The career of Provost Mutimír of Spiš. On personnel and cultural transfer in the Hungarian kingdom in the mid 13th century. Cover Image

Kariéra spišského prepošta Mutimíra. K personálnemu a kultúrnemu transferu v Uhorskom kráľovstve v polovici 13. storočia
The career of Provost Mutimír of Spiš. On personnel and cultural transfer in the Hungarian kingdom in the mid 13th century.

Author(s): Peter Labanc, Miroslav Glejtek
Subject(s): History, Political history, Middle Ages
Published by: Historický ústav SAV
Keywords: Middle ages; Hungarian kingdom; 13th Century; Provostry of Spiš; Personnel Politics

Summary/Abstract: The study traces the internal dynamic of society in mid 13th century Hungarian kingdom by means of prosopographical analysis of the career of Provost Mutimír of Spiš. Thanks to systematic archive research, enough written sources have been collected. In addition, a unique object, namely a hitherto unknown seal of Mutimír, has been found. Analysis of this exceptional collection of sources has verified some hypotheses from older expert literature, but some did not stand up to examination and some new ideas have emerged. Reconstruction of Mutimír’s career enables us to examine the method of selection of persons suitable to hold middle level positions in the church hierarchy, and at the courts of members of the royal family. In 21st century corporate language, we could use the designation headhunting. A no less important aspect of such a career was the transfer of the spiritual or intellectual culture, which a person such as Mutimír had acquired from his geographical and social origin, education and previous activity. In the case of Mutimír, we see this not only in his important collection of manuscripts, which he left to Collegiate chapter of Spiš, but also in his seal showing Byzantine influence resulting from his close cooperation with Maria Laskaris, the Byzantine wife of King Bela IV.

  • Issue Year: 68/2020
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 385-407
  • Page Count: 21
  • Language: Slovak