Bresle si conferirii, sau despre pietatea urbana în Transilvania medievala (secolele XIV-XVI) (Guilds and confraternities, or urban piety in medieval Transylvania, 14th-16th century)

Lidia GROSS: Bresle si conferirii, sau despre pietatea urbana în Transilvania medievala (secolele XIV-XVI) (Guilds and confraternities, or urban piety in medieval Transylvania, 14th-16th century) (Cluj-Napoca: Editura Argonaut, 2014), 266 p.

Keywords: medieval Transylvania, urban piety, testaments, religious confraternities, guilds

Lidia Gross's book published at the Argonaut Publishing House in Cluj-Napoca is a continuation of her previous work, presenting the most recent results of her research. The prominent scholar developed the subject of her doctoral dissertation1 into a new book by further explorations resulting in new data shedding new light on our knowledge of urban piety in 14th-16th century Transylvania. This analysis presents the operation of Transylvanian medieval society, the mentality and social structure of the 14th-16th century. The author points out already in the preface: the most important task for her and the scholarship is to eliminate a ver}' widespread and stubborn view of the literature regarding the secular - ecclesiastical opposition. One of the great merits of the book is precisely the fact that the author does more than just demolish this rigid misconception and declare the pointlessness of this opposition in the 14th-16th century (and let me note: even a long time afterwards); she presents, by her source analyses, how the expectations of church and society and the personal piety and religiousness were built upon each other in a symbiotic relationship in the life of urban communities.

The structure of the volume follows a personal to institutional logic. One of the text types of this age that gives largest room to individual representation is the last will, as also a document of urban piety. In the first two studies of the book the author publishes and analyzes two relatively early testaments. These texts are included into the volume not simply because they put forth the new research results of the author since her dissertation, but also because they are the manifestations of late medieval Transylvanian urban piety. The first last will analyzed comes from the early 16th century: the testament of a member of the influential Eiben family from Bistrita, Ursula Meister Paulin. One may ask whether it was necessary to return to a long known source (especially as the first study of the volume), for Mrs Ursula's last will was...