Considerații pe marginea identificării „procuratorilor” dinactele medievale și premoderne din Transilvania

Abstract

The documents relating to medieval and pre-modern Transylvania indicate the existence and perpetuation from antiquity of a judicial practice of representation at trials by means of „proxies” (procuratores) designated by the authorization letter (litterae procuratorie). The term procurator was used in parallel with its synonym meaning lawyer (advocatus), being preferred and used with a much higher frequency. The nomination of someone as proxy/assignee was initially witnessed by the places of authentication, later secular institutions get priority. Noblemen frequently appointed educated, specialized, professional people in this position. Initially in small numbers, they come to constitute a social category during the time of the Principality, in numerical and material ascension both at the level of counties and seats and at the urban level. The other large category of legal proxies was occasionally constituted, depending on the circumstances, from family members and their relatives, supplemented by servants, familiars, local rulers, bailiffs, or village judges, sometimes even by serfs living on the estates, by exception.