Valašská, uherská či polská župice? Příspěvek k uplatnění kaftanů ve středoevropském mužském oděvu

In terms of origin, grasslands in Central Europe can be classified into (i) natural grasslands, predetermined by environmental conditions and wild herbivores; (ii) seminatural grasslands, associated with long‐term human activity from the beginning of agriculture during the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition; and (iii) improved (intensive) grasslands, a product of modern agriculture based on sown and highly productive forage grasses and legumes. This review discusses the origin, history and development of grasslands in Central Europe from the Holocene (9500 BC) to recent times, using archaeobotanical (pollen and macroremains), archaeozoological (molluscs, dung beetles, animal bones) and archaeological evidence, together with written and iconographic resources and recent analogies. An indicator of grasslands is the ratio of non‐arboreal/arboreal pollen and the presence of pollen of species such as Plantago lanceolata and Urtica dioica in sediments. Pastures can be indicated by Juniperus communis pollen and charcoal present in sediments and the soil profile. Insect‐pollinated species can be studied using cesspit sediments and pollen (from honey) in vessels in graves. In Central Europe, natural steppe, alluvial grasslands and alpine grasslands occurred before the start of agriculture in the early Neolithic (5500 BC); their area was small, and grassland patches were fragmentary in the forested landscape. Substantial enlargement of grasslands cannot be expected to have occurred before the late Bronze Age. The first scythes come from the 7th–6th century BC; therefore, hay meadows probably did not develop before this time. There is evidence of hay meadows in Central Europe during the Middle Ages, documented by macroremains of Arrhenatherum elatius in sediments, written records and long scythes in archaeological assemblages. Based on macroremains analyses, we conclude that there was generally high diversity of seminatural grasslands in the cultural landscape in the Middle Ages, and individual grassland communities were generally species rich. From the beginning of the agriculture until the 18th century, pastures and pasture forests were dominant sources of forage. Large‐scale enlargement of hay meadows and decline of pastures in many regions occurred from the 18th century. Hay making is associated with enlargement of arable fields and the use of cattle as draught animals for ploughing and soil preparation. The spread of A. elatius in Central Europe was enabled by the decline of grazing management and an increased proportion of hay meadows in the 18th and 19th centuries. In some mountain areas, there are no records of large‐scale deforestation and enlargement of grasslands until the 14th century, and the peak of the agriculturally used area was recorded for the period from the 18th to the first half of the 20th century. Grasslands were converted into arable land during periods of war; conversely, grasslands replaced arable land after the collapse of agriculture in many regions of former communist countries following political regime change in the 1990s. The dynamics of the grassland area reflect the development of human society and the political situation, because grasslands are an integral part of the cultural landscape in Central Europe.

The dancing mania erupted in the 14th century in the wake of the Black Death, and recurred for centuries in central Europe - particularly Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium - finally abating in the early 17th century. The term "dancing mania" was derived from "choreomania," a concatenation of choros (dance) and mania (madness). A variant, tarantism, was prevalent in southern Italy from the 15th to the 17th centuries, and was attributed at the time to bites from the tarantula spider. Affected individuals participated in continuous, prolonged, erratic, often frenzied and sometimes erotic, dancing. In the 14th century, the dancing mania was linked to a corruption of the festival of St. John's Day by ancient pagan customs, but by the 16th century it was commonly considered an ordeal sent by a saint, or a punishment from God for people's sins. Consequently, during outbreaks in the 14th and 15th centuries, the dancing mania was considered an issue for magistrates and priests, not physicians, even though the disorder proved intractable to decrees and exorcisms. However, in the 16th century Paracelsus discounted the idea that the saints caused or interceded in the cure of the dancing mania; he instead suggested a psychogenic or malingered etiology, and this reformulation brought the dancing mania within the purview of physicians. Paracelsus advocated various mystical, psychological, and pharmacological approaches, depending on the presumptive etiologic factors with individual patients. Only music provided any relief for tarantism. Later authors suggested that the dancing mania was a mass stress-induced psychosis, a mass psychogenic illness, a culturally determined form of ritualized behavior, a manifestation of religious ecstasy, or even the result of food poisoning caused by the toxic and psychoactive chemical products of ergot fungi. In reality, dancing manias did not have a single cause, but component causes likely included psychogenic illness, malingering, and ritualized behaviors.

The majority of the 18th century altars in Central Europe are objects made of polychromed wood, stucco, or stone. There are, however, other altars whose retabula – as a whole or predominantly – take the form of a wall painting. The basis for these works is a spatial and material illusion, which imitates the presence of a real reredos within the painting, and in some cases even the imagined space around it. The beginnings of the monumental, architecturally illusionistic murals in Central European art are undoubtedly connected with the Viennese activity of Andrea Pozzo in the early 18th century, and his famous treatise entitled Perspectiva pictorum et architectorum. The principia of new formal achievements, instilled in the Habsburg capital, subsequently radiated ontowall painting, including the illusionistic altars of various kinds and constructed at different timeswithin neighbouring countries. In Slovakia, painted, illusionistic altars have not so far been the subject of systematic research. Over the centuries, numerous such altars have either been destroyed or preserved in a truly terrible condition. Thus, this article is the first to present a summary view on such types of works in the region, with the elaboration of a new, basic, chronological and typological order. The initial part of the article is devoted to the presentation of the fewdirect reflections of Pozzo’s works, which were created in the first half of the 18thcentury. The review begins with the works by Christoph Tausch (Banska Štiavnica), Pozzo’s protegeand assistant, which are known only from archival citations and references. The next stage of the development of illusionistic altars, dated to the mid-18thcentury, is represented by a set of six wall paintings from temples in the Banska Štiavnica Calvary between 1744 and 1751. These works, referring to Pozzo’s achievements and the Viennese art, were created by Anton Schmidt (1713-1773), a graduate of a local art academy. On the one hand, the paintings had been ordered from a leading regional artist, and on the other hand, the applied technique entailed a pragmatic reduction in time, costs, and the occupied space within the temples. Broadly speaking, however, illusionistic altars had not gained popularity by the first half of the century, unlike in Austria, Bohemia and Silesia, and they were created in an updated form, including the latest artistic trends of the time. The apogee of the whole process dates to the last three decades of the 18thcentury and includesthe works that cultivated both solutions representinglate Baroque and Rococo styles, and the features of early Classicism. Model examples are the painted decorations within the presbytery of the church of the Pauline Fathers in Šamorin from 1778, initialled with the monogram of F.S. (and made in accordance with an older model, patterned on the work by Paul Heineken), and a series of illusionistically painted retabulain the Premonstratensian church in Košice, created in the late 18th century by Erasmus Schrott (1755-1804), who was closely linked to Viennese circles. A further part of the article discusses a group of miscellaneous works – at times simpler and cheaper – which graced a series of parish churches. The introduction,in the territories of today’s Slovakia, and the subsequent growth in popularity of a particular type of altar retabulum, created by means of a wall-painting technique (mainly fresco-secco) dates to the 18th century, with its apogee in the final three decades of the century. Typologically, it was dominated by tectonic reredoses, with various degrees of complexity – from simpler variants of aediculae, through a pillared niche and a colonnade, to Apsisaltar. Sometimes, these are also imitations of canopy-type altars or altars with an applied motif of a canopy in the central axis or in the topping. Occasionally, there are also imaginations of an illusionistically painted ceremonial drapery in the background. In the case of illusionistic altars, just like for the remaining types of architectural wall painting, an important role at the designing stage was played by architectonic treatises and patterns. In the said territory, particular popularity was enjoyed by Andrea Pozzo’s treatise, with others including the works by Heineken, Galli-Bibiena and Schubler. It must also be stated that after the second half of the 18th century, no major changes were implemented, and the older patterns and models, already rooted in the tradition, were chiefly updated by means of more modern ornaments. It was not until the last three decades of the century that the post-Pozzo tradition began to recede at the expense of simpler structures which complied more aptly with the spirit of the incoming Classicism. In the entirety of the illusionistic painting – both decorations of vaults and retabula – an important role was played by the Viennese centre of art, and not only in reference to the territories of today’s Slovakia, but also to Central and East-Central Europe. A significant number of wall-painting authors remain unknown,and as far as the issue of orders is concerned, it is impossible to ignore the fact that these works were most popular among the representatives of the Roman Catholic Church. It is also quite obvious that painted altars were more inexpensive, less time-consuming to complete, and easier to undergo modifications in due course. Illusionistic altars, created in the northern part of the former Kingdom of Hungary in the 18th century,had numerous imitations in the subsequent century. The last part of the paper presents the continuation of the tradition, including historicising works illustrated with an example of the work of the Franciscan painter Konrad Švestka (1833-1907).

According to its main system-level characteristics, Yiddish belongs to the High German branch of West Germanic languages. During its development, it underwent an important influence of Hebrew. In modern times, we can distinguish three main varieties of Yiddish: (1) Western Yiddish in western German-speaking territories; (2) Yiddish spoken until the twentieth century in Central Europe (Czech and East German lands), and (3) Eastern Yiddish in eastern Europe. From the point of view of Germanistics, it is appropriate to consider that the inception of Yiddish varieties corresponds to the Early New High German period (1350–1650). It was during that period that the Jewish vernacular idiom started to have system-level differences in comparison to the dialects spoken by German Christians, namely, in phonology and grammar. Before that period, differences surely existed in such domains, surface level for any language, as orthography and lexicon. The German dialects from southern Germany represent the linguistic basis for Western Yiddish. The medieval Bohemian dialect of German represents the linguistic basis for Yiddish spoken in Central Europe and eastern Europe. Due to permanent contacts with the Slavic Christian population, Eastern Yiddish underwent numerous changes in all of its systems due to the strong influence of Polish, Ukrainian, and Belarusian. It eventually branched into three subdialects: Lithuanian Yiddish, Polish Yiddish, and Ukrainian Yiddish. In modern times, in numerous countries the decline of the use of Yiddish as a living language was related to the assimilation of local Jews to the culture of the Gentile majority. At the end of the eighteenth century and during the nineteenth century it was the case in various German-speaking provinces of Central Europe and western Europe where local Jews abandoned Yiddish in favor to German. Similar shifts to the dominant non-Jewish languages took place during the twentieth century in various western European countries. In the USSR, during the 1920s and the 1930s the shift to Russian was already well advanced. For those who survived the Holocaust, the assimilation accelerated during the following decades. In Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, and Romania, Yiddish-speaking communities were decimated by the Holocaust. In North America, most immigrant families shifted to English within a generation or two. Yet, because of a permanent influx of masses of native speakers between the 1880s and the 1920s, Yiddish was actively used until the mid-twentieth century even in certain secular Jewish groups. However, during the second half of the twentieth century its decline was accelerated outside of certain Haredi groups.

The variability of winter extreme low‐temperature events and summer extreme high‐temperature events was investigated using daily temperature series (1901–98) from 11 sites in central and southern Europe. An extreme temperature event (EXTE) is defined by various threshold values of daily temperature or daily temperature anomaly. Systematic changes in the frequencies of EXTEs are investigated by the Mann–Kendall test and a method based on the Wilcoxon test. The catalogue of macrocirculation types over central Europe (the Hess–Brezowsky classification) is applied to investigate the connections between EXTEs and large‐scale circulation. Circulation classes (HBC) are defined, and mostly spatial averages of EXTEs are examined.There were large long‐term fluctuations in the frequencies of both winter extreme cold events (EXCEs) and summer extreme warm events (EXWEs) during the 20th century. The systematic changes referring to the entire period indicate a slight warming tendency, but only a few of the changes, mostly in the northernmost sites, are statistically significant. Strong connections are present between the frequencies of EXTEs and the large‐scale circulation on various time scales, particularly for EXCEs. The spatial differences of EXTE fluctuations and EXTE–HBC connections are small within the study area. Northerlies and easterlies, as well as meridional and anticyclonic situations, are favourable for EXCEs, whereas southerlies and persistent anticyclonic situations are favourable for EXWE occurrences. In the latest decades, a decline in the frequency of EXCEs and a sharp increase in the frequency of EXWEs happened, and the residence times of the circulation patterns over central Europe became longer both in winter and summer. Copyright © 2003 Royal Meteorological Society

TamdrupRoyal residence and memorial church in a new light
 Tamdrup has been shrouded in a degree of mystery in recent times. The solitary church located on a moraine hill west of Horsens is visible from afar and has attracted attention for centuries. On the face of it, it resembles an ordinary parish church, but on closer examination it is found to be unusually large, and on entering one discovers that hidden beneath one roof is a three-aisled construction, which originally was a Romanesque basilica. Why was such a large church built in this particular place? What were the prevailing circumstances in the Early Middle Ages when the foundation stone was laid?
 The mystery of Tamdrup has been addressed and discussed before. In the 1980s and 1990s, archaeological excavations were carried out which revealed traces of a magnate’s farm or a royal residence from the Late Viking Age or Early Middle Ages located on the field to the west of the church (fig. 4), and in 1991, the book Tamdrup – Kirke og gård was published.
 Now, by way of metal-detector finds, new information has been added. These new finds provide several answers, but also give rise to several new questions and problems. In recent years, a considerable number of metal finds recovered by metal detector at Tamdrup have been submitted to Horsens Museum. Since 2012, 207 artefacts have been recorded, primarily coins, brooches, weights and fittings from such as harness, dating from the Late Viking Age and Early Middle Ages. Further to these, a coin hoard dating from the time of Svein Estridson was excavated in 2013.
 The museum has processed the submitted finds, which have been recorded and passed on for treasure trove evaluation. As resources were not available for a more detailed assessment of the artefacts, in 2014 the museum formulated a research project that received funding from the Danish Agency for Culture, enabling the finds to be examined in greater depth.
 The aim of the research project was to study the metal-detector finds and the excavation findings, partly through an analysis of the total finds assemblage, partly by digitalisation of the earlier excavation plans so these could be compared with each other and with the new excavation data. This was intended to lead on to a new analysis, new interpretations and a new, overall evaluation of Tamdrup’s function, role and significance in the Late Viking Age and Early Middle Ages.Old excavations – new interpretationsIn 1983, on the eastern part of the field, a trial excavation trench was laid out running north-south (d). This resulted in two trenches (a, b) and a further three trial trenches being opened up in 1984 (fig. 6). In the northern trench, a longhouse, a fence and a pit-house were discovered (fig. 8). The interpretation of the longhouse (fig. 4) still stands, in so far as we are dealing with a longhouse with curved walls. The western end of the house appears unequivocal, but there could be some doubt about its eastern end. An alternative interpretation is a 17.5 m long building (fig. 8), from which the easternmost set of roof-bearing posts are excluded. Instead, another posthole is included as the northernmost post in the gable to the east. This gives a house with regularly curved walls, though with the eastern gable (4.3 m) narrower than the western (5.3 m).
 North of the trench (a) containing the longhouse, a trial trench (c) was also laid out, revealing a number of features. Similarly, there were also several features in the northern part of the middle trial trench (e). A pit in trial trench c was found to contain both a fragment of a bit branch and a bronze key. There was neither time nor resources to permit the excavation of these areas in 1984, but it seems very likely that there are traces of one or more houses here (fig. 9). Here we have a potential site for a possible main dwelling house or hall.
 In August 1990, on the basis of an evaluation, an excavation trench (h) was opened up to the west of the 1984 excavation (fig. 7). Here, traces were found of two buildings, which lay parallel to each other, oriented east-west. These were interpreted as small auxiliary buildings associated with the same magnate’s farm as the longhouse found in the 1984 excavation. The northern building was 4 m wide and the southern building was 5.5 m. Both buildings were considered to be c. 7 m long and with an open eastern gable. The southern building had one set of internal roof-bearing posts.
 The excavation of the two buildings in 1990 represented the art of the possible, as no great resources were available. Aerial photos from the time show that the trial trench from the evaluation was back-filled when the excavation was completed. Today, we have a comprehensive understanding of the trial trenches and excavation trenches thanks to the digitalised plans. Here, it becomes apparent that some postholes recorded during the evaluation belong to the southernmost of the two buildings, but these were unfortunately not relocated during the actual excavation. As these postholes, accordingly, did not form part of the interpretation, it was assumed that the building was 7 m in length (fig. 10). When these postholes from the evaluation are included, a ground plan emerges that can be interpreted as the remains of a Trelleborg house (fig. 11). The original 7 m long building constitutes the western end of this characteristic house, while the remainder of the south wall was found in the trial trench. Part of the north wall is apparently missing, but the rest of the building appears so convincing that the missing postholes must be attributed to poor conditions for preservation and observation. The northeastern part of the house has not been uncovered, which means that it is not possible to say with certainty whether the house was 19 or 25 m in length, minus its buttress posts.
 On the basis of the excavations undertaken in 1984 and 1990, it was assumed that the site represented a magnate’s farm from the Late Viking Age. It was presumed that the excavated buildings stood furthest to the north on the toft and that the farm’s main dwelling – in the best-case scenario the royal residence – should be sought in the area to the south between the excavated buildings. Six north-south-oriented trial trenches were therefore laid out in this area (figs. 6, 7 and 13 – trial trenches o, p, q, r, s and t). The results were, according to the excavation report, disappointing: No trace was found of Harold Bluetooth’s hall. It was concluded that there were no structures and features that could be linked together to give a larger entity such as the presumed magnate’s farm.
 After digitalisation of the excavation plans from 1991, we now have an overview of the trial trenches to a degree that was not possible previously (fig. 13). It is clear that there is a remarkable concentration of structures in the central and northern parts of the two middle trial trenches (q, r) and in part also in the second (p) and fourth (s) trial trenches from the west, as well as in the northern parts of the two easternmost trial trenches (s, t). An actual archaeological excavation would definitely be recommended here if a corresponding intensity of structures were to be encountered in an evaluation today (anno 2016).
 Now that all the plans have been digitalised, it is obvious to look at the trial trenches from 1990 and 1991 together. Although some account has to be taken of uncertainties in the digitalisation, this nevertheless confirms the picture of a high density of structures, especially in the middle of the 1991 trial trenches. The collective interpretation from the 1990 and 1991 investigations is that there are strong indications of settlement in the area of the middle 1991 trial trenches. It is also definitely a possibility that these represent the remains of a longhouse, which could constitute the main dwelling house. It can therefore be concluded that it is apparently possible to confirm the interpretation of the site as a potential royal residence, even though this is still subject to some uncertainty in the absence of new excavations. The archaeologists were disappointed following the evaluation undertaken in 1991, but the overview which modern technology is able to provide means that the interpretation is now rather more encouraging. There are strong indications of the presence of a royal residence.
 FindsThe perception of the area by Tamdrup church gained a completely new dimension when the first metal finds recovered by metal detector arrived at Horsens Museum in the autumn of 2011. With time, as the finds were submitted, considerations of the significance and function of the locality in the Late Viking Age and Early Middle Ages were subjected to revision. The interpretation as a magnate’s farm was, of course, common knowledge, but at Horsens Museum there was an awareness that this interpretation was in some doubt following the results of the 1991 investigations. The many new finds removed any trace of this doubt while, at the same time, giving cause to attribute yet further functions to the site. Was it also a trading place or a central place in conjunction with the farm? And was it active earlier than previously assumed?
 The 207 metal finds comprise 52 coins (whole, hack and fragments), 34 fittings (harness, belt fittings etc.), 28 brooches (enamelled disc brooches, Urnes fibulas and bird brooches), 21 weights, 15 pieces of silver (bars, hack and casting dead heads), 12 figures (pendants, small horses), nine distaff whorls, eight bronze keys, four lead amulets, three bronze bars, two fragments of folding scales and a number of other artefacts, the most spectacular of which included a gold ring and a bronze seal ring. In dating terms, most of the finds can be assigned to the Late Viking Age and Early Middle Ages.
 The largest artefact group consists of the coins, of which

We analysed 123 white-tailed sea eagles (Haliaeetus albicilla) from (primarily central) Europe with respect to variability and differentiation based on 499 bp of the mitochondrial control region and genotypes at seven unlinked nuclear microsatellites. Variability was high (overall expected heterozygosity, haplotype and nucleotide diversity being 0.70, 0.764 and 0.00698, respectively) and both marker systems showed a subdivision into two main genetic clusters (microsatellites) or haplogroups (mtDNA). In line with earlier analyses focusing on populations from northern and eastern Europe, as well as from Asia, we found a high level of admixture in Europe and no signs of a bottleneck – despite a severe decline of white-tailed sea eagle populations during the 20th century. Europe is thus a global stronghold for this species not only with respect to the number of breeding pairs but also regarding the proportion of species-wide genetic diversity. Our dense sampling revealed a possibly clinal variation within central Europe from north-west to south-east that was reflected by the distribution of mtDNA haplotypes as well as the two microsatellite-based clusters. This population differentiation in central Europe probably originated from a geographically structured postglacial colonization and was later enhanced by recent demographic fluctuations.

This article examines notions of identity in central Europe during the ‘long’ 19th century and the role of law in defining and in reinforcing the boundaries of the nation. During the 19th century, nationalist thinking in Hungary tended to focus on characteristics such as language, culture and political allegiance rather than on race, ancestry or religion. Consequently, membership of the nation was not necessarily fixed at birth. This inclusive model of the nation contrasts markedly with the rigid, racially informed theories of identity that were to prove so seductive in Hungary, as in much of continental Europe, in the inter-war era and during the Second World War. The article goes on to consider the extent to which the apparently inclusive conception of the Hungarian nation was embedded in social and economic practice as well as in the statute books. Notwithstanding the passage of comprehensive emancipation laws, the evidence suggests that Jews were not readily admitted to public sector employment of various kinds. Thus, the liberal Hungarian laws of this period served, at least in part, to mask rather than to transform illiberal social and economic practices. The article concludes by briefly examining contemporary notions of nationhood in central Europe and the extent to which these have transcended 19th-or early 20th-century ideas concerning national identity.

Jewish humor is a vast field of Jewish studies that includes many aspects, including different periods, different types, different contents, and a variety of languages in different geographical locations. Research on Jewish humor began at the end of the 19th century. Since then, scholars have endeavored to answer several key questions: (1) is there a distinctive Jewish humor? Some argue that there is no compelling evidence that a unique Jewish humor does, in fact, exist. (2) How can one define Jewish humor? Some scholars suggest that Jewish humor was created by Jews, relates to Jewish culture, and is meant for Jews. (3) What are the origins of the modern Jewish humor? Accounts differ: some find its origins in the Enlightenment at the 18th century and the emancipation of Jews that followed in western Europe. Others find the sources of Jewish humor in the Talmud and midrash literature and others who find them in the Bible. (4) Where was modern Jewish humor created? Most scholars argue that it started and first flourished in eastern Europe, the domicile of the majority of Jews until the Holocaust in the 20th century. (5) What are the reasons for the formation of Jewish humor? The broad answer shared by most researchers is that the unique Jewish experience that served as the foundation of modern Jewish humor, is based on two core components: Jewish history, and literacy. Jewish history is rife with particularly difficult experiences—expulsion of the Jews from their homeland, wandering from place to place for over two thousand years, humiliation by the host populations in Europe, life in ghettos, anti-Semitism, persecution, expulsion, and pogroms culminating in the Holocaust. In addition, the existence of a unique Jewish literacy, including Bible studies, the Midrash, and oral quibbling (“Pilpul”) were integral parts of Jewish culture and education A new study contends that the modern Jewish humor that appeared between the 18th and 19th centuries in eastern Europe, is the result of a unique encounter of three major components: A – Jewish wisdom, including critical thinking and creativity. Two thousand years of Jewish literacy, based on continuous learning, the study of the Talmud, and critical thought, sharpened the Jewish mind and its creative abilities, which are both qualities crucial to modern Jewish humor. B – Jewish self-humor. Jewish people were continuously distressed with their harsh experiences: the harsh economic and social conditions, anti-Semitism, blood libels, pogroms, and massacres. These realities forced them to develop cognitive psychological coping mechanisms, leading to the development of their unique self-humor. C – The Jewish Emancipation and the rift in Jewish society (18th–19th centuries). As a result of the Emancipation, for the first time European Jews lived in complete legal equality with the gentiles. Jews were now free to leave the ghettos, enter higher education, work in any profession they wished, and integrate into the modern world. The 18th century also saw European Jewish society split into three contending groups: Hasidim, Mitnagdim, and Maskilim. This created a deep rift among them. The tension resulting from these two elements, the entry into modern life and the rift in Jewish society, was one of the important sources for the creation of modern Jewish humor, as expressed in the jokes created by each group directed against the others and by the humorous literature created by the Maskilim. The conjunction of these three elements resulted in the creation of a unique Jewish humor. However, some researchers argue that no categorical evidence exists to support the fact that it is the Jewish experience that gave birth to Jewish humor. (6) When was Jewish humor defined as a cultural concept? Some scholars argue that it was so defined at the end of the 19th century. The majority of the Jewish people lived in three socio-geographic centers where the core of Jewish humor was created, developed, and flourished: eastern Europe from the 19th century until the Holocaust in the middle of the 20th century, the United States of America from the end of the 19th century to the present, and Israel from the 20th century to the present. The different shades of Jewish humor can be detected from each of the three areas. This study focuses on these three locations, although it is important to point out that Jewish humor flourished also in other Jewish centers, such as central Europe, western Europe, Russia, Latin America, and the Middle East. This article focuses on the important bibliographic sources that examine Jewish humor in all its variety, including the Bible, the Talmud, midrash, literature, jokes, caricatures, cinema, and theater, in an attempt to answer the aforementioned questions and many others. The works cited in the article are scholarly sources, except for a few books and anthologies of Jewish humor. In these cases they will be indicated as such.

The article deals with the use of wattle and daub structures in the Moscow state fortification of the 16th century. Presumably in the 16th century there were three possible sources of distribution of such designs in Europe – the Italian states, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Ottoman Empire. On the basis of the analysis of Hungarian archaeological research, Hungarian pictorial sources from the 2nd half of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century, we can conclude that wattle and daub structures were particularly popular in the Hungarian Kingdom. The Hungarian archaeological research results and Hungarian pictorial sources from the second half of the 16th and early 17th centuries show that wattle and daub structures were particularly popular in the Hungarian Kingdom. It is hypothesised that Italian technological methods, reflected in treatises on fortification, were transformed in Hungary and that a separate Hungarian technological tradition (Modus Hungaricus) of using wattle and daub in fortification was formed. We can assume a possible influence of Modus Hungaricus technology (and through it Italian technologies of erecting earthen fortresses) on the fortification of the Moscow state in the construction of fortresses in Moscow, Smolensk and some other cities.

Bundmærker på middelalderligt lertøj i Danmark

Increasing water-use efficiency mediates effects of atmospheric carbon, sulfur, and nitrogen on growth variability of central European conifers

“Bohemia” can refer to the Kingdom of Bohemia proper or, as a shortened form, to the Bohemian Crown Lands (Czech Země Koruny české), a small but diverse and important group of lands in premodern Europe consisting of a number of constituent territories: the Kingdom of Bohemia, the Margravates of Moravia, Upper and Lower Lusatia, and the Principality of Silesia, all ruled by the Bohemian crown. Between the early 15th century, when a religious reform movement native to Bohemia evolved into one of the greatest social and political upheavals of the late Middle Ages, known as the Hussite revolution (beginning 1419), to the early 17th century, when an estate revolt in Bohemia (1618) expanded into the first all-European total war of the modern age, the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648), Bohemia served as a microcosm, barometer, and focal point for change in central Europe and Europe as a whole. Despite Bohemia’s importance during this period, most of the key scholarship remains unknown and inaccessible to English-speaking readers. Two of the main reasons for this have to do with developments of the late 19th and 20th centuries. Specific aspects of state formation and national revival associated with the foundation of Czechoslovakia (1918), the successor state to the Bohemian Crown Lands, and the emergence of the liberal progressive narrative of European history relegated the history of the Bohemian Crown Lands to the margins of Western civilization. Communist rule throughout most of the second half of the 20th century reinforced the view that these lands were different and served to isolate Czech historians and Czech scholarship from Western historiography. However, since the fall of communism during the Velvet Revolution (1989) and the subsequent entry of the Czech Republic (one of two successor states to Czechoslovakia) into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1999 and the European Union in 2004, interest has grown among western Europeans and North Americans in premodern Bohemian history, and dialogue has increased among Czech scholars, their neighbors in central Europe, and the broader historical community in western Europe and North America. The late 20th and early 21st centuries witnessed the fruition of efforts since 1989 to reintegrate the Bohemian Crown Lands in the Early Modern period into the central narrative of early modern European history. This is a core bibliography containing approximately 150 key works dealing with the history of the Bohemian Crown Lands from the aftermath of the Hussite Revolution in the mid–15th century to the late 18th century. Most of the works in this core bibliography are recent monographs and anthologies that provide access to earlier and wider scholarship, but a number of major articles are also included. Most of the works are in Czech, German, or English, which are the major languages of scholarship, but some works in French, Italian, and Dutch are also included, illustrating the connections of this relatively small central European society to other historical and historiographical traditions in Europe. Recent years have witnessed the anniversaries of some major events in Bohemian history, such as the 600th anniversary of the execution of the reformer Jan Hus by the Church Council of Constance (1415), the 400th anniversary of the Estate Revolt of 1618, and the battle of White Mountain (1620). These anniversaries served as occasions for a number of conferences and symposia and reassessments, which would have been greater in number if not for the COVID-19 pandemic (see Smrčka and Vybíral 2015 [cited under Conference Proceedings, Collected Papers, and Festschriften]) and Dosatík 2018, Uhlíř 2017, and Bůžek 2021 [all cited under the Estate Revolt of 1618, the Battle of White Mountain]).

This article sheds light on the research of Virginia Paskaleva (1923–2012), conducted between the 1950s and the 1980s – a period marked by increasing party control over historical scholarship and the growing ideologization of academic publications. Despite the prevailing political and social climate, Paskaleva succeeded in publishing numerous studies examining the economic and social changes in the Bulgarian lands in relation to the broader transformations in Central Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries. Her research addresses a range of topics, including the emergence of the Bulgarian bourgeoisie in the 18th century, the commercial ties of Bulgarian entrepreneurs with Western and Central Europe, the Russian Empire, and Romania, the transition from feudalism to capitalism in the Bulgarian territories, and the economic activity of Bulgarian merchants in cities such as Kronstadt (Brașov) and Leipzig. While her views were shaped by the Marxist-Leninist framework of the Cold War era, much of her work – richly supported by source material and scholarly literature – remains relevant and well-founded within the context of contemporary historiography. Prof. Paskaleva’s contributions provide a solid foundation for future in-depth research that may further enrich the field. Keywords: Historiography, Virginia Paskaleva, Bulgarian revival period, economic history, Marxism-Leninism.

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was one of the largest states in early Modern Europe. Its internal public law structure was complex and had several federal features. The existence of different levels of autonomy was no stranger to him. Many nations and denominations (churches) were mixed in this state, which ceased to exist at the end of the 18th century, but the ideal of independent Polish statehood lived on. In the 19th century, several Polish independence uprisings broke out, mostly against the Russians, but none of them were successful. Various concepts were born among Polish politicians; these often dealt with a Central and Eastern European federation with Polish leadership. In the first half of the 19th century, the Poles held Slavic solidarity concepts that sought to reconcile Slavic Poles and Russians. These concepts were popular mainly among the conservative and romantic intellectuals. In time, however, Slavic solidarity took a back seat. In the second half of the 19th century, the Polish socialist movement was born, which sought more moderate national politics toward the Belarus, Ukrainian, and Lithuanian national movements and wanted to unite some nations of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in a fairer federation. These ideas were also close to Józef Piłsudski, under whose leadership Poland again became an independent state at the end of 1918. He arrived from the Polish Socialist Party, and during the First World War, he organized the Polish legions. At a similar time in tsarist Russia, the Polish National Democratic Party was the second important political movement in the early 20th century. This nationalist movement was born in tsarist Russia and propagated the rebirth of Poland in the form of a smaller but more Polish national state. Roman Dmowski, a leader of the NDP, had a conflict with Piłsudski that was an important conceptional problem of the second Polish Republic in the interwar period. The new Poland was big state with regional ambitions, but it had two dangerous neighbors—Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The Polish leaders therefore had to think about various federal alternatives, most of which revolved around solidarity in Central and Eastern Europe. Such were the Intermarium or Jagellonian plans. The Polish tragedy during the Second World War and Soviet dominance after 1945 only reinforced these ideas. Many Polish intellectuals began to see the future in European unity, although such ideas existed as early as the 19th century. Some of the Polish emigration to Paris worked to reconcile them with the peoples of Eastern Europe (Ukrainians, Lithuanians, and Belarusians). The journal Kultura played the crucial role in this process. Poland after 1989 again plays an important European role in three regional contexts: Central Europe, the Baltic Sea, and North-Eastern Europe.