Medieval Hungary Research Articles

One of the Founders of Russian Ungaristics. On the Centenary of V.P. Shusharin

The article traces the creative path of the prominent Soviet/Russian medievalist, specialist in the history of medieval Hungary and Russian-Hungarian relations, as well as in the history of the Transylvanian principality in the early modern period V.P. Shusharin (1924–1999). The shortage of specialists in this field of knowledge contributed to the fact that V.P. Shusharin had to devote a lot of time to writing chapters in collective monographs, which touched upon the problems of the history of Hungary and Transylvania in the 9th – 17th centuries. The main work of his life was the creation of a three-volume ethnic history of the Hungarian people at that time. Research results by V.P. Shusharin were recognized not only by domestic, but also by Hungarian colleagues in medieval studies.

Style and Inscription

The practice of using classical capital lettering was introduced north of the Alps from Italy in the second half of the 15th century, and appeared very early in the Kingdom of Hungary. The article contains six case studies on the problems of architectural carvings, stone tabernacles, tombstones and the classical inscriptions on them. I. Tabernacles. All’antica tabernacles were produced in large numbers in late mediaeval Hungary and survive in churches from monumental to very small. The tabernacle frames, which followed the antique architecture of the façade, were accompanied by inscriptions: quotations about the Eucharist or, less frequently, inscriptions referring to the maker. II. Inscriptions outside the royal court. Outside the Buda residence of King Matthias, inscriptions engraved with humanist capitals also appeared, earlier than in the royal court, according to our present knowledge. The earliest dated inscriptions in Hungary survive in Veszprém and are attributed to Bishop Albert Vetési, the best known being a text written on ribbons running on a Gothic console (1467). The all’antica heraldic stones known from several places in the country are often dated, the earliest being found in the Nógrád castle of Miklós Báthory, the humanist bishop, with the date 1483. III. The royal court. Monumental all’antica inscriptions adorned the royal palace in Buda: building inscriptions, statue bases. Their texts are mostly known only from sources, as few original stone carvings have survived. These inscriptions were sometimes in bronze letters, but there were also engraved ones. The monumental inscriptions were associated with King Matthias, while the inscriptions known from the time of Vladislaus II are smaller in size and do not have bronze lettering. IV. Epitaphs. Antique letters also appeared as circular inscriptions on late medieval tombstones. The epitaph written in distychs was often engraved in a tabula ansata. Rarely, the wording was also antiquated, as exemplified by the abbreviations DOM, DOMS, DM. V. Inscriptions around Hungary in the Jagiellonian period. The commissioners of early inscriptions were familiar with the all’antica inscriptions of the Buda court. In Vienna, the first known all’antica inscriptions can be attributed to a citizen of Buda, Peter Juncker, and in Moravia to the lords of Tovačov and Moravská Třebová (Ctibor Tovačovský z Cimburka; Ladislav z Boskovic). VI. Architectural inscriptions of the Jagellonian period in Hungary. Inside the sepulchral chapel of Tamás Bakócz in Esztergom there is a bronze donation inscription (1507), in keeping with the perfect Renaissance centralised space. After 1500, all’antica building inscriptions became common in Hungary. We know of many of them, mainly in the Transdanubian region, written in pure classical capitals. In the northern part of the country, the early humanist capitals are more common; the Biblical quotations and proverbs on the staircase of the town hall of Bártfa were written in such letters. In Transylvania, classical capitals are again common: the inscriptions of the Lázói Chapel, built next to the cathedral in Gyulafehervár, or the Várday Chapel were also carved in such letters.

The Geometric Construction of Hexagonal Apses in Mediaeval Hungary

Geometric construction in Gothic architecture has been a popular subject of research for centuries. The use and extent of quadrature and triangulation grids has long been debated, as the few architectural drawings that survived from the era do not indicate the construction process. Modern surveying methods, however, allow us to inspect the exact geometry of a building with all its irregularities – in the case of this article we use 3D point clouds created by laser scanning, from which accurate measurements can be taken.In our study we analyse four churches from mediaeval Hungary: the Franciscan church of Szeged-Alsóváros, the fortified church of Cincu (RO, Nagysink/Großschenk), the Franciscan church of GyöngyösAlsóváros and the fortified church of Mediaș (RO, Medgyes/Mediasch). Each of these are built with elon-gated choirs and approximately hexagonal apses. We explore the possible construction systems of these buildings and compare them to each other. We aim to present the similarities and differences between them and to offer likely explanations of their irregularities. Moreover, we propose the significance of construction circles used for creating a triangulation grid.

Tales of Migration in Medieval Hungary

Abstract Medieval Hungary has been called a “guestland” because of the multiplicity of immigrant peoples living in the realm. Yet the real experiences of immigrants and narrative constructions about immigration were not always in sync. This article explores medieval tales of different types of migration into the Kingdom of Hungary: first, the mythic migration of the entire people (gens) from a supposed original homeland to a new territory; second, the family histories of noble immigrants; and finally representations of mass immigration into the Christian kingdom. To understand how medieval authors constructed such tales, we need to identify the models they used and the purposes such stories served. Biblical and literary sources inspired the story of “the Hungarians,” while noble families sought to increase their prestige by identifying early immigrant ancestors. In neither case can these medieval narratives be used as historical sources without fully engaging with their genesis. The analysis of explicit medieval reflections on the arrival of various groups into the Kingdom of Hungary also reveals how immigration could be seen in both positive and negative ways. Resting on these medieval foundations, tales of migration have persisted into the present, but they have also gained a sharper distinction: old migration is valorized, while new migration is demonized and instrumentalized in a brutally exclusionary way.

„Átnevezett” középkor

This article examines the historical and linguistic-onomastic aspects of the book entitled A középkori Magyarország településatlasza [Settlement Atlas of Medieval Hungary] (KMTA), large parts of which are freely accessible on the Internet. The motivation for the analysis is that the atlas deviates considerably from scientifically founded, generally accepted knowledge and the latest research results, both in terms of the visualized historical facts (processes) and the use of names. The authors point out the inadequacies of the KMTA’s data management and the historical perspective suggested by the maps, which is not sufficiently well-founded. A number of examples are used to show that the use of names in the KMTA does not correspond to the goal it has set itself (reconstruction of the medieval pronunciation of settlement names), whereas it contains an extremely high number of names that do not correspond to the sources.

Pro salute anime. Holy Mass and salvation of the nobility in late medieval Hungary

Pro salute anime. Holy Mass and salvation of the nobility in late medieval Hungary

The Hungarian Holy Crown and the Coronation Regalia, by Endre Tóth

This book on the regalia of medieval Hungary is the result of Endre Tóth’s decades of work on the topic. The author’s goal of reconciling the centuries of debate about the origins of Hungary’s most important (and contested) artifact is admirable and ambitious. Tóth is to be commended for tremendous effort—this volume gets close at times to being the definitive work on this subject. It is kept from this by its sweeping conclusions, which at times do not hold up under the evidence presented. This volume was originally published in Hungarian in 2016; the English edition includes a note about new literature added subsequently. The chapters cover the foundation of the Hungarian kingdom, the research history of Hungary’s Holy Crown, coronations, the crowns of queen consorts, the crown in the modern period, the crown itself, the sceptre, the orb, the coronation sword, the coronation mantle, written descriptions of the regalia, a summary, and the history of the doctrine of the Holy Crown of Hungary.

“Double enemies” within the Gates

A relatively unknown facet of Central European Orientalism becomes manifest when encountering the epistemological heritage of the historical experiences of the Ismaelite community in Medieval Hungary. Accordingly, hegemonic themes of Hungarian historic fiction about this Muslim minority range from from being speculative/profiterring arms dealers. Such patterns span across the entire trajectory of Hungarian literature. This paper introduces this virtually unknown attitude with the frame of reference based on oeuvres of the Romantic and the Modern periods, with the broader intention to understand the nuances of the Saidian paradigm.

Settlement names referring to Czech settlers in medieval Hungary

Settlement names referring to Czech settlers in medieval Hungary

Turkish motives in the use of words related to the border defense of medieval Hungary in the X-XII centuries

Turkish motives in the use of words related to the border defense of medieval Hungary in the X-XII centuries

The Context of the First Romanian Translations Revisited

The division of the territory inhabited by Romanians into at least three large regions, each subject to different influences if not fundamentally different, represents a reality that would have led to several independent initiatives to translate the Scriptures and other texts of moral instruction into Romanian. However intense the cultural and material exchanges in the Middle Ages may have been, they did not always act in a coherent manner, making it impossible for a single group of scholars to have been responsible for such a complex dissemination of translations as the oldest preserved copies of the Psalter. I believe that each Romanian province tried, in its own way, to respond to this difficult task that arose in the Romanian landscape in the mid-fifteenth century as a result of the disputes around the restoration of Christian unity. At least four threads resulted from the merging, from which, in the sixteenth century, Romanian literature emerged. A first source passed through the western part of present-day Romania, meaning the Banat of Severin, Crișana and northwestern Transylvania, where the confrontations between Catholicism and Orthodoxy had taken place much earlier, contact with the West was more intense, and there was a stronger need to assert identity given that, especially following the Ottoman occupation of southern Danube, the Orthodox group in medieval Hungary was increasing due to Serbian colonisation. A second source existed in Maramureș, where coexistence with the Ruthenians and the reverberations of the culture emanating from the University of Prague increased the variety of models, as illustrated by Ioan-Florin Florescu in the exegesis he dedicated to the sources of the Tetraevanghelium printed at Sibiu between 1551-1553, and in Nagy Levente’s synthesis on the relationship between Romanians and the Protestant Reformation. The third source appeared in Moldavia, where, after a period of hesitation between the Catholic offer from Poland and that brought by Hussite refugees from Hungary and Bohemia, the vision of the anti-unionist Metropolitan Teoctist I was imposed. As a result of his close collaboration with the voivode Stephen the Great, his relations with the Orthodox circles of Athos and Kyiv, and his correct understanding of Moldavian realities (which were deeply affected by wars for the throne but also, to a large degree, religious wars), Teoctist was best able to bring together Slavic sources of very good quality, praiseworthy acculturation initiatives and the resources of the scriptoria of Moldavian monasteries. The fourth source developed in the interior of Transylvania, in Banat, more precisely in Lugoj-Caransebeș and Hunedoara, being the domain of the Romanian Reformed Episcopate founded in 1566. At its initiative, several editions were compiled from previous translations, and the literary repertory was enriched with its own contributions whose utility went beyond the limits between which other sources operated, including books for worship and not only those for reading. Its inheritance fell to the Orthodox Metropolitanate of Alba Iulia, which resumed the effort to translate and print in the mid-seventeenth century, bringing it into line with the most advanced standards reached at the time in publishing of holy books.

Márta Font. Jason Vincz (trans). The Kings of the House of Árpád and the Rurikid Princes: Cooperation and Conflict in Medieval Hungary and Kievan Rus’

Márta Font. Jason Vincz (trans). <i>The Kings of the House of Árpád and the Rurikid Princes: Cooperation and Conflict in Medieval Hungary and Kievan Rus’</i>

Ambrus Miskolczy. A román középkor időszerű kérdései. Régi-új viták és közelítések

Ambrus Miskolczy. <i>A román középkor időszerű kérdései. Régi-új viták és közelítések</i>

Bird remains from ecclesiastical sites in medieval Hungary

AbstractThis comprehensive paper, based on already published avian material, provides an overview of the exploitation of birds at ecclesiastical settlements in medieval Hungary, with an outlook on other European religious establishments. Owing also to the differences in excavation methods, sample size, and measurements used during the identification of bird remains, the seven discussed ecclesiastical sites in the Carpathian Basin, which was part of the Hungarian Kingdom during the Middle Ages, showed considerable variability from this point of view. It is certain that poultry constituted the lion's share of the bird meat consumed, even in the wealthiest religious houses, such as bishopric centers. The presence of sexed specimens in some of these bone collections made it possible to distinguish between a small and a large phenotype of domestic chicken based on biometric data. However, in cases when finds were not only collected by hand but the food refuse deposit was also screened, one finds that these assemblages are both quantitatively and qualitatively more varied in terms of the presence and frequency of certain taxa including small game, suggesting the value and special role of (wild) fowl at ecclesiastical establishments. The avian remains that suggest the use of trained birds, as well as the evidence for the use and curation of crossbows, contribute to our knowledge about the hunting and fowling customs at certain religious houses.

:The Szekler Nation and Medieval Hungary: Politics, Law and Identity on the Frontier

:<i>The Szekler Nation and Medieval Hungary: Politics, Law and Identity on the Frontier</i>

Géza Pálffy. Hungary between Two Empires 1526–1711.

Géza Pálffy. <i>Hungary between Two Empires 1526–1711</i>.

Ausländer in den ungarischen Dom und Stiftskapiteln während des Spätmittelalters (1301 1526)

In the late medieval Hungary many clerics of foreign origin held beneficies of small er or greater value. Despite of the bans on holding beneficies by foreigners which first were recorded in the late 14 th century, some 300 foreigners enjoyed such ecclesiastical remunerations in the time span indicated above. Among them there were royal phys icans, papal diplomats, tax collectors, etc. The aim of the paper is to highlight their role and importance in the Medieval Hungarian Chapters.

Muslims in Medieval Hungary

Muslims in Medieval Hungary

Life and death of a leprosy sufferer from the 8th-century-CE cemetery of Kiskundorozsma-Kettőshatár I (Duna-Tisza Interfluve, Hungary)-Biological and social consequences of having Hansen's disease in a late Avar Age population from Hungary.

The aim of our paper is to demonstrate a middle-aged male (KK61) from the 8th-century-CE cemetery of Kiskundorozsma-Kettőshatár I (Duna-Tisza Interfluve, Hungary), who appears to represent the lepromatous form of Hansen's disease. Leprosy has affected not only the rhinomaxillary region of his face but also his lower limbs, with severe deformation and disfigurement of the involved anatomical areas (saddle-nose and flat-foot deformity, respectively). Consequently, he would have experienced disability in performing the basic activities of daily living, such as eating, drinking, standing or walking; and thus, he would have required regular and substantial care from others to survive. Despite his very visible disease and associated debility, it seems that KK61 was accepted as a member of the community in death, since he has been buried within the cemetery boundaries, among others from his community. In addition, his grave has conformed to the mortuary practices characteristic of the Kiskundorozsma-Kettőshatár I cemetery (e.g., burial orientation, position of the body in the grave, and type and quantity of accompanying grave goods). Although distinction or segregation in life do not preclude normative treatment in death, the long-lasting survival of KK61 with Hansen's disease implies that he would not have been abandoned but cared for by others. KK61 is one of the few published historic cases with leprosy from the Avar Age of the Hungarian Duna-Tisza Interfluve. His case gives us a unique insight into the biological consequences of living with Hansen's disease and illustrates the social attitude toward leprosy sufferers in early mediaeval Hungary.

Settlement Names Referring to Eastern Slavic Settlers in Medieval Hungary

Hungarians arrived at the Carpathian Basin at around 895–900 and after a long journey from the east they occupied the interior plains, mostly the river valleys (in Hungarian history, this event is referred to as the Conquest). The previous tribal alliance had slowly disintegrated by the time of king Stephen I (1001–1038) when pagan beliefs were replaced by Christianity. The peripheral areas of the Kingdom of Hungary, however, were typically uninhabited until the 12th century when the ethnic landscape started changing with the arrival of Saxon settlers, Slavs, Romanians, and Pechenegs. We have no Hungarian written sources from the time preceding the Conquest. The early Latin (less frequently Greek) written sources contain Hungarian words and expressions only sporadically and they are mostly proper names designating places. However, due to their early appearance and low number, these have proved to be truly valuable for linguistics and historical studies exploring the early history of Hungarians and the ethnic and population history of the contemporary Carpathian Basin. In this respect, the settlement names rooted in ethnonyms have a key role as they also shed light on relations between Hungarians and other peoples. This paper studies settlement names that may refer to Eastern Slavic settlers designated by the ethnonym orosz in the medieval Hungarian language. The ethnic groups designated by this name were first registered in the 11th–12th century, however, groups of Slavs could have joined the Hungarian populace before the Conquest. The study shows that the highest proportion of settlement names derived from this ethnonym are found in the northeastern, northern, as well as eastern regions of early medieval Hungary, mostly along the border of the country. The author describes the most frequent name formation patterns that can also be used for relative dating of oikonyms, and discusses the extension to which these data may be useful for the reconstruction of the ethnic landscape of medieval Hungary.