Structurarea arhivelor parohiale romano-catolice din Transilvania. Tipuri de documente
Roman-Catholic Parish Archives in Transylvania. Types of Documents

Summary/Abstract: The present study is the result of a four-year research done in the Roman-Catholic parish archives in the Archbishopry of Alba Iulia. Having direct access to the archive, we have been able to classify the various types of documents one can find in a parish archive. In principle, the first parish documents date from the time when each parish came into being (i.e. the 12th and 13th centuries), but, in fact, the earliest written ecclesiastical documents which have been preserved in the Archbishopry of Alba Iulia come from the end of the 17th century. Documents written before this period have been persevered only as copies. This situation can be easily explained if one takes into account the historical circumstances, which had a significant impact on the “destiny” of the Roman-Catholic parish archives. In spite of adverse circumstances, the richness of these small archives (of about four or five meters of documents in each parish) provides a unique and, as yet, little investigated source of microhistorical research. That is why we should value these archives more and investigate them more thoroughly.

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