The study deals with forms and institutions of the Hungarian State, through which public authorities and society tried to keep alive their legal acts in the Middle Ages. The signs of an increasing demand to lay down legal acts in writing appear in many respects under the reign of King Béla III (1172-1196), who was brought up at the imperial Court in Constantinople as heir to the crown of emperor Manuel I Comnenos. After his return to Hungary, he ordered to put in writing every private lawsuit decided by royal judgment, he stabilized the organization of the royal chancellery, and during his reign began the documentary practice of the so-called "places of authentication" (loca credibilia): ecclesiastical chapters and monastic convents, i.e. corporate bodies who issued deeds on different legal matters and saved a copy of each document. In the literature, both western and eastern institutions appear to have served as possible models or at least as motivating factors to the documentary practice of the chancellery and the activity of the loca credibilia. The paper takes these factors into consideration and tries to show to what extent Hungarian practice was influenced by foreign models and indigenous circumstances.
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