Societate urbană în Transilvania premodernă. O tipologie a oraşelor
Urban Society in Early Modern Transylvania. A Tipology of Towns

Summary/Abstract: The study of the phenomenon of Balkan merchants' mobility and the consequences of their establishment in Central European towns in pre-modern era, constitutes a preoccupation in the last decades' historiography. In the past years, two more important directions have been imposed: the research of the constitution of merchant colonies, according to the new interpretation of the 'central places theory', respectively the investigation of the conditions and methods of integration of the colonists inside the host-communities. The development of towns, especially small and medium-sized, has been directly influenced by this phenomenon, but there is still missing the comparative research, which could relate the evolution from different regions. On the other hand, the modification of urban topography, the social transformations which followed and the problem of cultural transfers represents directions of research convergent to the mentioned theme. The study proposes such an investigation, referring to the development of towns in Transylvania and Hungary, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Based on essential statistic sources, a typology of towns is realized, adequate to the features of the territory in view. The analysis later concentrates on a case study, the one of Alba Iulia. The situation of the city is traced in the first half of the century, based on the information offered by tax censuses, as prerequisite of elaborated research on its further development. The analysis explores the utility of report to different interpretative models, for outlining the physical and social topography of the city.

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