Historical Statistics
or how to make the best use of the historical data
Lecturer: Mgr. Miroslav Baranek
Form of teaching: lecture with seminar (P:1 / S:1)
ECTS: 4
Objective:
The course is practically oriented and designed especially for the study programmes in archiving, museology and digitization of historical heritage, history, ethnology, but also for students interested in research of different social strata of the population (bourgeoisie, nobility, serfs, intellectuals, marginalized groups). Thanks to the use of modern methods of historical statistics, they will be able to better present their findings. The practically oriented lectures will be based on the interpretation of contemporary written sources from the early modern period to the mid-20th century and will reflect the latest research and trends. Students will learn how to interpret archival sources ranging from the burghers of feudal dominions and documents of urban and municipal provenance (e.g. registers, tax registers, population censuses, registers of burghers, wills), to those of regional provenance (regnicolaris censuses, census records). They will also become acquainted with archival sources for historical economic statistics (chamber and account books, guild documents) and with contemporary calendars, yearbooks and schematisms from the territory of present-day Slovakia, which provide statistical summaries of offices and officials, schools, teachers, lawyers, craftsmen and merchants. They will also become acquainted with sources recording marginalised groups (prostitutes, criminals, orphans, foreigners), or sources from the health sector (records of doctors, patients) and education (catalogues of students). The acquired knowledge of statistical archival sources will help them not only to create qualified final theses, but also to create databases and interactive web maps depicting the demographic development of towns and villages in Slovakia (or abroad) using information systems (e.g. QGIS). This is a practically oriented course, whose graduates are currently in high demand on the labour market.
Class syllabus:
- Introduction to the Problematics of Historical Statistics, professional literature, basic terminology
- Sources of historical demographic and economic statistics
- Excerpting and processing statistical data (Excel, OpenRefine, attribute table in QGIS)
- Urbariums of feudal dominions, Theresian Urbariums, censuses of serfs
- Documents of municipal provenance (thirtieth customs registers, tax registers, town population registers, war taxation books, wine registers, books of newly admitted burghers, registers of wills)
- Chamber and account books as a source of historical economic statistics
- Guild documents (books of comrades, masters, accounting documents), Merchants' Guild in Bratislava (books of members, company registers), registers of tradesmen
- Regnicolaris censuses (1715, 1720, 1828), censuses (1856/1857, 1869, 1930, 1940), right of domicile, citizenship
- Registers as a source of statistics, census of Jews and Jewish merchants in Podhradie
- Catalogues of students (Bratislava Royal Academy of Law in Bratislava, Catholic Gymnasium and Evangelical Lyceum in Bratislava), association records (membership books, association yearbooks, Bratislava associations - e.g. Pressburger Casino)
- Statistical sources on health care (records of Bratislava doctors, patients) and marginalised population groups (records of prostitutes, prisoners, orphans, infectious patients, etc.)
- Historical calendars, almanacs, yearbooks and schematisms (e.g. Pressburger Adress-Kalender of 1812, Pressburger Wegweiser, Schematismus Inclyti Regni Hungariae, etc.)
- Excursion to the archive
Requirements for completion of the course:
- number of accepted absences: 3
- preparation of a seminar paper (excerpt and analysis of a selected statistical source - min. 10 standard pages - 80 % of the mark) + final colloquium (20 % of the mark).
Recommended literature:
- HAVRÁNEK, Jan – PETRÁŇ, Josef. Základy statistické metody pro historiky. Praha : SPN, 1963.
- MAUR, Eduard. Základy historické demografie. Praha : SPN, 1978.
- KUBIŠ, Karel. Kvantitativní metody a historická statistika. In HROCH, Miroslav a kol.: Úvod do studia dějepisu. Praha : SPN, 1985, s. 215-222.
- FEDERMAYER, Frederik. Rody starého Prešporka. Genealogický rozbor obyvateľstva a topografia mesta podľa súpisu z roku 1624. Bratislava : Monada, 2003.
- ŠPIESZ, Anton. Slobodné kráľovské mestá na Slovensku v rokoch 1680-1780. Košice : Východoslovenské vydavateľstvo, 1983.
- FORBAT, Eugen. Dejiny bratislavského obchodu v 18. a 19. storočí (1699 – 1873). Bratislava : Vydavateľstvo SAV, 1959.
- SARMÁNYOVÁ, Jana. Cirkevné matriky na Slovensku zo 16. – 19. storočia. Bratislava : Odbor archívnictva MV SR, 1991.
- NOVÁKOVÁ, Veronika ml. Poslucháči kráľovskej akadémie v Bratislave (1777-1849). In GAUČÍK, Štefan – NOVÁKOVÁ, Veronika (eds.). Archivum Sala IV. Archívna ročenka. Šaľa : Štátny archív v Bratislave, pobočka Šaľa, 2008, s. 75 – 84.
- KIPSOVÁ, Mária – VANČOVÁ, Tatiana – GEŠKOVÁ, Želmíra. Bibliografia slovenských a inorečových kalendárov 1701-1965. Martin : Matica slovenská, 1984.
- MIKUŠOVÁ, Miriam. Sčítanie obyvateľov na území Slovenska v roku 1857 na príklade dokumentov mesta Trnavy. In Historická demografie, 2014, roč. 38, č. 1, s. 57 – 76.
- TIŠLIAR, Pavol – ŠPROCHA, Branislav. Premeny vybraných charakteristík obyvateľstva Slovenska v 18. – 1. pol. 20. storočia. Bratislava : Centrum pre historickú demografiu a populačný vývoj Slovenska FiF UK v Bratislave, 2017.
- TIŠLIAR, Pavol – ŠPROCHA, Branislav. Slovenské sčítanie ľudu z roku 1940. In Historická demografie, 2022, roč. 46, č. 1, s. 69 – 86.