Daniela Deteşan

Archive of the Matrimonial Court of Sălişte. Sources for the History of Women in Modern Transylvania

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Daniela Deteşan

Article Information

Pages: 5-18

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24193/RJPS.2024.1.01

Daniela Deteşan

“George Bariţiu” History Institute Cluj-Napoca, no. 12-14 Mihail Kogălniceanu St., Cluj-Napoca, 400084, Romania, daniela.detesan@acad-cj.ro

Abstract. Very little is known about the family life of Transylvanian women in the modern era. The main explanation is related to the insufficient exploitation of sources. Due to the richness, variety and complexity of the judicial-ecclesiastical archives, we have started building a database on divorce in Airtable based on records from the Sălişte, the main village of Mărginimea Sibiului, which has a unique, well-preserved documentary heritage. The ecclesiastical archive is kept at the Museum of the Orthodox Deanery of Sălişte in good condition, undamaged. Although the dissolution of marriage was a marginal phenomenon, the time has come to open the discussion for a debate on the sources and to take some steps forward in this research avenue. The article provides a description of the most important documents related to divorce, with a focus on content, structure, form, style, classification. The advantages but also the limits of matrimonial files are presented, which place the analysis scheme on the border between family history, historical demography, history of law, history of women, history of the church, rural history, history of feelings. The quality of the sources gives us the opportunity to identify divorce patterns characteristic of a highly individualized region within the Transylvanian area.

Keywords: divorce, women’s history, matrimonial files, Orthodox Church, Transylvania

References

Original sources

A.P.O.R.S. Archive of the Romanian Orthodox Deanery of Sălişte

Edites and media sources

Regulament (1878). Regulament pentru procedura judecătorească în cauze matrimoniale (Regulations for Judicial Procedure in Matrimonial Cases). In Protocolul Congresului ordinar naţional-bisericesc al Mitropoliei românilor greco-orientali din Ungaria şi Transilvania convocat la Sibiu pe 1/13 octobre 1878 (the Protocol of the Ordinary National-Ecclesiastical Congress of the Metropolitan Church of Greek-Oriental Romanians in Hungary and Transylvania convened in Sibiu on 1/13 October 1878). Sibiu: 259-292.

Stoenescu, C. (1905). “Seliştea”. Foaia poporului 13(36):. 474-475.

[S.N] (1906). “Economie. Înaintarea economică a comunei Sălişte”. Tribuna. 10(108): 6.

Special bibliography

Bolovan, S. & Bolovan, I. (2010). Contribuţii privind divorţialitatea în Transilvania la sfârşitul secolului al XIX-lea şi începutul secolului XX. In Pădurean, C., Bolovan, I. (ed.) Studii de demografie istorică (secolele XVII-XXI). Arad: Gutenberg Univers Publishing, pp. 99-114.

Bolovan et all (2009). I. Bolovan, D. Covaci, D. Deteşan, M. Eppel, C. E. Holom (Eds), Legislaţia ecleziastică şi laică privind familia românească din Transilvania în a doua jumătate a secolului al XIX-lea, Academia Română, Center for Transylvanian Studies, 2009.

Deteşan, D. (2016). „Arhiva Protopopiatului Ortodox Sălişte (1848-1937)”. Anuarul Institutului de Istorie «George Bariţiu» – The Yearbook of the History Institute «George Bariţiu» Series Historica 55: 281-295.

Deteşan, D. (2020). “Păşind pe calea despărţaniei. Despre pribegie, adulter, „silă şi ură reciprocă” în protopopiatul ortodox Sălişte (1860-1890)”. In Andea, S., Chişu, A., Cosma, E., Balog, I., M., Crivii, A., Varga, A. (Eds.), Istoria şi scrisul istoric azi. Opţiuni metodologice. Paradigme. Agendă. Lucrările Conferinţei internaţionale din 3-5 februarie 2020, dedicată Centenarului Institutului de Istorie”George Bariţiu” din Cluj-Napoca. Cluj-Napoca: şcoala Ardeleană Publishing, pp. 355-385.

van der Heijden, M. (2015). “Domestic violence, alcohol abuse and the uses of justice in early modern Holland”. Annales de démographie historique 130(2): 69-85.