„Sub fatali cholera“ – Cholera Epidemics through the Lens of Supplementary Entries in Parish Registers from the Territory of Present-Day Slovakia

This study examines the dimension represented by supplementary and non-standard entries in parish death registers, aiming to highlight selected examples of atypical records that appeared in these registers during all five major cholera epidemic waves in the territory of present-day Slovakia throughout the nineteenth century. The analysis is based on a comparative reading of seventeen exceptional entries originating from Roman Catholic and Evangelical parish registers across various Slovak regions. Particular attention is paid to narrative and graphical elements, such as marginal notes, symbols, and visual markers that reveal the individual agency and emotional engagement of local clergy during the epidemic crisis. These non-standard inscriptions offer valuable insight into the intersection of epidemiological experience, religious practice, and historical demography in nineteenth-century Upper Hungary. A total of seventeen exceptional register entries were analysed and interpreted for the purposes of this investigation.