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# The Material Culture

The structure and instruments of the material culture were marked by a blend of tradition and modernity. Urban and rural homes reflected both frugal conservatism and extravagant optimism. The wide variety in furnishings, everyday objects, and styles of dress gave the impression that the small principality was a storehouse of products issuing from many epochs, foreign lands, and civilizations.

The will to build prevailed even in harder times, and the pace of construction slowed only in the late 1690s. Time after time, urban dwellers had to repair the damage caused by war and conflagration. At great effort, the 1,800 houses damaged by the great fire of 1655 in Kolozsvár were rebuilt. The citizens of Brassó had to do likewise in 1689. However, after the college at Nagyenyed had burned down in 1704, funds had to be raised abroad for its reconstruction.

Some projects, including those of Gábor Haller, Elek Bethlen, and Mihály Teleki, revealed new trends in architectural design. {2-451.} Haller's plans for reinforcing Jenő Castle laid stress on quality and functionality. The most important school-building project of the time, for the Calvinist college at Kolozsvár, was entrusted to the Italian architect Agostino Serena; it was designed specifically to serve teaching functions as well as resident students. The first purpose-built printing house was Miklós Misztótfalusi Kis's Officina at Kolozsvár. The more enterprising aristocrats built new homes. In 1666, Miklós Bethlen launched the construction of a sizeable castle at Betlenszentmiklós; between 1668 and 1679, Elek Bethlen had his castle at Keresd and his manor-houses at Bethlen and Bonyha rebuilt, while Mihály Teleki erected a castle at Sorostély.

Castles, like urban dwellings, were constructed of brick or stone, but some of the nobility's country homes were still built of adobe or of 'plastered walls' applied to beams and wattle. The most common roofing material was wood shingles; more demanding customers chose tiles, while the practical-minded opted for tin or sheet iron. Flooring was of brick, stone, or tongue-and-groove planks, depending on the function of the room.

Manors consisted of several buildings, and their scale varied widely in accordance with the need and means of the noble owners. The main building, or kúria, had four, eight, or nine rooms, an accommodated the landowner's family; it had a carved gate, and was enclosed by trees or hedgerows. A wooden staircase led to the living quarters on the upper floor, which had balconies. Apart from the 'hall' and 'dining hall', there were separate quarters known as the 'master's house', the 'lady's house', and the 'young ladies' house'. The principal innovation was glazed windows, either leaded or in wood frames, but, despite the growing popularity of glass, many windows were still covered with parchment, paper, or wood shutters. In 1647, it was still regarded as a noteworthy exception that, on the Fogaras estate, the 'poultry-farmer's house had a glazed window'.[151]151. D. Prodan, Urbariile, p. 421. In the second half of the century, glazed windows became commonplace in the residential parts of houses. The glass {2-452.} came in different levels of quality, denoting the owner's rank, means, and pretensions. At Mihály Teleki's manor in Uzdiszent-péter, the dining hall, the houses of the lower estates, children's classrooms, the summer house, and the 'toilet chamber' were all glazed with ordinary 'peasant glass'; whereas the 'master's house', 'lady's house', and rooms used for entertaining had larger windows glazed with costly 'crystal glass'.[152]152. M. B. Nagy, Várak, kastélyok, pp. 142ff.

The castles and manor houses were still designed to provide some protection from attack, but their interiors reflected a growing demand for comfort. Many homes had ornate, iron-mantled fireplaces, known as 'Italian stoves', which were stoked from the other side of the wall. In Gáspár Kornis's castle at Szentbenedek, the heat was transmitted to the bluish-green glazed stoves from an 'old firing kiln'. Records show that, in 1652, the castle at Görgény had a heating stove stoked from the outside, and so did, in 1681, the dining halls of Szenterzsébet Castle; a similar stove heated the room of the steward at Vajdahunyad Castle. Judging from the recent reexamination of the tiles at Székelykeresztúr and from the records kept of heating fuel, there were no great differences in the way aristocrats, lesser nobles, and villagers heated their homes. Unglazed 'peasant stoves' were found in manor houses and castles as well, while better-quality stoves also found their way into the homes of the peasantry. At Fogaras Castle, both the 'poultry-farmer's house' and the gardener's house were equipped with good-quality, externally-stoked heating stoves; and, according to an 1681 inventory, a farmhouse at Vajdahunyad had 'an iron-legged stove that "drew inside"'.

The trend was toward greater comfort, ornamentation, and practicality. Polished doors and furniture were common, but painted furniture gained in popularity. Tables with turned, 'Italian' legs were also common. For reasons of comfort as well as appearance, tables, as well as desks, benches, and chairs were often covered with a rug. Armchairs came into use, as did, more rarely, low seats. {2-453.} Furniture from the Low Countries, carved in a shell-shaped design, became fashionable in aristocrats' castles, and recent research indicates that some peasant homes had hinged-back benches that had come from Holland via Poland. Cabinets started to replace chests. The more spacious dining halls acquired cupboards and sideboards, or, in less prosperous places, a simple buffet. The earlier canopied four-posters gradually gave way to simpler beds, just as the chest or bench that people slept on was replaced by painted beds. Books were kept in a purpose-built case (téka). Practical novelties included a 'child's green-painted bed on wheels' at the Teleki manor and the young Apafi's 'iron bed'.[153]153, 'Teleki Mihály oprakercisorai udvarházához tartozó javak leltára', in B. Nagy, Várak, p. 205.

Bedding became both comfortably and luxurious: cotton-stuffed mattresses, Turkish linen feather-bedding, sheets of Polish linen, sundry decorated bed linen, and Turkish-inspired, silk and velvet quilts. In the more elegant homes, the whitewashed walls were hung with tapestry from Venice, Vienna, and Spain, and with Turkish carpets, and adorned with paintings; simpler homes made do with locally-woven hangings, fur rugs, and painted panels.

In lighting fixtures, there was greater harmony between style and function. The iron and copper candlesticks found in aristocrats' homes were masterpieces of craftsmanship. Glass lampshades came into fashion, joining those made of parchment.

The tasteful, lead-glazed pottery produced by Habán craftsmen, including bowls, jars, cups, and tiles, proliferated in castles and manor houses, and their colourful style adorned the homes of wealthy burghers as well. The Habáns' cheaper, blue-glazed ceramics were found alongside simple peasant pottery in the more prosperous homes in market-towns and villages. Glass, wood, and earthenware vessels appeared beside the silver and gold cups and silver cutlery on aristocrats tables, testifying more to new needs than to reduced circumstances.

Inventories and testamentary records indicate a growing concern with personal hygiene. Washbasins and 'bathing tubs' became {2-454.} indispensable accessories. The manor at Uzdiszentpéter disposed of a 'bath-seat with armrests, crafted by a carpenter, for washing hair', a 'copper cauldron for heating bathwater', four 'oak tubs for bathing', and a 'bathing tub for children'.[154]154. Ibid., pp. 139, 149, 180-85, 203-4, 211, 214. The urban public baths and the many thermal, sulphur, and salt spas enjoyed a popularity of long-standing in Transylvania, although the ritual of frequent washing and mouth rinsing is also commonly attributed to Turkish influence. Soap-making was a well-established industry, and the costly 'Viennese' toilet soap was widely sold in the principality. A proliferation of towels, mirrors, scissors, combs, and toilet kits for travel testify to the growing interest in personal grooming. It is recorded in many sources, from János Kemény to Mihály Cserei, that aristocrats relied on domestics to serve their hygienic needs, although Miklós Bethlen also expressed an interest in the plumbing systems produced by the renowned craftsmen at Brassó.

Habits of dress were traditionally governed by considerations of age, occasion, and practicality, but they were also influenced by purely local factors. Turkish, Polish, and, later, Austrian fashions were adopted and blended with Hungarian style. The Hungarian dolmans and robes were fashioned variously from costly English felt, Turkish velvet, and cheap aba cloth from the Balkans. Italian, French, and German fashion articles became widely available. Borbála Váradi, who had risen from the middle class to marry the chancellor, added no fewer than seven pairs of gloves to her daughter's wedding trousseau. Péter Apor may have denigrated gloves and shoes as pointless novelties, but the 1679 inventory at Teleki's Uzdiszentpéter manor included 'three and a half pairs of worn, German, girl's shoes.'[155]155. Ibid., p. 146.

Government officials and preachers resorted to various warnings in their attempts to preserve the dress codes that differentiated social strata. However, Emperor Leopold's ruling, that certain imported fabrics should be reserved for the aristocracy, was in-spired by imperial protectionism. Undeterred, the merchants and {2-455.} trading companies continued to import costly cloths and silks, and fashion soon eroded the barriers set by social, ethnic, and religious conventions. The notes, dating from 1672 and 1675, of the son of a Kolozsvár burgher, János Linczeg, indicate that the nobility's dress style was spreading to the middle strata. The wardrobe of a Romanian farmer's wife who died of the plague included not only cheaper items appropriate to her social status, but also luxury items, notably 'green felt from Brassó, a new skirt hemmed with four rows of deep red silk', and a 'silver corset with a short silver chain'.[156]156. Ibid., p. 166.

Both higher and lower estates indulged in a taste for jewelry. 'Saxon women wore lockets, which they called bangles [kesentyű], on their bosom. The lockets of the burghers' wives were of gold, with precious stones, while those of ordinary Saxon women, particularly in the villages, were of silver or tin; but all women wore lockets, adorned with cut stones or cut glass.'[157]157. Péter Apor, Metamorphosis Transylvaniae, p. 29. Among Székely women, fashion tastes were dictated by the wives of lófő nobles and guardsmen. The display of finery was a social requirement; as always, one dressed to impress others. In 17th-century Transylvania, the accumulation of jewelry was also a symptom of insecurity, for it was the safest way to preserve wealth in turbulent times. For instance, when, in 1660, several hundred people sought shelter in Kolozsvár, they brought along a vast number of rings, necklaces, and pendants.

The principal status symbols were the carriage, with or without windows, the fine saddle-horse, and, above all, the clock. In the homes of the prince and the aristocracy, the fashion was for more and more costly and complex timepieces displaying the movement of stars or animated scenes of hunting, battle, and dancing. Clocks on city hall towers, and later on the gate-towers of manor-houses or on free-standing wood structures served a more practical purpose. There was a clock 'on the belfry or clock-turret' of Teleki's manor house at Uzdiszentpéter.[158]158. B. Nagy, Várak, p. 138. At Kővár Castle, the martial orders {2-456.} were reminded of the passage of time by a 'striking' clock mounted on a belfry-like wooden structure.

The increasingly ubiquitous clock reflected a mechanistic outlook; it was the timekeeper of the new mentality. In the words of Pápai Páriz, 'every man, at every hour, can be found performing a designated task in his home.'[159]159. Ferenc Pápai Páriz, 'Pax Aulae', in Pápai, Békességet, p. 227. Transylvanians perhaps never concerned themselves with the measurable passage of time as much as they did in these decades. In 1651, the figure of a man holding a clock was painted on the wall of Kolozsvár's city hall, right under the senators' window, along with the inscription Terrena omnia, mutationes et conversiones, postremo interitum habent (All earthly things change, become transformed, and ultimately disappear). The motto still reflected the traditional, tranquil conception of time, but contemporary letters and memoirs reveal that attitudes were changing. In a chapter devoted to 'dear golden time', Miklós Bethlen argued that what distinguished man from beast was his awareness of time and his ability to measure it. The changing conception of time bore fruit in the realm of culture. Idleness was a sin; reading and writing became a favoured activity of people who had been imprisoned or driven to seek shelter in towns. Students who were late for classes at the college of Marosvásárhely had to pay a fine. Concerned about wasting their time, Apáczai's students read late into the night. Contemporary speculation about the meaning of time foreshadowed the quest for a theory of relativity.