Historical Studies on Central Europe

Modelling Christianisation: A Geospatial Analysis of the Archaeological Data on the Rural Church Network of Hungary in the 11th–12th Centuries. By Mária Vargha.

Bernát Rácz — 2024-07-24

Christianization in Early Medieval Transylvania. The Oldest Church in Transylvania and its Interpretation. Edited by Daniela Marcu Istrate, Dan Ioan Mureşan, and Gabriel Tiberiu Rustoiu.

András Ribi — 2024-07-24

Der Thurzo-Kodex – eine einzigartige Quelle zum europäischen Bergrecht und Münzwesen um 1500. Edited by Miroslav Lacko and Erika Mayerová.

István Draskóczy — 2024-07-24

Stadt im Wandel / Towns in Change. Der Donau-Karpatenraum im langen 18. Jahrhundert / The Danube-Carpathian Area in the Long 18th Century. Edited by Mathias Beer, Harald Heppner, and Ulrike Tischler-Hofer.

Mária Lengyel — 2024-07-24

Prosperität und Repräsentation. Facetten des Aufschwunges im Donau-Karpatenraum (1718–1914). Edited by Harald Heppner.

Gábor Ambrózy — 2024-07-24

The Life and Death of States. Central Europe and the Trans-formation of Modern Sovereignty. By Natasha Wheatley.

Imre Tarafás — 2024-07-24

Rechtsgeschichte und Volksbräuche (Ausgewählte Studien). By Ernő Tárkány Szücs. Edited by Janka Teodóra Nagy and Szabina Bognár.

Judit Beke-Martos — 2024-07-24

The Past 80 years of Hungarian Minority

Renáta Paládi — 2024-07-24

The Rise of Comparative History. Edited by Balázs Trencsényi, Constantin Iordachi, and Péter Apor.

Nóra Szigethy — 2024-07-24

Hungary’s Cold War: International Relations from the End of World War II to the Fall of the Soviet Union. By Csaba Békés.

Gusztáv Kecskés D. — 2024-07-24

Epic Songs in Árpádian Age Hungary

Balázs Sudár — 2024-07-24

While there is no direct evidence of epic singers in the Hungarian Conquest period, their presence and activity can nevertheless be posited on the strength of indirect evidence. Epic songs in Hungarian are known from the later fifteenth century, while the chronicles mention certain epic songs from the late twelfth century. Some of these epic songs celebrated the Conquest period and its events, and it seems unlikely that these songs were inspired by written sources and were, in this sense, secondary. The Hungarian expression énekmondás [song-speaking] is expressly archaic and has its parallels in Turkic languages. Cobza, the name of the musical instrument used by epic singers as accompaniment (Hung. koboz) is likewise rooted in the Turkic world and is a legacy of the pre-Conquest period, similarly to the designation of the performers as fiddlers.

An Alternative Proposal Explaining the Origin of the Word and Social Group ‘Székely’

Tamás Keszi — 2024-07-24

The word ‘Székely’ or ‘Szekler’ was formed from the Hungarian verb szökik (jump, move fast, escape, run away) using the suffix ‘-l/ly’ creating deverbal nouns. The original meaning of the word is fast-moving (person), fugitive, or runaway. The formation of the social group began in the eleventh century. The process was brought about the establishment of the landlord system and frequent wars which led to the escapes and ‘wanderings’ of slaves and free people coerced into bondage. The refugees mainly settled in the sparsely populated border region, where the institutional vacuum offered them favourable conditions to avoid the control of the feudal state. Here, the groups of different ethnic origins acquired a unified identity. We can understand the process of the formation of the community by using the conceptual frameworks of ‘unintended consequences, self-organization, spontaneous order, and exaptation.’ The spontaneous process may have been replaced by the conscious organizational efforts of the Hungarian kings only around 1100. This was followed by the first mention of the Székelys in the Battle of Olšava in 1116.

Absence and Presence

Martin Bauch — 2024-07-24

The Black Death in the Kingdom of Hungary

András Vadas — 2024-07-24

Western scholarship has studied the mid-fourteenth-century cataclysm of the Black Death for centuries. In contrast, due to the limited number of contemporary narrative sources, in East Central Europe, until recently historians discussed it only marginally. In the past decades, not independent of the emergence of new methods, such as archaeogenetics and palynology, and novel approaches to studying the Black Death such as climate and environmental history, scholars have increasingly turned to the analysis of the multiple waves of the second plague pandemic in this region. Recent studies have drawn attention to the apparent lack of data on the Black Death in the region while pointing to the potential role of the later waves, such as the pestis secunda and tercia, as well as later medieval and early modern recurrences of the epidemic in the historical demography of Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary. The paper provides an overview of the written evidence of the Black Death in Hungary and publishes in extenso some of the most important documentary evidence of the episodes of the epidemic in the Kingdom of Hungary. It argues that, unlike in the case of Bohemia and Poland, the first wave of the plague can be relatively well pursued by a critical analysis of the written evidence.

Late Medieval Plague Waves in Eastern Germany and Bohemia

Martin Bauch — 2024-07-24

This paper aims to enhance our knowledge about late-medieval epidemic outbreaks in specific parts of Eastern Central Europe. The first part on modern-day Eastern Germany discusses narrative evidence and its use in the current research on plague history, before bringing in municipal records on testaments and conveyances from Görlitz and Stralsund for the reconstruction of seasonality and mortality rates, as well as funeral inscriptions and pictorial evidence from Erfurt as indirect indicators of plague waves. After a brief discussion of the scarce narrative sources, the second part of the paper concerning Bohemia works with the evidence of the Libri Confirmationum, a source originating from the chancellery of the archbishops of Prague. Every new appointment to a benefice was supposed to be approved by one of the vicars general of the archbishop, and this confirmation usually gives the reason for the vacancy. Expanding on Eduard Maur’s research, death statistics and their frequency are analyzed statistically. The paper provides insight into new evidence for the reconstruction of plague waves, mortality rates and seasonality, and thereby highlights the characteristics of the plague in Eastern Central Europe.

Contemporary Perceptions of the Spread of the Plague in Central and Eastern Europe Following the Battle of Belgrade (1456)

Igor Stamenović — 2024-07-24

The study examines contemporary perceptions of the emergence and spread of the plague in Central and Eastern Europe following the Battle of Belgrade in 1456. On one hand, the Battle of Belgrade represents a significant Christian victory in the conflicts with the Ottomans during the fifteenth century. Consequently, it was utilized in crusade-related propaganda discourse and perceived as a divine blessing for the anti-Ottoman crusade. On the other hand, some prominent figures such as John Hunyadi, John of Capistrano, and Serbian Despot George Branković died shortly after the event due to the outbreak of the plague during the battle. The research aims to explore how contemporary historical sources handled this duality between the sense of triumph and the plague outbreak. It provides an overview of the areas affected by the plague due to the movement of armies and the political and economic connections between different parts of East and Central Europe. The study investigates whether and to what extent reports of the plague from the region link the Battle of Belgrade to the outbreak of the disease. Additionally, it analyses fifteenth-century sources related to the battle itself. This segment of the research examines representations of the plague outbreak, particularly the infection and death of the aforementioned Christian leaders. The research focuses on how the discourse on the plague is interpreted in relation to narratives of heroism, martyrdom, and sainthood, addressing aspects of adaptation, marginalization, and the complete omission of mentions of the plague in these interpretations.

Re-Evaluating the Eleventh Century through Linked Events and Entities

Tara Andrews — 2024-07-24

This report presents the aims and ongoing progress of the ERC-funded project “Re-Evaluating the Eleventh Century through Linked Events and Entities” (Grant #101002357). We introduce the rationale for the project and the innovative solution for recording historical data that we have developed, known as the STAR model. We then give details of the four case studies undertaken in the project, which will shed new light on the movement of people, the understanding of place and space, and the production of texts within and among Christian societies of the eleventh century. Through the work of this project, we hope to be able to represent, examine, and illustrate the multiplicity of perspectives and interpretations that arise in the history of a century that was so pivotal to the development of the modern Near East and Europe.

On the Legal and Governmental History of the Principality of Transylvania

Teréz Oborni — 2024-07-24

History writing has already processed the political history of the Principality of Transylvania, clarifying many of its details. Nevertheless, the way state administration functioned, including the judiciary, is still very much a mystery, although understanding the framework of everyday life is vital in investigating past ages.

The Union of the Estates in the Principality of Transylvania

Teréz Oborni — 2024-07-24

The paper briefly describes the basis of the constitution of the Principality of Transylvania, the union of Estates. Among the antecedents, it reviews the late medieval alliances of the Estates that were made by the nations (nationes) living in Transylvania, highlighting that the three ‘political nations’ were not nations or ethnicities in the modern sense, but rather were separated by their privileges and legal status. Based on Latin and Hungarian sources, the author reveals the covenants as renewed in the Articles of Law and emphasized that the concept of Union was broadened in the seventeenth century so that it no longer served only to support the unity of the state but also guaranteed the maintenance of the privileges of the Estates. The most precise interpretation of the Union was set out in the Approbatae Constitutiones, a collection of laws compiled in 1653.

Judicial Organization and the Sources of Decision-Making in Sixteenth-Century Transylvania

Zsolt Bogdándi — 2024-07-24

The paper describes the organization of the independent Transylvanian central court of law, the so-called Royal/Voivodal/Princely Table (Tabula) and its court of appeal, the court of personal presence (personalis presentia), in the light of the modest secondary literature, dietary decisions, and archival sources. Manuscript and published sources of law referred to in the course of litigation in the Transylvanian Royal/Voivodal/Princely Table (Tabula, Curia) in the second half of the sixteenth century are also presented. Based on the analysed archival sources—mainly the various allegationes lawyers made—it may be concluded that different sources provided the grounds that were frequently given for the court decisions. The analysis of available sources shows that, besides the Tripartitum, which was mostly referred to, during the litigations lawyers generally used the laws of the Hungarian Kingdom, and that the Decreta of the Transylvanian diets and the Table judged some cases according to their own custom.

Report on the Government of Transylvania, 1604

Petra Mátyás-Rausch — 2024-07-24

In the summer of 1604, the Transylvanian Council of Government, which had been formed shortly before, submitted a longer report to King Rudolf I of Hungary. They reported on the administration and financial situation of the newly pacified province of Transylvania. The most pressing issue, however, was the pay and maintenance of the mercenary corps stationed in Transylvania. Accordingly, the bulk of the report is devoted to discussing problems relating to the army. The report gives us an idea of how a Council of Government (Regiment) that had already been ‘tried and tested’ in the Austrian hereditary provinces functioned in Transylvania, and introduces the challenges members of the Council had to face.

The Early Modern Székely Society from a Legal Historical Perspective

Balázs Viktor Rácz — 2024-07-24

The paper discusses the changes in Székely society during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The topic is presented from a legal historical perspective because the scholarly literature has either paid no substantial attention to the legal framework of the early modern era or failed to utilize the sources relevant for Székely society. By re-examining already known sources and analyzing new ones, i.e., judicial proceedings, testimonies, contract and personal letters, it appears that the main turning points of the history of Székely society have been misinterpreted in some aspects, and a series of new questions have emerged that are yet to be answered.

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2024-07-24