In the oldest written sources the carpenters from Maramureş were in general
named only accidentally and they are recognizable by the professional terms and eventually by the titles added to their names. The specific conditions from
Maramureş led to the use of numerous terms and titles in different languages; in
Latin (faber, lignifaber, carpentarius, magister carpentarius, durepitus),
Hungarian (ács, acz, ach, alcs, alch, alts, farago, mester), Romanian (meşter,
maistăr, durepit, lemnar, cemerman), Ucrainian (maistrov) and German
(zimmerman, zimmer meister). The list is certainly not complete and most of the various forms were rarely used in documents. The titles alone (faber, magister, mester, meşter, maistăr, maistrov, meister) require special caution, because they were applied in other professions, too. For instance, in 1728 the sexton Popa
Simion collected money from the villagers in Hărniceşti to pay an unspecified
master (meşter),1 actually referring to a bookbinder and not to a carpenter. Another
example is Emericus Mester from Vişc, who was a shoemaker in 1744.2 Another
significant problem is the common use of occupational names for surnames. Michael Acs was a shoemaker in the town of Teceu in 1744 and Samsa Cemerman
was a parish priest in Deseşti in 1751,3 none of them a carpenter as one might have
expected. We should however not deny that often a person named Priest (Pop, Popa or Papp) was a priest, a Miller (Molnar or Morar) was a miller and accordingly even one named Carpenter (Acs) could often be a carpenter. Nevertheless, the occupations were regularly inherited from one generation to another and consequently the trade names and the surnames served well certain families.
The first recorded carpenters were probably members of the town guilt from Sighet. In 1540, Joannes lignifaber carpentarius was mentioned together with
Franciscus carpenterius from the village of Apşa de Sus. In 1552 it was recorded
Domenicus faber, the next year Andreas Taracz carpenterius and Joannes Molnar, after 7 years the carpentarius magister Thomas Nyerges, whereas in between
1560-61 it was active Georgius Zcyws magister carpenterius.4 From the 17th
century and the first half of the 18th century, there are numerous records of
inhabitants in the 5 towns named Acs, Acz, Mester, and faber, which are not always true carpenters.5
1
Bârlea 1909, 114-115/406.
2
MOL, U et C, fasc. 220, no. 22, 495.
3
MOL, U et C, fasc. 220, no. 22, 500.
4
Tört. Tár, Nouv. sér. III, 1902, 463-464; after Balogh 1941, 25-26, n. 58; Bélay 1943, 197.
5
In the villages we find other numerous examples of inhabitants bearing
names or titles linked to carpentry. In 1550, Alexander Alch, serf in Apşa de Sus,
was probably a true carpenter, maybe related with Franciscus of Apşa de Sus
carpentarius recorded in Sighet in 1540. Jacobus Kovacz faber in 1614 and Joannes Asztalos faberlignarius in 1744, both serfs from Iza, were also involved in
carpentry according to their titles.6 From the 17th century and the beginning of the
18th century we find one group of peoples named Alch around Hust, and just rarely
some named Farago and Mester.
Alch is an old form of the Hungarian word ács with the meaning of carpenter.7 The Alch group of names was concentrated in the serf village of Nyzhnie Selyshche, documented there in 1605 (Gregorius Ach), 1715 (Elias, Franciscus, Jakobus, Lucas, Petrus and Stephanus Alch/Alcs) and 1720 (in addition Andreas and Demetrius Acs) suggesting a possible important family of
carpenters, not only along several generations but also numerous.8 An isolated serf
Jakobus Alch lived in 1715 in Darva and two priests, Ştefan and Pop Alcsa were
recorded in 1749 in Bedeu.9 There might have been even others not mentioned by
the available records.
Farago is also a Hungarian word for wood carver.10 A single person is thus far known with this name and he significantly lived in the village belonging to the
important Peri Monastery. Kondratt Farago was a serf there in 1605.11
Mester is the Hungarian word for master and it was widely used by all
ethnical groups living in Maramureş for the best professional carpenters; meşter
and maistăr in Romanian, maistrov in Ucrainian and meister in German. An
Georgius Mester was named in Petrova in 1720,12 without knowing if he really
was a carpenter or not.
It is interesting to remark that the majority of those who had their surnames and titles linked to carpentry were either town artisans or villagers of serf
condition. This corresponds to what master carpenter Hotico Găvrilă remembers,
that the best professional carpenters in the past were poorly landed and made a living of travelling around and building for clients. Unfortunately, this selection of potential and effective former carpenters represents an extremely reduced figure of
the numerous carpenters who activated about the same time in Maramureş.
However, it captures a potentially important family of rural carpenters in Nyzhnie Selyshche and some other individuals who used their profession as a surname. The names of carpenters recorded in written documents without sure connection to a specific church are at this stage not particularly relevant in our effort to identify
the church carpenters from Maramureş, but the professional terminology may help
us to find them elsewhere. We must therefore continue our research firstly by focusing on a few signatures and reliable written sources and thereafter by studying the church carpenters from their surviving works.
6
Bélay 1943, 121, 156 and MOL, U et C, fasc. 220, nr. 22, 528.
7
Balogh 1941, 24-26.
8
Bélay 1943, 134, 195.
9
The priest Ştefan Alcsa was already departed, while the other one seems to have been his son; Kinah 1926, 113-114. 10 Balogh 1941, 24-26. 11 Bélay 1943, 167. 12 Bélay 1943, 179.
2.1.1 A few signatures
One of the most reliable ways to identify a carpenter with a church is through signatures. At first sight, the church carpenters appear to have preferred to remain anonymous. However, some of the few surviving names of church carpenters come from inscriptions on the churches. Since they used to sign on the portals, we may suppose that several other signatures disappeared with the numerous later enlargements of the entrances.
The oldest identifiable church carpenter seems to be Meşter Gavril, who
signed above the portal to the nave in Onceşti (c 1621; 97). His signature in
Romanian with Cyrillic characters is only partially maintained, but still readable (96). Gavril is, however, only the first name, the important surname being perhaps lost.