The Cause of the Fatherless: Spiritual and Material Guardianship in Eighteenth Century Transylvania
The Cause of the Fatherless: Spiritual and Material Guardianship in Eighteenth Century Transylvania

Summary/Abstract: The present paper examines how the “cause of the fatherless” was envisaged and defended over the course of the eighteenth century in Transylvania, and particularly in the capital of Hermannstadt (nowadays Sibiu). It does so by first surveying the emergence of the orphan court in early modern Transylvania, focusing on the legal landscape created by the Transylvanian Saxon cities and seats. Drawing on both early modern legal codices and eighteenth-century probate records, the paper seeks to chronicle the origins, functions, and facets of guardianship as a key position in the urban spiritual and political economy of the Transylvanian Saxons. On the other hand, it employs guardianship and the fate of the “fatherless” urban-born orphans as two adjoined lenses through which to peer into the character of family and kinship ties in the Transylvanian Saxon milieu, as well as into the hierarchies of the capital city. Building on these analytical frameworks, the paper examines the orphan-guardian relationship as it was reflected in eighteenth-century probate records – the so-called Teilungsbücher – as a means of delving into the nuances of family life. Finally, it questions to what extent the orphan court and guardianship arrangements worked to deepen the various inequalities of urban life. As the present study shows, the fates of early modern and eighteenth-century orphans diverged based not only on factors such as parents’ social status, but also on account of their ethnical provenance, material circumstances, or even according to the degree to which deceased fathers had been included into the fold of the urban burgher category.

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