Abstract This article introduces a methodological approach to literary history grounded in praxiography and concepts from actor-network theory, emphasizing the active role of criticism in shaping realities. Instead of treating critical texts as representations, the study examines them as interventions in ontological politics—the contestation of what literature, society, and truth are understood to be. It also employs the notion of the fractional object, which designates entities that belong to multiple, partially overlapping networks and acquire different identities depending on their connections. Another key concept is interessement, understood as the set of strategies by which actors attempt to attract allies and stabilize networks around their preferred version of reality. Using these ideas, the article analyzes five critics—Rákosi Jenő, Schöpflin Aladár, Ignotus, Lukács György, and Horváth János—whose writings enact radically different versions of Ady Endre: as a misguided rebel, a generational voice, a prophet of progress, a modern mystic, or a decadent innovator. Each interpretation is coupled with distinct efforts to engage specific publics. This mapping demonstrates that literary value and readership are contingent and contested, and that criticism operates as a force in cultural politics rather than a neutral commentary.

Abstract As a well-established practice, alcohol distillation represented a major technical development in the late Middle Ages. This analysis aims to interpret the alchemical instructions attributed to a certain Johannes Ungariae probably in the early fourteenth century, whose recipe circulated as far as Rome in the early modern period, attracting the interest of both a sixteenth- and an eighteenth-century collector. The manuscript with the incipit ‘Sic extrahendum quintam essentiam vini’ (Fol. 217, Sloan MS 3661.) has survived under the name of ‘John of Hungary’ as an alchemical recipe written in Latin, probably in 1322, as Ernő Simonyi has noted. In a comprehensive and coherent description of the underlying technology, Johannes Ungariae details the process of extracting the ‘quinta essentia’ of wine, a method conceived to operate at the boundary between spirit and matter. John Elyott's copy preserved in the Sloane Collection stands as a rare example of the tradition of alchymia operativa, the applied, hands-on alchemy, first brought to light by Simonyi in political exile in London in 1859. Studying the manuscript is the initial stage of a broader project that aims to contribute to our understanding of the networks of knowledge transmission.

Abstract An interesting chapter in the European reception of De remediis utriusque fortunae concerns the history of its publication and translation in 18th-century Hungary. In this study, I will first briefly introduce who published Petrarch's handbook in excerpted and complete Latin form, and for what purpose. Against this background, the greatest Hungarian achievement of the era emerges: the only complete Hungarian translation of De remediis to this day. I present in detail the life and other translations and writings of the translator, László Székely. I also present the source of the Latin text used by Székely, the stylistic and rhetorical characteristics of the Hungarian text, and the translator's individual solutions, misunderstandings, and errors.

Abstract The study examines the life and work of Valerian Mader (1558–1605), a forgotten figure of Central European Neo-Latin literature. Drawing primarily on his sole surviving work, the Libellus exercitiorum poeseos scholasticorum (1588), the paper reconstructs Mader's biography from his birth in Trencsén through his education in various towns to his career as teacher and pastor. The article demonstrates how Mader's collection preserves traces of a vivid manuscript-based humanist culture operating at the provincial level, revealing an intellectual network of village schoolmasters, pastors, and local dignitaries, who communicated through Latin verses in letters. Unlike the transcontinental networks of renowned scholars, Mader's “rustic respublica litteraria” functioned within a limited geographical radius around Trencsén, yet, it maintained the same structural patterns as larger intellectual communities around European cultural centres. The study argues that Mader's work is crucial evidence of a rural humanist culture around towns with elementary schools in early modern Hungary.

Abstract As part of a cultural institution system and subsystem of education, the Hungarian community culture comprises universal and nation specific features. It serves cultural and educational, as well as community development and organization purposes; through these it is a regular participant of national cultural and societal capital investments. The specialized activity of community culture realizes non-formal and informal learning events through cultural learning. In field specific activity it realizes non-formal and informal learning events with the help of cultural learning. Its universal features create an opportunity for comparative study in an international context. Our study is based on field specific features that allow us to identify the mission of this cultural domain: cultural broadcasting (1), community development (2), and cultural event management (3). This theoretical study aims to comparatively examine the good practices of community culture in the Carpathian-Basin. During our comparative, critical analysis we searched for the international equivalents of the institutions of community culture, also presenting the international limitations of the topic.Our main result is that some international models champion cultural value broadcasting (Bulgaria, Greece, France, Spain, Philippines, China, New-Caledonia), others support community development, education and social needs, or opportunity creation (USA, England, Switzerland, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Japan). We consider the complex activity and service system of the community culture in the Carpathian-Basin – especially aspects of the specific legal, institutional and human resources and the special learning forms realized in community culture: cultural learning – unique and beneficial to be learned and implemented by other nations. This feature is a unique cultural and educational activity.

Abstract The study examines the critical reception of Josef Bayer's ballets Die Puppenfee [The Fairy Doll] and Sonne und Erde [Sun and Earth], focusing on their premieres in Vienna and Budapest. In the late 19th century, the German-language press in Budapest delivered scathing reviews of Die Puppenfee, drawing parallels with Handel's contemporary criticisms, which condemned the prevalence of dull works and fairy-tale productions on the stage. Despite these critiques, the ballet was far from dismissed, as Die Puppenfee was performed over 800 times in Vienna until 1999. However, music critics, while not entirely ignoring the ballet, remained distant towards the genre. Eduard Hanslick provided a possible explanation for this, asserting that in the reception of musical works—an idea applicable to ballet as well—the aesthetic aspect is merely one factor, and often not the most significant: the success of a work often lies in how it reflects the spirit of the times. The study further explores the contrasting ballet critiques in the Viennese and Budapest press, highlighting the visual-centric nature of Hungarian ballet and the lack of literary-driven, high aesthetic quality librettos that could inspire more sophisticated ballet music.

Abstract Due to the precarious circumstances in which the entire Austro-Hungarian Monarchy found itself during World War I, Hungarian intellectual circles intensified their deliberations on the future position and internal structure of Hungary (the Land of the Crown of St. Stephen) to ensure its possible survival within its historical borders even after the end of the war. These deliberations led to two specific federalist proposals for the territory of the former Kingdom of Hungary, presented at the end of 1918. The first proposal was the draft by Oszkár Jászi, Minister of National Affairs in the government of Mihály Károlyi, entitled “Keleti Svájc” (Eng. “Switzerland of the East”) and the other was a proposal by Miksa Strobl entitled “Az új Magyarország mint keleti Svájc (27 teljes sólógárnú kantonnal)” (Eng. “New Hungary as Eastern Switzerland (with 27 self-governing cantons)”), published in the newspaper Új Magyarország. Both proposals rest on the principle of ethnofederalism, i.e., an attempt to do justice to the emancipation efforts of the national minorities on Hungarian territory. The article analyzes the probable position of the Bunjevci Croats within the framework of these proposals, taking into account the circumstances, i.e., the end of World War I and the emergence of new international relations that would shape the political architecture of Central and Southeastern Europe in the post-war period.

Abstract This study aims to present the four volumes of Színpad: Die Bühne, a bilingual magazine published by the Magyar Színpadi Szerzők Egyesülete (MSSE, Hungarian Playwrights' Association) between 1914 and 1917. The purpose of the journal was to protect the interests of playwrights and to share news and development opportunities of the theatre industry. The research relies on the sources found at the Budapest National Széchenyi Library, as well as on articles found in the Arcanum digital archive, and presents in detail the circumstances of the launching of the magazine, as well as its editorial and publishing work, and the reasons for its termination. Színpad: Die Bühne played a significant role in building the international relations of Hungarian playwrights, as well as in organizing the flow of information in the theatre industry.

Abstract After Theodore Brentano's long tenure (1922–1927), a new American minister arrived in Hungary, who in many ways was a very different breed from his predecessor. Joshua Butler Wright was a career diplomat and, as it turned out, the only such American minister in Hungary in the interwar years, which meant a somewhat different approach to the job. Many in Hungary also interpreted the change as a positive sign as to the country's greater importance for Washington. However, this was not to be. Butler Wright's three years in Budapest did not bring any fundamental changes in the relationship between the two countries, and Hungary's importance, or the lack thereof, to the United States remained as before: as long as there was a politically stable government in Hungary and it did not cause diplomatic headaches to Washington, the American State Department was satisfied with reading about the political and economic situation in Hungary. Therefore, any Hungarian hopes or expectations that the United States might help in the revision of the Treaty of Trianon were frustrated.

Abstract This paper discusses the relationship between minority identity and place-name use in Hrušov/Körtvélyes. The research location is in the Rožňava/Rozsnyó district of the Košice/Kassa region, near Slovakia's border with Hungary. 79% of the village's population belong to the Hungarian national minority, while 20% of the population identifies as Slovak. The community can be described as bilingual, as they use both Hungarian and Slovak, depending on the situation and context. Most of the settlement's place name stock consists of toponyms in Hungarian, with Slovak toponyms mainly appearing only on maps from the second half of the 20th century. However, even the residents who claim Slovak nationality and/or Slovak mother tongue hardly know and use the Slovak toponyms. This sociological study of place names, including 10% of the population (34 people), proves this. The strong minority identity is reflected in the fact that the community of Hrušov/Körtvélyes uses Hungarian toponyms and has not adopted the artificially created Slovak toponyms. In this context, it is safe to conclude that learning and revisiting the use of toponyms can strengthen identity, as it strengthens the ties to the community.