"Napomínam ťa z otcovskej lásky..." Koncept výchovy a vzdelávania na dvore palatína Mikuláša Esterházyho v prvej polovici 17. storočia

It was in the beginning of the 16th century that fashion to publish about proper behaviour and improvement of manners from childhood to adulthood reached its peak. Court instructions and codes of conduct aimed to discipline a court society and depict to a great extent life at the aristocratic court. On the one hand, they represented an ideal of proper manners, on the other, they are also a reflection of certain conventions, traditions and common practice of the given time and place.
Work burden, frequent travels of the court of the palatine and his emerging health problems that required long-term stays in spas prevented the palatine Nikolaus Esterházy to a great extent from personal involvement in upbringing of his own children. His advice and instructions for his oldest son Stephen covered all aspects of life of an aristocrat. The palatine divided and designated them according to the age of his son: for children years, adolescence and adulthood after the wedding. He adjusted them according to his spiritual, moral and educational needs. Stephen was supposed to get the best possible education and predetermined to fulfil the ideal of a son of a high dignitary of the realm. Even though majority of lectures employed the form and patterns of similar codes of the period, the palatine introduced also his own notions, such as specific daily timetable for his son.
It is important to note that the character of palatine's instructions to his son was positively recommendative.