FROM LATIN TO HUNGARIAN. TRANSFORMING OF OFFICIAL WRITTEN PRACTICE IN THE MARKET-TOWNS OF HEGYALJA FROM THE 14TH TO THE 17TH

The study examines the official literacy of a characteristic region of medieval Hungary. This territory is the Hegyalja, which located in the north-eastern part of the Medieval Hungarian Kingdom, and where some important viticulturist market-towns located from the time of the Middle Ages. These settlements owned developed official written culture. They had the right to write vineyard sale contracts and to corroborate them with their own seals. From the 14th to the 16th centuries these documents were written exclusively in Latin, but from the mid-16th century, Hungarian language also started to spread in the region. The main aim of this study is to present this development between the 14th and the 17th centuries.