altogether 13 17
Copper bowls 2 3
Total: 34 39
Chests + tables for both hospitals 5+6 6+5
Carpets 2 2
137
AMB, B.s.2., fol. 5v7 r.
138
Katalin IRSN MELIS, Karcolssal jellt kzpkori cserepek a margitszigeti domonkos apcakolostor
terletrl [Medieval Pottery Fragments Signed with Scratches from the Dominican Nunnery on Margaret Island].
Budapest Rgisgei 37 (2003) 7990.
139
ANR Cluj, Registers of St Elisabeth, 15861587, 6667.
140
For comparative examples see John HENDERSON, The Material Culture of Health. Hospitals and the Care of
the Sick in Renaissance Italy, in: Gesundheit Krankheit. Kulturtransfer medizinischen Wissens von der Sptantike
bis in die Frhe Neuzeit, ed. Florian STEGERKay Peter JANKRIFT (Beih. zum AfK 55, KlnWeimarWien 2004)
155165, cit. 163. For San Matteo in Florence (1454) he listed in the male room: 29 straw mattresses with 30 bolsters,
29 small pillows, 18 pillow cases for the sick, and 30 blankets.
Additionally, the accessories of the liturgy were also listed: in 1510 there were seven
liturgical vestments, four mass books, two crosses, six chalices, fourteen votive candles, three
altar-cloths and four on the pulpit. One can compare these figures to the 1512 list of church
equipment of the St Elisabeth hospital in Zgrb. It owned four gilded chalices with their
belongings, six liturgical vestments, several altar-cloths, eight brass candlesticks, three bells,
two hand-written missals and five other old books. The windows of the hospital and its
church were both made of glass141.
The hospital complexes often included baths as well. From the description of endow-
ments in foundation or donation charters it seems that facilities for cleaning were regarded
as essential elements of any almshouse, be it in an important merchant town or in the
countryside142. More detailed accounts, for instance those from Sopron or Pozsony, reveal
that there were separate rooms for men and women, and that from time to time the heating
or other equipment for the baths had to be repaired143. From all this, one may well assume
that bathing was part of the routine for the inmates, although it is not possible to tell how
frequently they could enjoy this treat. Special bequests in last wills for so-called selpad(s),
that is, free baths provided for the poor in exchange for their intercession for the testators
salvation, point to the spiritual dimensions of this seemingly profane activity144.
The Functions of the Hospitals

As discussed above, by the end of the fifteenth century, in the majority of the free royal
towns the patronage of the hospitals was handed over to the town council, even in cases
when the hospital was originally a private foundation. In the episcopal cities and market
towns, where the hospitals were founded by the local landowner or a parish priest, the right
of patronage may have remained in their hands, but the hospitals became essentially urban
institutions. In economic terms, however, they were self-supporting units, and in many
cases especially in larger merchant towns also a sort of loan bank and pawnbroker. The
financial administration was managed by the hospital master (spitalmeister) appointed by
the town, who as was seen above was different from the steward or housekeeper (schaffer/
schafferin) who administered the daily operation of the institution.
141
TKALI, Monumenta historica Zagrabiae (cit. n. 83) 3 117.
142
Some examples on hospital bath: e. g. for Galgc: Item balneo ex opposito dicte domus hospitalis existente, MOL,
DL 8588 (18 Oct 1400), also in FEJR, CD X/2 817; for Gnc: MOL, DL 15368 (6 June 1459); for Sopron: HZI,
Sopron kzpkori egyhztrtnete (cit. n. 97) 156; HZI II/2 308. In Pozsony the usage of a room in the bath was
granted to the St Anthony hospital in 1309: ad stubam balnearem cum una camera, que adheret stube cum omnibus uti-
litatibus (24 June 1309), AMB no. 24. In Eperjes the wife of a butcher had a room built in the hospital for bathing
(2 April 1503): Item in hospitale reedificare stubam pauperum, ut possint pauperes in ipso balneari, IVNYI, Eperjes (cit. n.
22) 2 331 no. 872.
143
E. g. in the accounts of the Sopron hospital, 1489: Item zu machen dy padstuben III tal. LXXV den.; Item von
der Ulrich fla(s)chakerin hab ich ingenomen V tal. den. und davon hab ich lassen machen das gter und dy padstuben, als
ver das gewert hat, Kroly MOLLAY, Adatok a soproni ispotly trtnethez [Data on the History of the Hospital of
Sopron]. Soproni Szemle 6 (1942) 2936, cit. 31.
144
For donations pro uno balneo animarum in general see PSZTOR, A magyarsg vallsos lete (cit. n. 3) 62; und
ein selpat armen leuten in dem spital VI jar nach einander, alle jar ain pad und ein mal (29 Febr 1444), AMB, PT, fol. 50v
(will no. 107), and for the analysis of such bequests in Pozsony: MAJOROSSY, Church in Town (cit. n. 10) 236240,
244, 253, 278; for Sopron: HZI, Sopron kzpkori egyhztrtnete (cit. n. 97) 154156; for Eperjes: e. g. IVNYI,
Eperjes (cit. n. 22) 2 274 no. 673; 327 no. 863; 399 no. 1042; 413 no. 1091; and among the fragments from the Liber
testamentorum (14741513), edited in Trtnelmi Tr (1909) 438449.
With the following two short examples from Pozsony and Sopron, the place of the
hospitals among the religious institutions in the eyes of the citizens should be highlighted,
together with their economic activity and status within the town. The conclusions summarised
here are based on the detailed analysis of the extant hospital accounts from these towns and
on the analysis of last wills145. In Pozsony the two hospitals that co-existed from the late
fourteenth century onwards were soon handed over to the town council. In the course of
the fifteenth century they had co-administration in almost every sense, from the common
hospital master and staff to their kitchen. Though the citizens were aware of the existence of
two separate hospitals, their donations were often directed towards the Hospital including
both institutions. These hospitals received almost as many bequests as the two smaller
parish churches (St Lawrence and St Michael) or the Franciscan friary and the Poor Clares
nunnery in the town. The ratio of bequests for the hospital to all poor relief was quite
high especially during the 1450s and 1460s and after the turn of the fifteenth century
(4149 %)146. Concerning the place of the hospital within the economic life of the town, its
intensive banking activity is perhaps most remarkable. The so-called account book of 1441
and also two other Spitalbcher from the later period are basically registers for due payments
imposed on different immovables, and most of the extant individual charters in connection
with the hospitals from the period witnessed the same type of obligation (census hospitalis). As
is visible from the later, de facto hospital accounts, besides their wine production, the zinsgelt
was the most important source of income. In the early sixteenth century, around 3040 % of
all income of the Pozsony hospitals was derived from the zinsgelt147. Thus, besides acting as an
independent economic unit, the institution basically served as a creditor, and the dimensions
of this activity seem to override the original purpose of the hospitals.
In Sopron King Andrew II in 1217 donated the right of collecting tax in the town at
the Viennese Gate to the Hospitaller order of St John148. The order established its hospital
some time in the middle of the same century, and the hospital was run by them as an ex-
empt institution with its own priest up until the 1340s. In 1346 the preceptor transferred
the tax-collecting right and the hospital itself to the town on condition that half of the tax
income should be due to the knights and half to the hospital149. Comparing the rank of the
St Elisabeth hospital to other local churches during the fifteenth century, we arrive at the
same proportion as in the previous town: the hospital occupied the third place, on the same
level with the Franciscans, and just after the only parish church (St Michael) and the chapel
145
In case of Pozsony nine hundred wills, while in Sopron two hundred seventy five wills were analysed,
MAJOROSSY, A vros kzepn (cit. n. 4) 222233; EAD., unsere arme lewte (cit. n. 4) 5154.
146
Concerning the tendencies of institutional and non-institutional poor care Miri Rubin observed that
towards the end of the Middle Ages there is a clear tendency to prefer direct distribution to the poor, rather than to
institutional intermediaries. Miri RUBIN, Charity in Medieval Cambridge (Cambridge 1987) 262 with an example
from Yorkshire for a very low support of the hospitals. As we can see in the case of Pozsony and also in some other
towns (e. g. Sopron, Kolozsvr) from where relevant documents are available it was not necessarily so. Naturally, this
phenomenon has more to do with the different temporal development of these institutions in the two regions.
147
MAJOROSSY, unsere arme lewte (cit. n. 4) 52.
148
1217: sancte domui hospitalis S. Ioannis de Ierusalem ... ad omne ius et proprietatem, et ad omnem iurisdictionem,
et honorem et possessionem perpetuam, predicte domus, tributum porte de Supran, quod nominatur Bobech ... contulimus in
perpetuum possidenda, FEJR, CD III/1 239243. In 1238 King Bla IV confirmed the right: FEJR, CD IV/1 106;
HZI, Sopron kzpkori egyhztrtnete (cit. n. 97) 133; more recently HUNYADI, Hospitallers (cit. n. 50) 144s.
149
Thus, the St Elisabeth hospital in the fifteenth century was also under urban authority led by the hospital
master, but a significant difference as opposed to Pozsony is that it kept its own priest. Another significant differ-
ence is its location, since it was even closer to the inner town than the only parish church of the city.
Fig. 7. The Expenses and Income of the St Elisabeth Hospital of Sopron
of Our Lady by the moat that was almost on the level of a parish. Investigating again the
income and expenses, it is clear-cut that around half of the income during the 1430s derived
from the interest after the money-lending activity of the hospital (in 1436/1437 it was 51 %;
while in 1438/1439 it was 48 %). This proportion, however, by the end of the fifteenth
century visibly shifted to wine production (in 1489/1490 the income from wine amounted
to 53 %)150. Correspondingly, most money was spent on farming and viticulture. This, of
course, to a certain extent also served the poor, since their nutrition was partly solved by their
150
MAJOROSSY, A vros kzepn (cit. n. 4) 231.
own farming activity, but a good part of the incomes served the general financial balance of
the hospital itself (Fig. 7).
Some hospitals aimed at monopolising certain activities, which contributed to their abil-
ity to maintain themselves. For example, in Kolozsvr, as a later document testifies, the old
custom of brewing was the privilege of the hospital. Some people tried to break the bounds
and produce their own beer for sale, but as the town protocols stated in 1571: beer brew-
ing, as it was declared by the town before, was granted to the hospital for feeding the needy,
and therefore their honour [the council] wants this arrangement to remain as-is. By the
seventeenth century, however, the attacks to abolish the privilege of the hospital might have
been successful, since items on this activity are missing from the hospital account books151.
In 1590 the hospital in Debrecen also received income from brewing, whereas earlier it was
endowed with market-dues/stallages152.
Another important constituent element for almost every hospital complex was the
mills. These were practically always at a considerable distance from the main building of the
hospital, often in different settlements, but their possession was absolutely crucial for the
upkeep of these institutions. This becomes especially clear from court cases where hospital
mills were contested, and where the hospitals argued that the loss of their mills would bring
starvation to their inmates153. From such statements one may assume that the mills were used
first and foremost for grinding the grain for the hospitals own needs, thus strengthening
the image of the hospitals as self-sustaining economic units. Moreover, the mills could
generate income in the form of grain or flour, and perhaps cash for grinding for others. In
Besztercebnya the hospital had an exclusive right to grind in two mills, which must have
meant lease work for outsiders, too154. Vigilance for their own milling rights and attempts to
extend it formed a major part of the hospitals economic policy155.
The self-supporting economic activity of these institutions was further helped by different
pious bequests (in kind or in many cases as immovables). The donors, on the one hand, provid-
ed the basic immovables for the hospitals to become self-supporting units, as did, for example,
a royal janitor and comes in case of Eperjes, when he donated a complete village (omnes proventus
possessionis nostre Gergellaka vocate) to foster the poor in the hospital156. In Miskolc, as in several
151
29 July 1571: Az salatser feozeset mykeppen warosul rendeltek volt ennekelotteis az espotalhoz az zegenek taplalasara
mostanis eo kegelmek azt akarjak, hogy azonban maradjon. Es senki sem Seres Marton, sem Heltai Gaspar Uram, sem egieb
senki ennekutanna sert neh feozessen penzre hanem ha haza zwksegere, mert ha kwleonben chelekzik elseobe eo kegelmek 10
forintal bwntetyk meg, ha massor leszen 20 forintot vegenek raita, ANR Cluj, Protocollum Centumvirorum I/2, 47v.
152
HERPAY, A debreczeni reformtus ispotly (cit. n. 8) 6467.
153
Some examples of hospital mills: Galgc (1349): see n. 24, above; Kolozsvr: a royal donation from 1366
allowing to transform a mill used earlier for breaking gall-nuts for the use of the hospital, JAKAB, Oklevltr Kolozsvr
(cit. n. 36) 1 45; Krmcbnya (1393): FEJR, CD X/2 168171; Nagybnya (1430): FEJR, CD X/7 219225; Telki-
bnya: see n. 74, above; Verce (1455): MOL, DL 14915. Some court cases concerning mills: between the Holy Spirit
hospital of Budafelhvz and the Dominican nunnery on Rabbit Island: KUBINYI, Budafelhvz (cit. n. 58) 123136;
Miskolc (1491): MOL, DL 83958; Eperjes (1436): the hospital and other mills were destroyed when the town walls
were enlarged, therefore the hospital was to be given another mill, IVNYI, Eperjes (cit. n. 22) 2 111 no. 240; Gyngys
(1602): the rector of the St Elisabeth hospital claimed that when the hospitals mill had been alienated by a private
person, several inmates starved to death, MOLNR, Mezvros s katolicizmus (cit. n. 110) 109s.
154
15 July 1520, MOL, DL 24381.
155
For instance, in 1467 the chapter of Buda sued the St Nicholas hospital of Pest for setting up new mills on
the Danube by the town which strongly reduced their catch of fish, MOL, DL 106012.
156
The donation by Moyses Buzlay de Gergellaka ianitorum regalium magister ac comes comitatus Tholnensis was
performed in 1501 and was confirmed in 1506 ut nutriant pauperes in illo hospitali, IVNYI, Eperjes (cit. n. 22) 2 317s.
nos. 819, 820; 349 no. 917 (1506), 351 no. 923, 357 no. 925.
other such institutions elsewhere, the hospital accumulated from charity different immovables:
mills, vineyards, arable land, meadows and even forests157. Providing hospitals with certain
immovables from which the nourishment of the inmates could be solved was an inherent
part of their foundation. Later on, vineyards and houses were donated or mortgaged to these
institutions most frequently. Though the hospitals did not accumulate great capital, by receiv-
ing such endowments they managed to acquire properties and other estates that could also lay
the groundwork for further economic transactions, as the example of Kolozsvr shows158. The
extent of such transactions differed from place to place, depending on several circumstances.
The donors, on the other hand, also bequeathed according to the current needs of the
hospitals in their surrounding. In Pozsony, for example, in the midst of the Hussite ravages,
a burgher named Hans Wenig patronised the shelters of the poor with the huge amount of
two hundred florins per hospital. After the destructions, Klara Frantzin (1429) left twenty
pounds in silver coins for the rebuilding159. A century later, the former spitalmeister Pancraz
Rutenstock (1527) cared for the state of his much earlier governed hospital even in his death-
bed, by ordering money for the roof of St Elisabeths160. Since the current needs were not
always explicit as the analysis of the Pozsony testamentary bequests to the hospital testify
predominantly (68 %) money was given for undefined use. In addition, donations of wine
and sometimes grape wheat, flour, pork, and fat were also significant (15 %). Otherwise,
material for clothes (6 %), beds and bedclothes (4 %), vessels for eating or tools for agriculture
(4 %) were donated in relatively small numbers161.
If the institutions at certain points were not successful in self-management and were
also unable to attract enough donations, they turned to outside stimulation. In 1517 Peter
Czipser, the parish priest of Brtfa, for example, appealed to his fellow priests of the diocese
requesting them to promote and encourage the faithful for alms-giving, since the hospital in
his town seriously needed reparation and the inmates were suffering from growing misery162.
In other cases similar intentions must have been behind requesting/granting indulgence for
the hospital churches (e. g. Telkibnya, Besztercebnya, Kassa, Brtfa, Lcse, Galgc, Szc-
sny, Vrad, Buda, Zengg, Cszma)163.
157
1489: pertineat ecclesie hospitali omnium sanctorum in eadem Myskolcz constructe ad usum eiusdem videlicet et pau-
perum ibidem degentium, proventus ipsius molendini, ac prati et silve ac vinearum, et aliarum rerum ad eandem hospitalem de
jure et ab antiquo pertinentium, va GYULAIPter TTH, Az Avas topogrfija s toponmija a XIVXVII. szzadban
[The Topography and Toponymy of Avas in the FourteenthSeventeenth Century], in: A miskolci Avas [The Avas of
Miskolc], ed. Istvn DOBROSSY (Miskolc 1993) 2147; see also va GYULAI, Szlbirtokls Miskolcon a 16. szzad-
ban [Vineyard Possessions in Miskolc in the Sixteenth Century] (Officina Musei 3, Miskolc 1995) 25; for a similar
example in Cszma: MOL, DF 257006 (18 Sept 1415).
158
A house from Kolozsvr was mortgaged to the Holy Spirit hospital of Gyulafehrvr, JAK, A kolozsmon-
ostori konvent (cit. n. 5) 1 538 no. 1349 (16 May 1459). The already mentioned Antal Desew not only donated his
properties to the hospital, but managed to enlarge them with new acquisitions, ibid. 2 596 no. 4599 (15 April 1537).
159
30 Dec 1422: Item so schaff ich in tzway spital armen lewten in yedes spital czwayhundert gulden an alle irrung
geystlichen und weltlichen armen lewten nutzlich an zu legen, AMB, PT, fol. 24r (will no. 47); 27 May 1429: Item darnach
hat sy geschaft tzu dem paw in das new spital xx libra denar weiss gelts, AMB, PT, fol. 29v (will no. 63).
160
6 Nov 1527: Item mer schaff ich zum spitall sannd Elizabeth dasselb zudeckhen X florins, AMB, PT, fol. 419v (will
no. 833). He held the office in 1500, 15031505, MAJOROSSY, unsere arme lewte (cit. n. 4), appendix 1.
161
MAJOROSSY, Church in Town (cit. n. 10) 278.
162
A letter dated to 8 May 1517, IVNYI, Brtfa (cit. n. 13) 2 187 no. 4706, published in Trtnelmi Tr (1884)
541. Some years later (19 April 1520), his successor, Michael Maurer, requested donations for hospitale leprosorum
extra muros civitatis nostre fundatum, IVNYI, Brtfa 2 224 no. 4948.
163
For Telkibnya (19 April 1369): MOL, DL 5783; for Besztercebnya, St Elisabeth (18 May 1359): rpd
BOSSNYI, Regesta supplicationum. A ppai krvnyknyvek magyar vonatkozs okmnyai [The Charters of
Hungarian Relevance in the Papal Supplication Registers] (Budapest 1918) 2 363; for Kassa (31 March 1464): MOL,
Besides the individual burghers benefaction, a few acts of poor relief performed by the
community as a whole also survived in statutes and town accounts. In the town statutes con-
cerning the master bakers in Pozsony from 1376 it can be read that the undersized bread (daz
prot ze chlain gepachen) should be confiscated by two masters and one member of the town
council and should be given to the hospital164. Secondly, in the same year, among the orders
about the shambles and butchers, the town stated that the faulty animals offered on the market
(literally: schelmiges viech) should also be sequestered and transported to the poor in the hospi-
tal165. The regulation on fishermen and fish-selling in the same town from 1511/1517 stated
that fish could not be taken out of the city without the permission of the mayor. Otherwise,
it was to be taken away and two-thirds of the illegally transported amount was also to be given
to the hospital166. Finally, sometimes due to the order of the mayor of certain years various
amounts of wine, bread, fish, or oil donations were noted down by the town chamberlain167.
Similar statutes on handing over to the hospital market goods confiscated due to breaking
market regulations are extant in Sopron (1523), Nagybnya (1574), Nagyszombat (1559 and
1574), Kassa (1572), Besztercebnya (1544), and Krmcbnya (1581), among other towns168.
Nevertheless, the ratio of self-support based on different activities, pious donations of the
burghers, and community poor relief diverged from place to place and indicated individually
where the hospital stood on the mental horizon and in the economic life of a given town.
The Topography of Hospitals

After having considered all the other aspects of the hospitals, a survey of the main
features that determined their location will conclude our overview169. However, locating the
DL 45084; for Brtfa (13 April 1400): IX. Bonifcz ppa bulli / Bullae Bonifacii IX (Monumenta Vaticana histo-
riam regni Hungariae illustrantia I/4, Budapest 1889, reprint 2000) 196s.; for Lcse (21 Dec 1390): hospitale pauper-
um sancti Spiritus extra muros opidi de Lewthe, Strigoniensis diocesis quod reparacione indigeat, ASV, Registra Lateranensia,
Vol. 17, fol.10r; for Galgc (8 April 1401): ibid. 318; for Szcsny (12 April 1400): ibid. 196; for Vrad (1405): both
the capella sancte crucis hospitalis pauperum circa aquas calidas et balneum sancti Ladislai regis nuncupatas, Vince BUNYITAY,
Szent Lszl emlkezete [The Memory of St Ladislas] (Budapest 1892) 86; for Buda, St Elisabeth (1387): SOMOGYI, A
kzpkori Magyarorszg szegnygye (cit. n. 3) 98s.; for Zengg, Holy Spirit (13 April 1400): ZsO II/203; for Cszma(
18 Sept 1415): MOL, DF 257006. In the case of Csepreg it was a recently discovered indulgence letter (2 Febr 1399)
thanks to the Czech scholar, Jan Hrdina that revealed the existence of a hospital in the settlement: ecclesiam hospitalis
pauperum in Schepreg, Jauriensis diocesis, in honore s. Katherine et Dorothee fundatam, ASV, Registra Lateranensia 71, fol. 10r.
164
AMB, 3.a.1., fol. 41r among the notes of the bakers regulation. The whole statute is on fol. 43r: Item welcher
pek altpachen semeln fail hat an dem markcht tag die sol man nemen vnd ir drey umb ainen pfenning geben. Und welcher
maister ze klain pecht so sullen die zwen geschworn maister peken und ain geschworn purger darzu gen und sollen das prot
haissen auf haben und sollen das in das spital geben armen lewten, published in Corpus statutorum Hungariae munici-
palium. A magyar trvnyhatsgok jogszablyainak gyjtemnye 14, ed. Sndor KOLOSVRIKelemen VRI (s. l.
18851904) IV/2 4.
165
AMB, 3.a.1., fol. 58v: schelmigs viech fleisch das sol man in nemen und sol dar in das spital geben, KOLOSVRI
VRI, Corpus statutorum IV/2 5. According to the Buda town law, the bad fish and the unbaked bread should be
confiscated and should be thrown into the ditch around the town, see Das Ofner Stadtrecht. Eine deutschsprachige
Rechtssammlung des 15. Jahrhunderts aus Ungarn, ed. Karl MOLLAY (Monumenta Historica Budapestinensia 1,
BudapestWeimar 1959), ch. 111 and 145.
166
AMB, 3.a.1., fol. 46r: der die visch hinwek furdt sovil visch so man in nit ergriff, die zway tail in das spital unnd
denn drittn tail dem richter verfalln sein, KOLOSVRIVRI, Corpus statutorum IV/2 53.
167
MAJOROSSY, Church in Town (cit. n. 10) 230.
168
KOLOSVRIVRI, Corpus statutorum V/2 15 (Sopron); III 561 (Nagybnya); IV/2 117; IV/2 158
(Nagyszombat); IV/2 80 (Kassa); IV/2 53 (Besztercebnya); IV/2 188 (Krmcbnya).
169
From the corpus of the collected maps with the location of hospitals see a few examples on Fig. 8.
hospitals within the settlements which they served often proves to be an impossible task.
Even though these buildings performed public functions and their chapels formed part of
the ecclesiastical landscape of towns, after their secularisation and the eventual transforma-
tion or demolition of their buildings, they ceased to be part of the communitys common
memory anymore. Especially the leprosaria or plague hospitals were subject to a strong dam-
natio memoriae.
Fig. 8. Hospital Topography of Some Selected Towns (the hospitals are indicated with H)
Pozsony (Judit Majorossy)
Pozsony (Judit Majorossy)

Nagyszombat
(Vclav Mencl)
Eger (Andrs Kubinyi)
Nagyszeben (Paul Niedermaier)
Kolozsvr (Elek Benk)

Gyngys (Ilona Valter)
Buda
(Andrs Vgh)
Selmecbnya (Vclav Mencl) Szkesfehrvr (Lszl Gerevich)
Among natural or geological features, especially the closeness of water in the form
of brooks or hot water springs was a crucial element, as the example of the Holy Spirit at
Budafelhvz, St Elisabeth and St Gerhard in Buda, St Elisabeth in Esztergom, St Elisabeth
in Kolozsvr, St Elisabeth in Sopron, and several others testify. It was not necessary to place
the hospital directly by the water just to have access to it from a viable distance, as in the
case of St Elisabeth at Gyngys, St Alexius at Gyula or St Helens in Nagyszombat. The
elevation and the availability of space played a crucial role in the case of the mining towns of
Upper Hungary, where the hospitals were typically built at the southern end of the valley that
was the main artery of the settlement, like at Besztercebnya, Krmcbnya, Selmecbnya,
or jbnya.
Among man-made determinants, roads were the most important, for reasons of acces-
sibility, a prime need especially in the case of institutions that were founded by religious
orders geared at promoting pilgrimage and helping travellers, like the Hospitallers in Sopron
and Fehrvr, as well as the order of St Anthony in Pozsony. In such cases the topographical
location of a hospital building can shed light on the function of the hospital as a shelter for
travellers even in the absence of written evidence. Roadside position could also result from
the hospital being situated by the route connecting the town with its suburb, like the Holy
Spirit hospital in Kolozsvr.
Further artificial determinants included town gates or other elements of the urban de-
fence system. The relationship of the hospitals to these features directs the attention to more
general questions of town planning, namely whether these institutions were latecomers to
an existing layout, or were integrated into the original ground plan. As urban structures in
Hungary developed relatively late compared to Western Europe, the crucial period being the
thirteenth century, those hospitals that were founded close to that date could well be part of
the original plan, and even fairly close to the centre. For instance, St Helens in Nagyszombat
is situated inside the southern gate, about 250 metres from the Main Square, while other
corner positions of the town were occupied by three mendicant monasteries. The Holy Spirit
in Nagyszeben, founded around the middle of the thirteenth century, was just one block
away from the parish church, roughly as far as the parish school. The St Mary hospital in
the royal town of Zgrb (Gradec) was located in a similar position. In Eperjes, although not
directly in the centre, the hospital occupied a strategic key position inside the town wall, at
its intersection with the only main road leading through the settlement. In other cases, like
in Pest, the hospital was originally outside the built-in area, but the later growth of the settle-
ment extended beyond its location, incorporating it inside the late medieval walls.
Earlier property relations, and the founders intentions and possibilities within these
could also become decisive factors. This is why hospitals founded by cathedral chapters were
also fairly centrally placed, like the St James in Eger, or the St Elisabeth in Pcs, but there
are examples of the contrary as well (e. g. Vc). If the founder decided to establish a hospital
in his own house, the location of this building was the decisive element. Both the above-
mentioned Petrus Wep in Vrad and Ladislas Boncz, the founder of the fairly late (1529)
establishment in Debrecen were wealthy and had their houses in the centre.
Sanitary consideration, that is, isolating the inmates from the rest of the population
played a role mainly in the case of the leprosaria and plague hospitals, for instance the St Laza-
rus in Buda or the St Peter hospital in Zgrb. In the case of those hospitals that functioned
as almshouses, there was no need to separate them from the settlement; on the contrary,
the visibility of these institutions could contribute to their better recognition and increased
support.
This overview, despite the uncertainties in the identification of some sites, shows con-
siderable variety concerning the position of the hospitals within the settlements (Fig. 8). The
only rule seems to be that there was no general rule; at least such summary statements, that
all hospitals were in marginal positions and were often far away from the town centres for
sanitary reasons, do not give justice to the complex set of determinants at work. Only more
detailed local case studies on the motivations and circumstances of the foundation and also
on the topographical conditions of the time can give a proper explanation for the placement
of these institutions.
Summary of the Medieval Period

The hospitals in medieval Hungary can be considered rather concomitants and indi-
cators of urban development and only to a certain extent the manifestation of private or
communal charity. Initially, especially between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, bisho-
prics, religious orders, and other clerics played a seminal role in establishing hospitals. Their
number, however, was low, probably not exceeding a few dozen. In the late Middle Ages, civic
initiatives by individuals or town communities took the lead, and raised the number of hos-
pitals considerably, to over one hundred operating simultaneously in the country. By the late
fifteenth or early sixteenth century at the latest, most hospitals became urban institutions.
Even if the patronage of the founding noble family, cleric, or parish priest was preserved, this
fact only limited the spiritual control of the town authorities. The fact that Hungarian towns
most often had only one or two hospitals reflects on the relatively low level of social differen-
tiation in these towns, except for the mining towns. As the sources for example, in the two
case-studies of Pozsony and Sopron presented here testify, other, non-institutional, ways of
caring for the poor were equally important and often preferred. Families or relatives, most
probably even in the neighbouring countryside, were often able to satisfy the rising need.
On the other hand, some casual remarks in sources that usually do not deal with hospitals,
for instance guild statutes, indicate that moving into a hospital was only considered as a last
resort in the absence of more personal arrangements170.
The topographical overview shows a considerable variety concerning the position of
the hospitals within the settlements. It refutes the stereotypical and uniform image of the
hospitals usually being placed far away from the centre, in a marginal position. This variety
calls for a more detailed investigation into the motives and reasons behind the placement of
these institutions.
The reputation of the hospitals is perhaps the most difficult subject to tackle. Sermons
delivered and published by late medieval preachers, especially mendicant friars (Pelbartus de
Temesvr and Oswaldus de Lask) have rather general excursus to encourage charity towards
the poor171. The examples of the numerous bequests in last wills show that such teachings,
combined with the daily experience of their audience, to some extent have reached their
170
Statutes of the shoemaker-journeymen, Pozsony, 1516: Item auch welcher schuechknecht khrangk wurdt und selb
nicht hiet, dem sol man zu hilff komen aus der zech, und auch mit der maister will und hilff, das er seyne phenk also pald nicht
an die Juden setz, oder a l s o p a l d n i c h t i n d a s s p i t a l n i c h t g e t r a g e n w o r d [emphasis added], printed in
the appendix to Jnos KIRLY, Pozsony vros joga a kzpkorban [Legal Development of the Town of Pozsony in
the Middle Ages] (Budapest 1894) 437443, cit. 440.
171
See the contemporary editions of their sermons: Pelbartus de Temesvr, Pomerium sermonum de sanctis
(Heinrich Gran, Hagenau 1499); Oswaldus de Lasko, Sermones de sanctis perutiles a quodam fratre Hungaro ordi-
nis minorum de observantia comportati Biga salutis intitulati (Heinrich Gran, Hagenau 1497).
goal. At the same time, since the hospitals housed the poor members of society they were
sometimes considered a place for all the marginal elements of the community. This fact is
shown by examples such as the hospital cemetery also having been used for burying executed
criminals or the hospital means having been involved in executions172.
These hospitals were not larger than, for example, an occupational guild in the given
communities (maximum around 1020 inmates) and were not necessarily exclusively re-
ligious institutions. Their economic activities were apparently just as important as their
charitable functions. Nevertheless, they occupied a high-ranking place among the ecclesiasti-
cal recipients in the competition for the available support of the citizens. Their success was
largely due to the value of charity in general and the intercessory role of the poor in particular
to promote the salvation of the benefactors soul. Thus, beside a one-sided engagement with
real social needs, certain reciprocity between donors and recipients can also be observed.
Some General Trends after the 1530s

The life of the Hungarian kingdom after 1526 (the battle of Mohcs) and more inten-
sively after 1541 (the seize of Buda) was in principal determined by the wars with the Otto-
mans. (The territory occupied in the middle of the kingdom covered more than one-third
of its medieval size and almost eighty per cent of present-day Hungary.) Another influential
determinant of the age in every sense but also from the point of view of the hospitals was
the intense spread of the Reformation.
Due to the first factor, in early modern times the continuous history of hospitals can
only be investigated in the towns of Transylvania173 and Upper Hungary. In the middle of the
kingdom, not only the documents on medieval hospitals perished, but in many cases also the
buildings themselves. Sometimes external sources report on the fate of the charitable institu-
tions. For instance, of the St Nicholas hospital of Pest it is known that the Ottomans trans-
formed its medieval church into a mosque, which collapsed in the first half of the eighteenth
century, when the new infirmary the predecessor of the present-day city hall of Budapest
was built in its neighbourhood174. This might have happened in many other towns, too.
Unfortunately, however, until now there has not been any detailed research conducted on
how poor relief or medical care was arranged in the settlements under Ottoman occupation,
and whether any alternatives were provided to urban Christian hospitals.
A new phenomenon during the time of the intensive Ottoman wars was the appear-
ance of the early types of army hospitals, though they had little in common with their later
eighteenth-century equivalents. The first such camp hospital (Feldspital) was established by
King Ferdinand I in 1527 in Buda, with Iohannes Faber appointed as its leader175. However,
nothing more is known about the further existence of this establishment. At the end of the
172
In Pozsony, data in the town accounts from 1485 hint at the fact that criminals were buried in the hospital
cemetery, MAJOROSSY, Church in Town (cit. n. 10) 71. A document from Besztercebnya states that the horses and
carts of the hospital mills were not to be used for transporting ladders and tools for executions: ut premissum est,
molendinorum dicti hospitalis in equis et curribus eiusdem scalas, et alia tormentorum genera ad malefactorum supplicium
educere adstringebantur, ex gratia nostra speciali abolemus et tollimus, MOL, DL 24381 (15 July 1520).
173
RSZ-FOGARASI, Transylvanian Almshouses (cit. n. 3, forthcoming).
174
Katalin IRSN MELIS, Archaeological Traces of the Last Medieval Town Planning in Pest, in: Quasi liber et
pictura (cit. n. 4) 235 243, cit. 238.
175
Ferenc X. LINZBAUER, Codex sanitario-medicinalis Hungariae 17 (Buda 18521861) 1 147; MAGYARY-
KOSSA, Magyar orvosi emlkek (cit. n. 109) 3 159.
century the need for military hospitals was raised again. On the diet of 1596, the Hungarian
estates did not take over the task of establishing separate camp hospitals, but it was accepted
that each household paid ten denars for hospital tents and doctors charged by the ruler. A
year later Emperor Rudolph commissioned the Spanish Petrus de Illanes (presbyter Hispanus
Cordubensis) to be the provisor of the military hospitals (administrator ac supremus magister xen-
odochiorum)176, and such temporary institutions were established in Pozsony, Nagyszombat,
Bruck, Hainburg, and Sopron177. According to the dispatch of Gianfranceso Aldobrandini to
Cardinal Giorgio Blandrata, the camp hospital of Pozsony at that time housed one hundred
and thirty people178. These kinds of temporary hospitals were present during the entire six-
teenth and seventeenth centuries. These already had physicians and surgeons as permanent
staff, whose inspector and director was the so-called Stabarzt179.
Parallel to this tendency, the plague and other epidemics of the sixteenth and seven-
teenth centuries gave slow birth to another type of hospital. Some examples had already been
mentioned in Brtfa and in Kolozsvr as newly established leprosaria during the time of such
need in the early years of the sixteenth century. In 1510 Hans Saltzmann von Steir, the town
physician of Nagyszeben was, for example, the first in the kingdom who declared quarantine
in order to protect the town from the ravaging plague epidemic180. However, real epidemic
hospitals were founded only later. In Sopron the mayor, Christoph Lackner, initiated to erect
a special hospital for plague victims already in 1630 and in his will he also left money for the
purpose. The institution came into existence in 1633 under the name of Lazaretum181.
During the Reformation, those hospitals that were not physically destroyed mostly
continued their work, but their chapels often ceased to function or were detached in admin-
istrative terms from the hospital. Their confessional affiliation was determined by the local
majority. In Gyngys, which remained prevailingly Catholic, the St Elisabeth chapel was
first abandoned, while from 1639 it came into the possession of the Franciscans, independ-
ent from the almshouse. The friars installed Slovak-speaking preachers there, and made it
into the basis of converting the immigrant Slovaks from Lutheranism, although their right
to administer baptism and marriage in the chapel was strongly contested by the local parish
priest182. In Debrecen the St Elisabeth hospital was moved into the former building of the
Franciscan friars (1556), who escaped from the town due to the change of confession to Cal-
vinism183. The St Nicholas hospital in the mining town of Nagybnya changed its patron sev-
176
Magyar orszggylsi emlkek trtneti bevezetsekkel [The Remnants of the Hungarian Diets With
Historical Introductions]. VIII. ktet: 15881597, ed. Vilmos FRANKI (Budapest 1883) 241, 245; A ppai vr
felszabadtsnak ngyszz ves emlkezete [The Four-Hundred-Year Memory of the Relief of the Ppa Castle],
15971997, ed. Istvn HERMANNGza PLFFY (Ppa 1997) 23.
177
The one in Sopron built from wood was most probably destroyed by the attack of Istvn Bocskais Haiduks
in 1605, Katalin FANGLER EGERVRYN, Gondoskods Sopron reg s szegny lakosairl [Assistance of the Old and
Poor Inhabitants of Sopron] (Sopron 1995, manuscript).
178
A ppai vr, ed. HERMANNPLFFY (cit. n. 176) 94 (Adattr no. 26), the original: ASV Segreteria di Stato, Let.
part. Vol. 4. fol. 148.
179
Kroly KAPRONCZAY, Az pols-, polkpzs s krhzgy trtnete Magyarorszgon [The History of
Nursing, Education of Nurses and Hospitals in Hungary] (Budapest 2005) 25.
180
MAGYARY-KOSSA, Magyar orvosi emlkek (cit. n. 109) 3 135. He also wrote a booklet on the matter: De
preservatione a pestilentia (Vienna 1609).
181
FANGLER EGERVRYN, Gondoskods Sopron (cit. n. 178, manuscript). Lackners will and inventory is
under publication by Pter DOMINKOVITS.
182
MOLNR, Mezvros s katolicizmus (cit. n. 110) 108117.
183
HERPAY, A debreczeni reformtus ispotly (cit. n. 8) 2674, esp. 30.
eral times. Probably to counteract to the impact of the Reformation, first it was entrusted to
the Minorites and then in 1605 by Istvn Bocskai, Prince of Transylvania, to the Lutherans.
At the end of the seventeenth century it got back into the hands of the Franciscans and later
to the Jesuits184. In Nagyszombat the hospital chapel, from 1570 onwards, was used by the
Protestants. In the vicinity of the almshouse the community had a parsonage and a school
built, probably in the place of the former hospital cemetery185. In Sopron the medieval hospi-
tal was operated by the town for the benefit of both the Catholic and the Lutheran burghers
on the same spot until 1796, when it was moved out from the centre for sanitary reasons.
In Pozsony the hospitals which were situated outside the town walls, after the threatening
news of the approach of the Ottomans towards Vienna reached the town, were abandoned
for defence reasons. For a while the poor were moved into the building of the Poor Clares,
who in the fear of the Ottoman attacks escaped from the town (some to Brno/Brnn and
Prague, others to Graz), but soon afterwards at least the building of the St Ladislas hospital
was restored, because the nuns claimed their nunnery back (1542)186.
In some other places, the life of the hospitals was disturbed due to general defence and
financial reasons, as wars with the Ottomans turned the attentions of the central government
to any possible source of income. Selmecbnya provides such an example for the interven-
tion of the central authorities: in 1617 the kings representatives, Georg Fleisch comes camerae
and Hans Lienspacher, the controller, wanted to take over the town hospital and especially
the financial control of its estates. They claimed the right to appoint its officials as well. In all
these actions they referred to the rulers right of patronage. The desperate local council sent
letters of protest to all the free royal towns and invited them to a common action against the
violation of their autonomy187. One might list similar examples from other towns, too.
Nevertheless, on the basis of these scattered data it seems that, on the one hand, in
spite of the turbulent times, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries did not bring along a
significant change in the system of poor relief. The medieval patterns prevailed regarding
both function, size, and administration. In addition to the hospitals possession of real estate,
pious donations in testaments still provided a great part of the financial footing. In this
respect there was no major difference between the various confessions. The role of non-in-
stitutionalised care for the needy was by no means replaced by organised care. On the other
hand, the number of medically trained persons, mainly laymen of different confessions, and
of specialised pharmacies, significantly increased. Knowledge of the human body and its
cure also became more widespread. However, the meeting of the institutional framework and
specialised knowledge apart from the military hospitals was a later development, after the
period examined here.
184
SOMOGYI, A kzpkori Magyarorszg szegnygye (cit. n. 3) 57s.
185
Gyrgy GRANASZTI, A barokk gyzelme Nagyszombatban [The Triumph of Baroque in Nagyszombat]
(Budapest 2004) 59.
186
VMOSSY, A pozsonyi katholikus polgri polintzet (cit. n. 119) 5154; SOMOGYI, A kzpkori
Magyarorszg szegnygye (cit. n. 3) 66s. For the circumstances of the hospitals around the 1530s: MAJOROSSY,
Church in Town (cit. n. 10) 279. Tivadar Ortvay wrote about the St Elisabeth hospital that it was rebuilt only in
1744, Tivadar ORTVAY, Geschichte der Stadt Pressburg (Pressburg 1903) II/4 301.
187
Istvn H. NMETH, Vrospolitika s gazdasgpolitika a 1617. szzadi Magyarorszgon [Urban Policy and
Economic Policy in Sixteenth-Seventeenth-Century Hungary] 12 (Budapest 2004) 1 500.
Appendix
Fig. 9. Hospitals in the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary (until the mid-sixteenth century)
Gazetteer of Geographical Names

(C = Croatia; H = Hungary; R = Romania; S = Slovakia; Se = Serbia; U = Ukraine; A = Austria)
Historical Historical Name in the Present Name,

Hungarian Name German Name Latin Sources Country
Alms Almas Dunaalms, H
Bcs Civitas Bachiensis Ba, C
Barc Barc wasteland
~Nagykanizsa, H
Brtfa Bartfeld Bartpha Bardejov, S
Bt Frauenmarkt Bath Btovce, S
Btmonostor Bathmonostra Btmonostor, H
Bazin Bsing Bazinium Pezinok, S
Beck/Bolondc Beckow Civitas Bolondocz Beckov, S
Beregszsz Lampertshaus Beregzaz/Luprechtsasa Beregovo, U
Beszterce Bistritz Bistria, R
Besztercebnya Neusohl Neusolium Bansk Bystrica, S
Bot Bod/Bot wasteland ~Etyek, H
Brass Kronstadt Brassovia/Corona Braov, R
Buda Ofen Buda part of Budapest, H
Budafelhvz Calidas Aquas supe- part of Budapest, H
riores
Csand Civitas Chanadiensis Cenad, R
Cszma Chazma azma, C
Csepreg Tschapring Schepreg Csepreg, H
Darc Darotz arisk Dravce, S
Debrecen Debreczin Debrecinum Debrecen, H
Eger Erlau Agria Eger, H
Enyed (Nagyenyed) Straburg Egidiopolis Aiud, R
Eperjes Eperies Eperyes Preov, S
Erdd Erdeud Erdut, C
Esztergom Gran Strigonium Esztergom, H
Fldvr Marienburg Feldiora, R
Galgc Galitz / Freistadt Hlohovec, S
Gyngys Gyongyos Gyngys, H
Gyr Raab Jaurinum Gyr, H
Gyula Julau Gula Gyula, H
Gyulafehrvr Weienburg Alba Iulia/Carolopolis Alba Iulia, R
Hanusfalva Hannusfalwa Spisk Hanuovce, S
Igl Zipser Neudorf Villa Nova Spisk Nov Ves, S
Jen (Szamosjen) Eugen Fundtura, R
Kanizsa Gro Kanischa Kanisa Nagykanizsa, H
Kassa Kaschau Cassovia Koice, S
Ksmrk Ksmarkt Caseoforum Kemarok, S
Kirlynmeti Baierdorf Crainimt, R
Kolozsvr Klausenburg Claudiopolis/Kuluswar Cluj-Napoca, R

Krmcbnya Kremnitz Cremniczium Kremnica, S
Korpona Karpfen Carpona/Corpona Krupina, S
Leibic Leibitz Lubicz Lubica, S
Lelesz Lelez Leles, S
Lippa Lipwa Lipova, R
Lcse Leutschau Leutsovia Levoa, S
Lvld Leweld Vrosld, H
Margitsziget Insula Leporum part of Budapest, H
Medgyes Mediasch Media Media, R
Miskolc Miskouch/Myskolcz Miskolc, H
Monoszl Monozlow Podravska Moslavina, C
Nagybnya/ Frauenbach / Neustadt Rivulus Dominarum Baia Mare, R
Asszonypataka
Nagyszeben/Szeben Hermannstadt Cibinium Sibiu, R
Nagyszombat Tyrnau Tirnavia Trnava, S
Nyitra Neutra Civitas Nitriensis Nitra, S
Olaszi (Szepesolaszi) Wallendorf Villa Latina Spisk Vlachy, S
Ppa Poppa Papa Ppa, H
Pszt Pazthoh Pszt, H
Patak Pathak Srospatak, H
Pcs Fnfkirchen Quinqueecclesiae Pcs, H
Pest Pesth part of Budapest, H
Pozsony Preburg Posonium Bratislava, S
Rozsny Rosenau Rnov, R
(Barcarozsny)
Ruszt Rust Ceel Rust, A
Segesvr Schburg Stenarum Sighioara, R
Selmecbnya Schemnitz Bana/Argentifodina Bansk tiavnica, S
Sopron denburg Sopronium/ Sopron, H
Sempronium
Szakolca Skalitz Skalica, S
Szalnkemn Salankemen Stari Slankemen, Se
Szatmrnmeti Sathmar Satu Mare, R
Szcsny Scecheen Szcsny, H
Szeged Szegedin Segedinum Szeged, H
Szkely/Marosvsrhely Neumarkt Novum forum sicul- Trgu Mure, R
orum
Szkesfehrvr/ Stuhlweienburg Alba Regia Szkesfehrvr, H
Fehrvr
Szmrecsny Szmrcsan Smreany, S
Szls (Nagyszlls) Groweinstadt Szeuleus/Zceuleus Vinohradiv, U
Szombathely Steinamanger Sabaria Szombathely, H
Szond Sont/Zond Sonta, C
Tata Totis Tota/Thata Tata, H
Telkibnya Thelkybanya Telkibnya, H

Temesvr Temeschburg Castrum Themeswar Timioara, R
Tvis Dornstadt Teiu, R
Trencsn Trentschin Civitas Trenchin Trenn, S
jbnya Knigsberg Nov Baa, S
jlak Ilok Wylok Ilok, C
Ungvr Ungwar Castrum Hung Uzsgorod, U
Vc Waitzen Vaczium Vc, H
Vrad/Nagyvrad Gro Wardein Varadinum Oradea, R
Vralja/Szepesvralja Kirchdorf Suburbium Spisk Podhradie, S
Vasmegyericse Meuraa, C
Verce Virovititz Sesta Virovitica, C
Veszprm Wesprim Veszprm, H
Zgrb Agram Civitas Zagrabiensis Zagreb, C
Zengg Segnia Senj, C
Zsolna Sillein Civitas Silnensis Zilina, S

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Hospitals in Medieval and Early Modern Hungary

Judit Majorossy and Katalin Szende

Sources on Hospitals: Legacy and Limitations

Fig. 1. The Ground Plans of the Excavated Medieval Hospitals in Hungary

Fig. 2. The Srospatak Hospital Founded in a Private House

Urbanisation and Hospitals

Table 1. The Intensity of Hospital Foundation in the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary

Table 2. Hospitals with an Approximate or Definite Foundation Date

Number of Hospitals in a Town

almshouse under the patronage of St Anthony cannot be localised and connected to a

Degrees of Ecclesiastical Involvement and Hospital Types:

1. The medieval ground plan

2. Some of the scratched pottery

Fig. 6. Patron Saints of the Hospitals in the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary

Size, Personnel, and Equipment/Furnishing

The Functions of the Hospitals

Fig. 7. The Expenses and Income of the St Elisabeth Hospital of Sopron

The Topography of Hospitals

Pozsony (Judit Majorossy)

Pozsony (Judit Majorossy)

Eger (Andrs Kubinyi)

Nagyszeben (Paul Niedermaier)

Kolozsvr (Elek Benk)

Gyngys (Ilona Valter)

Summary of the Medieval Period

Some General Trends after the 1530s

Gazetteer of Geographical Names

Historical Historical Name in the Present Name,

Kolozsvr Klausenburg Claudiopolis/Kuluswar Cluj-Napoca, R

Telkibnya Thelkybanya Telkibnya, H

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