Whose Water? The Control and Appropriation of Water Resources in Medieval Hungary

András Vadas is an associate professor in medieval history at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary. He graduated from the same institution (PhD, 2015) and the Central European University (PhD, 2020). He was awarded a Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholarship at Georgetown University (2017) and taught at Columbia University as an István Deák Visiting Professor (2025). He is the author or editor of about a dozen books in English and Hungarian on the environmental, urban, and economic history of premodern Central Europe. His first English-language monograph, The Environmental Legacy of War on the Hungarian-Ottoman Frontier, was published in 2023.

• List of Figures and TablesList of AbbreviationsAcknowledgmentsA Note on Names1. Introduction1.1. Riverine Landscapes as Conflict Environments in Premodern Europe – Some Historiographic Reflections1.1.1. New Directions in Research – Where Environmental, Social, and Technological History Meet1.1.2. Hungary and Central Europe – Research Traditions and Recent Results1.2. The Goals of this Work 1.2.1. Time and Space1.2.2. About Sources 1.3. The Structure of the Book2. The Spread of Water Mills in Medieval Hungary with a Central European Overview2.1. Mills and Benedictines – Some Preliminary Considerations2.2. The First Water Mills in the Region – Historical Evidence, Linguistics, and (the Lack of) Archaeological Data2.3. Conclusions3. Waterscapes as Conflict Environments in Late Medieval Hungary3.1. Legal Regulations and Practice of Mill Construction in Medieval Hungary3.1.1. Locus molendini – A Place, a Right, a Claim?3.1.2. Locus Molendini in Early Literacy – First References and Terminological Unifications3.1.3. Terminological Uniformity – Uniformity in Meaning?3.1.4. Mills and Mill Sites – How Do They Relate to Each Other?3.2. Rivers in Urban Landscapes – Rivers, Streams, Moats, and Disputes3.2.1. Major Waterways and Mills – The Example of Buda, Óbuda, and Pest3.2.2. Streams and Mills in Urban Environments – the Cases of Zagreb and Felhévíz3.2.2.1. Felhévíz and its Hot Springs3.2.3. Urban Moats and Water-Use3.2.3.1. Building Moats, Using Their Waters – A Short Overview 3.2.3.2. The Case of Sopron3.2.3.3. The Case of Prešov3.2.3.4. Moats, Urban Topographies, and Mills – Some Conclusions3.3 Rivers in Mining Areas – Abundance of Water versus Lack of Access?3.3.1. Mining Town Privileges and Water-Use3.3.2. Early Urban Privileges and Water Use3.3.3. Kremnica and Its Water Mills 3.3.4. The Foundation of Nová Baňa and its Water Mills3.3.5. Mills in Mining Towns: Who Was Entitled to What?3.4. Rivers as Borders – Another Minefield?3.4.1. The Border between Ľubotín and Orlov – What Can a Single Case Reveal?3.4.2. Riverbed Changes and Estate Borders – Was There a Medieval Customary Law in Hungary?3.4.3. Riverbeds and Borders – Some Conclusions3.5. Conclusions: Rivers as Conflict Environments4. The Men behind the Wheel… Building on Water in the Middle Ages4.1. The Renovation of the Moat of Sopron in 1540 – A Unique Source4.1.1. The Expenditures on the Work4.1.2. The Labor Organization4.2. Millers4.3. Ditch and Pond Diggers and Pond Masters4.4. Conclusions5. Conclusions and Outlook5.1. The Politics of Water – An EpilogueAppendicesBibliographyIndex