Summary of the Articles

Károly Nyárády R.: Ethnic and Confessional Proportions of the Population
of Transsylvania from the Establishment of the Hungarian State
to the Dualistic Era.

The study is a numerical summing up of the ethnic and confessional composition of the population of Transsylvania from the establishment of the Hungarian kingdom in 896 to the Compromise of 1867. Relying upon  a wide scale, Hungarian, Romanian and German scientific apparatus, the study is a critical review of the special literature. Though we cannot furnish precise data in all the periods of pre-statistics, relying upon sources of the epoch, the author tries to complement these gaps with verisimilar estimations. Thus, the reader is given an overall picture of the ethnic and confessional composition of Transsylvania in the past thousand years.

Árpád Varga E.: Demographic Statistics and the Evolution
of the Ethnic and Confessional Relations on the Territory
of Contemporary Transsylvania Between 1869-1920

The author studies the territory annexed by Romania after the treaty of Trianon. The study comprehends a period relating to which there were data at the author’s disposal. After a review of the main demographic sources the study sets out the size and the evolution of the population, dividing the studied territories into three parts: the left bank of the Tisza, the angle of the Tisza-Maros (Tisa-Mureº) and the territory beyond Királyhágó (Piatra Craiului). The author compares and brings the different ethnic and confessional groups into connection  from demographic point of view. He studies the relation between ethnic and confessional groups and live birth, mortality and increase of the birth rate/population. The author deals with the problems of assimilation, emigration and the share of each ethnic group in this process in a separate chapter.

András Bereczki: The Evolution of the Population
in Romania (1920-1992)

The study, after a  brief account of Romania's three regions (Muntenia, Moldavia, Transsylvania) shows the growth of their population according to the national census between 1930-1992 with a special emphasis on the growth of population in the Székely land. Further on, the author compares the relation between the surface and the population of the three regions, in other words the density of population per km². Simultaneously, he gives the proportion of rural and urban inhabitants and the size of arable land per a family of four.

Beside the analysis of the cities' growth rate, the author shows the linguistic and ethnic segmentation of the population. It is characteristic to the analysed period the continuous population decrease among ethnic groups like Germans or Jews.

There follow some data on the division of the inhabitants of Transylvania in 1930 and 1941 in North and South Transylvania.

After establishing a confessional status of the population the study shows the number of emigrants with the indication of the country of destination.

Judit Pál: The Evolution and Structure
of the Armenian Population in Transsylvania in the 18th Century

The author starts with a presentation of the process of settlement of the Armenians in Transsylvania. There follows the treatment of Armenian demographics in the 18th century. In contradiction to the traditional estimations, by the beginning of the 18th century the Armenian population of Transsylvania amounted to 1700, to 3500-4500 in 1750 and to 7372 in 1850. Later, in consequence  of the loss of their entity, the Armenian population decreased. In what concerns their occupation, Armenians were traders and handicraftsmen. Many of them belonged to the wealthy class or to the middle class, few of them being  poor. The reader is given information on their number, their breakdown by occupation and their financial standing with regard to the main centres where they lived. (Szamosújvár-Gherla, Erzsébetváros-Dumbrãveni, Gyergyószentmiklós-Gheorgheni etc.)

Elek Csetri - István Imreh: Estates and Classes
in Transsylvania Before 1848

Relying on one hand on statistical figures of the beginning of the 19th century and on the other hand on tax rolls from 1831 to 1847, the study tries to give an overall picture of the situation and advance of the Transsylvanian social classes, estates on the eve of the revolution of 1848. The study points out that the two basic classes of feudalism - the nobility and the pending peasantry were not at all unified/homogenous and the other social and ethnic classes were also divided (miners, Armenians, Greeks, Jews, Gipsies). Townspeople, bourgeoisie and the intelligentsia together with the enlightened nobility made an important step forward and became the standard-bearer of the new, civil class. Detailed tables show numerically and in proportion the importance of each class under discussion.

Éva Hegyi: Ancient Tomb-Stones in the Central Cemetery
of Zilah (Zalãu)

Relying on different publications and archivalia, the first part of the study deals with the history of the cemetery.

The tomb-stones are sorted according to their shape and decorative motif and they indicate the social status of the deceased persons. Thus, there are two main groups: 1. the tomb-stones of diversified shapes of aldermen, members of the local board, county superiors, officials, teachers, priests and their relatives; 2. the simple tomb-stones, with floral ornament on the grave of handicraftsmen, peasants and their relatives.

The second part of the study comprises the reading of the epitaphs, the description of the shape, condition and the photo of the tomb-stones. In connection with the names on the tomb-stones, the study tries to furnish data on the personality and the life of the deceased persons. These data are related at the same time to the economic and spiritual history of the town.

Emese Egyed: Sward and Quill

Studying the attitude alteration of the 18th century writers one can perceive the integration of the warrior, of the soldier - a well read man of letters - into the culture of civil society. The first phase in this process is the transformation of the act of warfare into a poetic pattern (this means the following of the poetic traditions of allegorical idioms: the heroic posture of serving Ares/Mars). Living in Vienna, meeting with a new type of cultural experience and new possibilities of forming a human connection, these guardsman-writers (György Bessenyei, Ábrahám Barcsay) or the actual officers and soldiers of the imperial army ( Lõrinc Orczy, János Gvadányi, János Fekete), by their literary detachment (representing and illustrating bloodshed as an act of barbarism) and by denunciating the assimilative role of the imperial service, hastened - by poetical means too - the propagation of the national ideas.

This was put in practice by reading and writing (bringing new books on Hungarian soil, recommending and discussing them) and also by urging on the accomplishment of such translations that could prove the vitality of the Hungarian people and its language.

András Benkõ: A Short History of the Hungarian Musical Education
in Institutes of Higher Learning in Romania.

Taking into consideration the antecedents of the 19th century, the author delineates the Hungarian musical education in Romania, with a special respect to the musical institutions of Kolozsvár (Academy of Dramatic Art and Music 1946-48; Hungarian Institute of Arts 1948-50; Gheorghe Dima Academy of Music 1950-85) and to the Teachers' Training College in Marosvásárhely (Târgu-Mureº), faculty of music 1901-73.

The author speaks about the efforts after 1989 which were meant to re-establish and continue the musical education of academic level (the Bolyai University) respectively urging on starting such education (Sulyok István College, Nagyvárad-Oradea).

English translation by András Balázsi