Die Kaufleute und die Entstehung der Stadtgemeinde Bistritz (14. Jahrhundert)
The merchants and the emergence of the municipality of Bistritz (14th century)

Summary/Abstract: The following investigation focuses on a document from King Ludwig I of Hungary, which was issued on March 7, 1361 and preserved in a transsumpt from the attestation location Appesdorf/Kolozsmonostor from March 11 of the same year1. It is well known in historiography and is often cited as evidence of the existence of guilds in Bistrita in the 14th century, but remains the subject of controversy regarding its authenticity and the different meanings attributed to the term pannicida. The historiographical controversy was triggered by a study by Maria Holban2 published in 1965, in which the document was classified as a forgery with a certain amount of argumentative acrobatics. Since this work continues to have an impact on historical research more than fifty years after its publication, I am re-examining this source in order to decipher whether the arguments put forward are coherent and at the same time to try to provide clarification through references to diplomacy and terminology .

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