Gypsy presence in Transylvania. Centuries 15-16.
This study represents a short presentation of the involvement of the ethnic community of gypsies in the economic and commercial life of Transylvania in the centuries 15-16.They had a special situation within this space being considered free people who had the right to move here and there paying only a tax to the state. However slavery is attested although restrained as a phenomenon; gypsies were in the possession of monasteries or noblemen or in the Transylvanian feuds of the Romanian rulers where they had various activities.
The Hungarian documents mention them under the name of cygány and the German documents call them zigeuner, attesting groups of gypsies ruled by names such as: senior Emaus, Toma the Bulgarian/the Polgar, the rulers Florian and Benedict etc. The gypsies from Transylvania were involved in various economic activities like: raising animals, especially horses so necessary for their journeys, working on the fields, manufacturing the iron and the wood and they got orders to repair or produce equipment necessary for the army;we can find them involved in producing goods for the market but also seeking for gold in the rivers or as salt manufacturers. Due to their musical sense they got involved in the noblemen’s entertainment. We can find them as infantrymen in the army and in the law system we can find them as executors.
The present study pursued to accomplish an excursion in the economic activities carried by the ethnic community of the gypsies, fact that attests both their presence and their value on the Transylvanian territory in the 15th and 16th century.
Keywords: Transylvania, 15th and 16th century, gypsies, cygány, zigeuner, slaves