Hungarian History Research Articles

Faunistical data on the Croatian Orthoptera with four species newly recorded in the country

SummaryWe present 914 records of Croatian Orthoptera, representing 124 taxa from 178 localities. The list is compiled based on the Hungarian Natural History Museum collections, private collections, and authors’ observations. The first faunistical records for Croatia are given for a bush-cricket (Leptophyes intermedia), two crickets (Modicogryllus truncatus, Oecanthus dulcisonans), and a grasshopper species (Epacromius tergestinus).

Social Structure and Aristocratic Representation—Red Wax Seal Usage in Hungary in the 15th c

One might perceive the Middle Ages as an era of certain rights and privileges. Social stratification or the conformation of a group’s identity were all established around privileges in the Kingdom of Hungary. In the medieval period, as opposed to a modern state, the most important constructors of a group’s identity were privileges. When members of a social group bear identical prerogatives, that group can be recognized as an order or estate. The ecclesiastic order existed side-by-side with the noble estate. In possession of political power were strictly those who were at the top of the strongly hierarchical system. However, in the Kingdom of Hungary, the significance of the ecclesiastical order was dwarfed by the importance of landed nobility. Some five percent of the population was of nobles, who also held political power. Until the end of the 15th century, the members of this stratum were equal in law. Only distinctions in financial situation can be noticed during the 14th and 15th centuries. The first law differentiating the rights within nobility was enacted by the national assembly, the diet of Wladislaus II (1490–1516), in 1498. Only from then on can we speak of gentry and aristocracy. This almost two-century-long process can be observed by examining a representational tool, the usage of red wax in seals. Upon studying medieval Hungarian history, we must use all sources available due to their rapid destruction, hence examining seal usage to explain aristocratic representation. In this paper, we briefly summarize the social structure of medieval Hungary and its traditions in seal usage, and present several unique seals. Our goal is to highlight some connections that historiography would benefit from, to provide new data, and to arouse the interest of a broad spectrum of audiences in Hungarian social history.

Hausner, Gábor Zrínyi-album (review)

SEER, 96, 4, OCTOBER 2018 782 Hausner, Gábor (ed.). Zrínyi-album. Zrínyi Kiadó – Hadtörténeti Intézet és Múzeum, Budapest, 2016. 381 pp. Appendices. Index. Ft7500. In 2014 to mark the 350th anniversary of Count Miklós (Nicholas) Zrínyi’s death Zrínyi publishers of Budapest commissioned this bilingual, copiously illustrated album. It is an impressive and weighty tome in which the Hungarian text runs parallel with the English translation (by Bernadette Szabadkai) and is the result of cooperation between several Hungarian historians and literary historians each contributing individual chapters. The life and work of Count Miklós Zrínyi (1620–64) is inseparable from his great-grandfather of the same name, Miklós Zrínyi of Sziget (1509–66) who made his name in the Turkish Wars with the protracted defence of the Southern Hungarian fortress of Szigetvár (in its Anglicized form ‘Sigeth’) where, just days before the surrender of the fortress Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent also died. This commander’s seventeenth-century descendant was likewise a warrior but also a poet and the author of essays on warfare and military organization. The present collection covers all Count Miklós Zrínyi’s activities thanks to the leading experts on the life and afterlife of this notable poet-commander. Both Miklós Zrínyi and his brother Péter were already acknowledged as talented military commanders in their lifetime. For various reasons the former became a much-admired hero of Protestant Europe and France, hailed by over twenty English publications in the years 1663–65, all devoted to the Turkish Wars, at the same time highlighting Miklós Zrínyi’s role in the events. There was even a whole book on this Hungarian/Croat military commander in English entitled The Conduct and Character of Count Nicholas Serini, Protestant Generalissimo of the Auxiliaries of Hungary (Samuel Speed, London, 1664), a biographical compilation from German and Dutch sources. As for its reports of battles and campaigns this book is on the whole reliable, though it does contain (the deliberate or occasional) error. Zrínyi was a Roman Catholic, though a very tolerant one, believing that in a battle with the Turk the religious allegiance of Christian soldiers should not be questioned. The Zrínyi-album reproduces the title-page of The Conduct and Character on page 60, but the author of this chapter, the late Ágnes R. Várkonyi, still asks ‘who is the mysterious [figure] behind the monogram O.C.?’ This O.C. is the author of the book’s foreword, most likely its editor. The present reviewer actually offered a solution in his essay (in Hungarian) on English sources of the Turkish Wars (Korunk, 2015/6) claiming that ‘O.C.’ is in fact a monogram of ‘Ortelius Continuatus’ (Continuation of Ortelius), ‘Ortelius’ being an earlier popular chronicle of Europe’s struggle against the Ottoman Empire. As for Miklós Zrínyi’s great epic poem, Szigeti veszedelem, written between 1645 and 1648, Sándor Bene offers interesting information on the title: it could REVIEWS 783 be literally rendered as ‘peril’ of the castle of Sziget rather than the history of its siege, but the contents of the poem justify its translation as ‘siege’. This is indeed the title of the epic’s first English translation by László Kőrössy published by the Catholic University of America Press in 2011. As for the sources of this impressive epic poem, we learn from Zrínyi-album that although in his own foreword the author speaks of his adherence to Homer and Virgil, his principal modelwasOvid‘whosenamedoesnotevengetmentioned’(p.217). Zrínyimust have also found Marino closer to his taste than Tasso, though this ‘marinism’ informs more the Hungarian poet’s lyrical poems, quoted and rather clumsily translated by the translator of the rest of the album (pp. 233–39). Finally, the chapter on ‘Fame and Memory’ (pp. 282–379) could have been shorter. While some parts of it are helpful in the interpretation of Miklós Zrínyi’s survival in national and international memory, the last twenty pages could have been cut — for example, what the Habsburg Archduke Joseph thought about...

Development of a robust and standardized immunoserological assay for detection of anti-measles IgG antibodies in human sera

Because of measles outbreaks there is a need for continuous monitoring of immunological protection against infection at population level. For such monitoring to be feasible, a cost-effective, reliable and high-throughput assay is necessary. Herein we describe an ELISA protocol for assessment of anti-measles antibody levels in human serum samples that fulfills the above criteria and is easily adaptable by various laboratories. A serum bank of anonymous patient sera was established (N > 3000 samples). Sera were grouped based on measles immunization schedules and/or changes in vaccine components since the introduction of the first measles vaccine in Hungary in 1969. Newly designed ELISA was performed by using Siemens BEP 2000 Advance System and data were confirmed using commercially available kits. Our indirect ELISA was compared to indirect immunfluoresence and to anti-measles nucleocapsid (N) monoclonal antibody-based sandwich ELISA. The results obtained are in high agreement with the confirmatory methods, and reflect measles vaccination history in Hungary ranging from pre-vaccination era, through the initial period of measles vaccination, to present. Based on measurement of 1985 sera, the highest ratio of low/questionable antibody level samples was detected in cluster ‘1978–1987’ (~25.4%), followed by cluster ‘1969–1977’ (~15.4%).Our assay is suitable for assessment of anti-measles immunity in a large cohort of subjects. The assay is cost-effective, allows high-throughput screening and has superior signal-to-noise ratio. This assay can serve as a first step in assessment of the effectiveness of all three components of the MMR vaccine.

The body of history on Parallel Stories, the novel by Péter Nádas

Péter Nádas’s novel published in the Hungarian language in 2005 deals with both European and Hungarian history, and validates a very specific view on history. The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon the question of relevance to the text concerning the body/body ideology aspects of Nádas’s historical approach. Differing representations of our sensuality in addition to placing the issue into a new context is one of the substantial undertakings of Parallel Stories, which in my opinion is worth approaching in the interrelationship of body – sensuality – body ideologies – history – power – novel structure. In my study, I start out from K. Theweleit’s theory, which combines the forceful exercise of power with the ideology of male camaraderie, I then analyse how this approach appears in different text levels, motifs, scenes of Nádas’s novel, up to the composition following the “chaos structure”.

Local Faces, Human Crimes—New Histories of the Hungarian Holocaust

This essay examines the state of the art in Hungarian Holocaust research by way of three studies that appeared recently: Budapest Building Managers and the Holocaust in Hungary, by István Pál Ádám; The Holocaust in Hungary: Seventy Years Later, edited by Randolph L. Braham and András Kovács; and Hungarian Jews in the Age of Genocide: An Intellectual History, 1929–1948, by Ferenc Laczó (all in 2016). It shows how these studies navigate the intentionalist versus functionalist debate in new ways, by zooming in on local, private, and ordinary Jewish Hungarians, as well as non-Jewish Hungarians, and their experiences of and role in the implementation of the Holocaust. Two main questions stand out: how to understand and come to terms with the complicity of non-Jewish Hungarians and the Hungarian state on the level of nationwide history politics, and how to grasp the relationship between the Holocaust and earlier periods in Hungarian Jewish history. In other words, was the catastrophic fate of Hungarian Jewry presaged by a lingering and deep-rooted antisemitism in Hungarian society, or was it an unprecedented and entirely unexpected occurrence that was out of step not just with Jewish life in Hungary, but with Hungarian society as a whole? By approaching the Hungarian Holocaust in the longer durée and from a transnational perspective, these studies succeed in illuminating the ways in which the catastrophe unfolded “on the ground” and how responses to it depended heavily on previous experiences and life stories based on class, gender, and political and emotional socialization.

A Debreceni Református Kollégium teológiai oktatásának története 1850–1912. A Teológiai Akadémia a Kollégium oktatási rendszerében

The History of Theological Education at Debrecen Reformed College between 1850 and 1912. The changes in the educational system of Theology at Reformed College of Debrecen were heavily influenced by the political-social events of historic Hungary between 1850 and 1912. The first date signals the introduction of arbitrary rule of the Habsburg monarch who suppressed the Hungarians during the War of Independence in 1848-49. The closing date is the emergence of a new state run university in Debrecen. The study throws light on how the Organisations Entwurf tried to modernize as well as Germanize the education system in the Habsburg Empire. As a result, the traditional education structure at the College was entirely restructured. It brought about the disintegration of humanity and art faculty into a grammar school thereby only the law and theological faculties were left intact for a while. The Reformed Church District strongly protested against the dismantling its more than 300 years old education system. It is the irony of history what the oppressing Austrian could not achieve, it was realized after the Compromise by Jozsef Eotvos, the Hungarian minister of culture, religion and education. Needless to say that education at all levels needed to be modernized and standardized. It is clear that it had a positive impact on the curricula of Reformed theological education in the long run. The paper introduces briefly the life of theological professors, their career with a view to their studies abroad and finally their works at various departments of theology.

History, Nationalism and Democracy: Myth and Narrative in Viktor Orbán's ‘Illiberal Hungary’

This article studies the relationship between nationalistic discourse and Hungary's ‘illiberal turn’ from the election of Viktor Orbán's Fidesz party in the 2010 Hungarian elections up until 2015. It begins by examining the arguments of authors such as Jeffrey Alexander, Quentin Skinner, and Tapio Juntunen in order to establish a theoretical framework for how political actors construct and manipulate historical myths for their own political purposes. It then goes on to examine how Orbán specifically uses and constructs narratives surrounding the Treaty of Trianon and Miklós Horthy, the interwar leader of Hungary. This article argues that in addition to allowing Orbán to build a defensive shield against criticism from international and domestic actors, these interpretations of Hungarian history restore to prominence the interwar-era ‘populist-urbanist’ cleavage, and allow Orbán to create an exclusionary image of Hungarian nationalism. Thus, this serves to legitimize Orbán and Fidesz, while denying opposition parties from both the right and the left the opportunity to stake claims to being true representatives of the Hungarian people.

Hungarians in Kyiv. Leading figures of history of Hungarian-Ukrainian relations from 9th century to present day

In this review, the author sheds light on the content and concept of the publication entitled Hungarians in Kyiv. Historical Chapters of Hungarian-Ukrainian Relations from the 9th Century to the Present by Stefan-Arpad Madiar. In 2005, in the course of an international scientific conference ‘Ukraine-Hungary: Common Past and Present’ at the Institute of History of Ukraine of the NAS of Ukraine, the main issues and challenges of the history of relations between Ukraine and Hungary were discussed. The participants of the conference concluded an agreement on the establishment of the commission of historians to strengthen scientific cooperation. The review notes that Ukrainian and Hungarian historians should carry on a permanent dialogue on disputable matters related to the historical past of the two nations for obtaining objective knowledge about the relations between Hungary and Ukraine at different historical junctures. The book Hungarians in Kyiv. Historical Chapters of Hungarian-Ukrainian Relations from the 9th Century to the Present is considered as a joint artistic achievement of cooperation among Ukrainian and Hungarian historians. The review also mentions certain aspects of the past relations between Ukraine and Hungary, and the life of Stefan-Arpad Madiar, the main initiator, author, and layout director of the publication. The author stresses that it was Stefan-Arpad Madiar who managed to work on the book structure, select original illustrations, exclusive documentary materials, engage famous scholars and historians to the creation of the book, etc. The book consists of 23 problematically and chronologically arranged chapters and offers a glimpse of unique periods in the history of relations between Ukraine and Hungary, activities of Hungarian diplomatic missions in Kyiv and Ukrainian missions in Budapest, and contains information about Hungarian prisoners of war in post-war Kyiv based on memoirs and archival documents. The author is fully confident that this book will give its readers new knowledge about the history of relations between Ukraine and Hungary, thus facilitating the sense of a more profound understanding between the two nations. Key words: relations between Ukraine and Hungary, scientific conference, publication Hungarians in Kyiv. Historical Chapters of Hungarian-Ukrainian Relations from the 9th Century to the Present, Embassy of Hungary in Ukraine, cooperation between Ukraine and Hungary.

A Földközi-tengeri Szövetséges Légierõ1 Magyarországra vonatkozó felderítése, valamint a szövetséges légitámadások általános fotókiértékelése a II. világháború idején

The research of Allied Air Forces’ air raids on Hungary during World War 2 has come to a turning point. Hungarian historians have been content with roughly documenting the events; the thorough research of the background together with the motives for the attacks are yet to be explored. In my study I examined the Mediterranean Allied Air Force’s practice of photographic reconnaissance, intelligence and photographic interpretation, using the related documents and files. The Intelligence files of the Mediterranean Allied Air Force are major sources of the history of Allied air raids on Hungary in World War 2, and I pointed out that the complete research of the data on the subject by examining every piece of document available would lead to a more accurate understanding of the events. In addition to emphasizing the importance of the vast amont of data and documents on the subject, my intention was to provide reference to further research.

Influence of Prior Distributions and Fragility assessment methods in the estimation of the Magnitude of a Historical Seismic Event

The production of fragility functions describing the probable behaviour and damage on historical buildings is a key step in a method for the estimation of the magnitude of historical seismic events that uses a Bayes'. The fragilities are estimated by integrating the structural capacity with the seismic demand using either static methods, as the Capacity Spectrum Method (CSM), or dynamic methods, as Incremental Dynamic (IDA) and Multiple Stripes Analysis (MSA). Uncertainties in both resistance, demand, and distance and magnitude models propagate to the posterior magnitude distribution. The present paper studies the effect of uncertainties related both to the production of fragility functions and prior distributions, in the estimation of the magnitude of the 1763 Komárom earthquake (in historical Hungary). In the XVIII century most of the structures in the region were built of earth, adobe, clay or stone masonry, which is complex to model. While micro or detailed macro-modelling strategies are computationally costly, simplified macro-approaches are often more efficient, but require a pre-identification of the failure mode(s) and the determination of the backbone curve. For this study, a simplified macro-model of a Hungarian peasant house archetype is calibrated for CSM and IDA. The physical and geometrical uncertainties are incorporated in the fragilities using Monte-Carlo simulation. Prior magnitude and distance distributions are studied. The final magnitude estimates are presented and discussed.

Influence of Prior Distributions and Fragility assessment methods in the estimation of the Magnitude of a Historical Seismic Event

The production of fragility functions describing the probable behaviour and damage on historical buildings is a key step in a method for the estimation of the magnitude of historical seismic events that uses a Bayes'. The fragilities are estimated by integrating the structural capacity with the seismic demand using either static methods, as the Capacity Spectrum Method (CSM), or dynamic methods, as Incremental Dynamic (IDA) and Multiple Stripes Analysis (MSA). Uncertainties in both resistance, demand, and distance and magnitude models propagate to the posterior magnitude distribution. The present paper studies the effect of uncertainties related both to the production of fragility functions and prior distributions, in the estimation of the magnitude of the 1763 Komárom earthquake (in historical Hungary). In the XVIII century most of the structures in the region were built of earth, adobe, clay or stone masonry, which is complex to model. While micro or detailed macro-modelling strategies are computationally costly, simplified macro-approaches are often more efficient, but require a pre-identification of the failure mode(s) and the determination of the backbone curve. For this study, a simplified macro-model of a Hungarian peasant house archetype is calibrated for CSM and IDA. The physical and geometrical uncertainties are incorporated in the fragilities using Monte-Carlo simulation. Prior magnitude and distance distributions are studied. The final magnitude estimates are presented and discussed.

Utcanévváltozások Pozsony példáján

In the introduction, the authors briefly outline the history of Bratislava, focusing especially on the momentous events of the 20th century. As a starting point, characteristic groups of 1905 street names are observed concerning motivation, components and semantic background (cf. Ortvay, Pozsony város utcái és terei [Streets and squares in the city of Bratislava]). Special attention is given to street names that can be connected to Hungarian history and culture. The discussion of street name changes in Bratislava is based on the ortvay.eu database; street name changes between the 1920s and the 2010s are examined according to frequency, motivation and time period. Both frequency and motivation are closely related to the above mentioned momentous events, such as repeated fundamental changes in politics and constitutional laws. As a result, they are connected to virtual space occupation; although several streets and squares of the town were renamed not only around regime changes, but within politically coherent time periods. Finally, the authors explore how well the history of the city is represented in the present-day names of streets and squares in Bratislava, and propose similar contrastive studies of the history of street names in towns of other regions.

High precision laser scanning assisting in the service of historical and art historical research. The burial monument of Queen Gertrude (13th century)

One of the most important and controversial burial sites of medieval Hungary is the grave of Queen Gertrude of Meran with its decorated burial monument at the Cistercian Abbey of Pilis. The circumstances of the assassination of the queen is a highly debated event in Hungarian history described in a large number of local and foreign contemporary documents. Archaeological excavations have revealed the fragments of her burial monument with high artistic qualities (human figures, architectural elements, inscriptions, decorated patterns). Over the last three decades, art historical research has discussed the foreign artistic influences of the monument and proposed several reconstructions based on the drawings and photos of the excavated fragments. A full-size sculpted model has also been created on the basis of one of these hypothetical reconstructions.This paper will present the results of a new research project to create the first virtual reconstruction of the burial monument. The fragments of the monument and its previously sculpted physical model were captured by a terrestrial laser scanner and an optical 3D scanner, and consequently, point clouds and meshes were created. Using high-resolution data in CAD environment, a 3D virtual reconstruction model was built showing a possible form of the burial monument. In order to offer a new virtual reconstruction for different research approaches (art historical studies, archaeological interpretations and comparative studies with other monuments) a complex method was required to handle the huge amount of digital data. A database was built from the scanned fragments enabling to manage them easily. High precision 3D models of the fragments allowed to capture their precise geometry and perform the metrical analysis of the fragments, which may provide a basis for alternative reconstruction attempts. By using 3D technology, the results and conclusions derived from the fragments have been made more accessible than through traditional methods. Thus, scholars can use spectacular 3D visualizations in their research and examine many properties of the artifacts. The results are also available for a wider audience, as it has been demonstrated in an exhibition to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the death of Queen Gertrude. The paper demonstrates some of the advantages that 3D technology provides for scholarly research over conventional methods and introduces a method for integrated archaeological, historical and art historical examinations using state of the art technologies.

Discourses of Contemporary History in Hungary after 1989

The study examines Hungarian historiography since the Hungarian democratic transformation. Its main question is how Hungarian history writing was able to reformulate itself during the short period after 1989. In academic and public discourse one can observe parallel processes of de-ideologization and re-ideologization towards a one-sided commitment to the national(istic) viewpoint. The study starts by setting the general scene and examining the politics of memory within the fields of general focus, i.e., the discourses of memory politics and institutions. Afterwards, it discusses two focal themes in greater detail: 1956 and the Kádár era on one hand, and the Horthy era on the other. The discussion follows the order in which these themes emerged in the discourse. It also contains a short overview of the memory politics linked to the given theme as well as the various currents in history writing, narrating and interpreting these important issues of the national historical canon.

Memory Practices: The Red and White Terrors in Hungary as Remembered after 1990

This article examines the memory of the Red and White Terrors as they relate to public monuments after the collapse of state socialism. It shows how the memory of political violence has been exploited and instrumentalized by various actors to achieve political and cultural ends, and the role of civic organizations and private individuals in keeping the memory of these two key events in Hungarian history alive. Finally, the article discusses the commoditization of memory and memory practices in the last fifteen years, and the role of the Red and White Terror in identity politics.

The Molnár Debate of 1950: Hungarian Communist Historical Politics and the Problem of the Soviet Model

By tracing the developments that led to a historical debate in 1950, this article questions some assumptions concerning the Stalinization of Hungarian history writing, in particular the notion of a predetermined continuity between the national-communist line followed by Hungarian communists before and after 1949. Contrary to the understanding of the Sovietization of historiography in Hungary as a straightforward process, guided by a firmly-established ideological line, this article shows that the period between early 1949 and 1950 was characterized by a certain level of uncertainty, caused, on the one hand, by the ideological and institutional changes brought about by Sovietization, and, on the other, by a temporary lack of firm interpretative guidance from the Party leadership. A closer look into the efforts to elaborate a new periodization of Hungarian history reveals not only the existence of competing Marxist interpretations (a “national” state-oriented and an “internationalist” one with a focus on socioeconomic phenomena), but also that for a while it was unclear which of them would emerge as the basis of the Stalinist canon. Although the question was ultimately settled by a political intervention in favor of the more national line, the Hungarian case shows that it was far from evident what the Soviet model was supposed to mean when transferred to local contexts—and that adaptation depended on numerous factors, the ambitions of the interpreters being one of them. This contingency, and the relative plurality of “useable pasts”—which is also reflected in the lack of uniformity in the ways Soviet Bloc regimes treated their respective national histories—cautions against treating the historical representations these regimes produced as self-explanatory outcomes of Stalinization: the examination of the dilemmas that marked the process of creating these canons should be given just as much consideration as the analysis of the end products themselves.

Typifications and taxonomic notes for Veronica subgen. Pseudolysimachium (Plantaginaceae) based on material from the Hungarian Natural History Museum Budapest (BP)

Veronica subgen. Pseudolysimachium is a group of 30 species ranging across northern Eurasia in various open habitats from dry steppe to swamps. It includes several horticulturally important species that have been crossed in the past. As such, it exemplifies a group with long taxonomic tradition, exemplified by more than 600 valid names, which also indicates its variability. In the process of identifying the evolutionary important units, molecular markers have started to help immensely. However, assigning names to identified significant groups of populations has been hindered by problems in typification. Here, we try to alleviate the problem for the taxa in southeastern Europe, which have been analyzed rigorously using AFLP fingerprints in the past, by lectotypifying 11 names and neotypifying four names, mostly based on specimens found in the Hungarian Natural History Museum Budapest (BP). This allowed revising Veronica barrelieri with its three subspecies and synonyms.

A description of Macrobiotus horningi sp. nov. and redescriptions of M. maculatus comb. nov. Iharos, 1973 and M. rawsoni Horning et al., 1978 (Tardigrada: Eutardigrada: Macrobiotidae: hufelandi group).

We examined microscope slides from Horning and Iharos tardigrade collections from Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington and Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest with species of the Macrobiotus hufelandi group. Based on this material we describe one new species, Macrobiotus horningi sp. nov., and re-describe two others, M. maculatus comb. nov. Iharos, 1973 and M. rawsoni Horning et al., 1978. With the oral cavity armature of the patagonicus type and chorion of the hufelandi type, Macrobiotus horningi sp. nov. is most similar to: M. personatus Biserov, 1990, M. sandrae Bertolani & Rebecchi, 1993, M. serratus Bertolani et al., 1996, M. sottilei Pilato et al., 2012, M. terminalis Bertolani & Rebecchi, 1993 and M. vladimiri Bertolani et al., 2011, but it differs from them in morphological and morphometric traits. With eggs of the maculatus type, M. maculatus comb. nov. is most similar to: M. biserovi Bertolani et al., 1996, M. denticulatus Dastych, 2002, M. macrocalix Bertolani & Rebecchi, 1993 and M. ramoli Dastych, 2005, but differs from them in morphological and morphometric characters.

Cultural ideals: Changes in patterns of knowledge (from the point of view of reading history)

The present study started out by posing the question: what reasons might lead to the success of Hungarian intellectuals who were schooled in Hungary and who later emigrated to the West. From among the possible answers, we examined one: education and reading culture in Hungary was more complex in a given period than in Western Europe. We consider whether or not this answer is persuasive. Based on the results provided by basic research in reading history in Hungary in the early modern period, one can safely say that the culture of experts in Hungary was more heterogeneous, and these experts constantly revisited traditional sources and kept them alive. On the other hand, in terms of the depth of professional knowledge and the level of concentration on a given field they were lagging behind their contemporary colleagues in Western Europe. This situation produced a dual eff ect: experts in Hungary had a stronger sense of tradition and they looked for transitional solutions due to the lack of the latest technical development and literature. Out of the Hungarian context, however, they produced outstanding achievements thanks to the more heterogeneous nature of their expertise.