BOOK: Elemér BALOGH (ed.), Golden Bulls and Chartas: European Medieval Documents of Liberties [Legal Heritage . Ferenc Mádl Institute of Comparative Law] (Budapest/Miskolc: ( Central European Academic Publishing, 2023), 244 p. ISBN 9786156356246 [OPEN ACCESS]

 

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The Hungarian Golden Bull, issued 800 years ago, in 1222, by King Andrew II (reigned 1205-1235), undoubtedly brought about very important reforms in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary. As it grants certain freedoms and shapes the exercise of the royal power, it is comparable to the Magna Charta from 1215, however, the differences are also very important. The importance of the decree, named after its gold seal, is reflected in the material of the seal: while the seal was indeed a common formal accessory for medieval documents, the gold seal was always intended to distinguish certain documents from others. Its importance was also underlined by the fact that it was produced in seven copies, each of which was given to a custodian of the text of the Golden Bull (the Pope, the Johannites, the Templars, the King, the Esztergom Chapter, the Chapter of Kalocsa and the Nader). Five ecclesiastical and two secular powers were to have custody of the original text of the Golden Bull. Despite this, only copies of the text have survived. 

The present volume examines the Golden Bull itself, but also its international context, its antecedents, and the subsequent documents of a similar nature in some states, without claiming to be exhaustive. However, the exploration of possible parallels is not a side issue. The volume, using the method of legal historical research, pursues a twofold aim: on the one hand, it pays homage to the Hungarian Golden Bull, an 800-year-old legal document, and on the other, it seeks to provide an accurate, novel, and interesting scholarly vision of the medieval letters of freedom. 

The Golden Bull is one of the basic legal documents of the medieval Hungarian Kingdom, but it cannot be taken out of the general context of the period. The present volume discusses, for example, the Decree of Leon (1188) and the Magna Carta (1215), which may have influenced the Hungarian decree. There are some thematic and partial content similarities between the three documents, but this may also be the result of the “zeitgeist”. 

This book also marks the beginning of a new series of volumes in the English language that will explore the lessons to be learned from the history of law and that aim to preserve the heritage of our legal culture.

Read the book here: DOI 10.47079/2023.eb.gbac.1