“Turkish goods” and “Greek merchants” in the Kingdom of Hungary in the 16th and 17th centuries

Author(s): Lajos Gecsényi / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2007

The use of special carpets, textiles, leatherwares and cloths produced in the Ottoman Empire (sometimes in the Balkans) became a generally accepted custom in the Hungarian households of the 16th century. According to the customs tariff, these goods were constantly traded. A small part of them was transported to the markets of Vienna and other western European cities by Hungarian, Serb and Ragusan merchants. Serb soldiers (called Rác by the Hungarians) settled down in the fortress town of Győr and Komárom (situated on the western part of Hungary) already in the 16th century. At the beginning of the 17th century, they started to pursue civil occupations and acquire citizenship in increasing number. It was at about the same time that the first representatives of the merchants, who were called “Greeks”, appeared. Both groups came to play a vital role in the transit trade linking West and East. In the mid-17th century, the “Greek” (i.e. Orthodox) merchants founded independent companies operating with limited autonomy in the eastern part of the Hungarian Kingdom and in Transylvania. These companies developed into significant trading centres of Hungary in the 18th century.

“TWO MINSTRELS TOO MANY?”: THE REMUNERATED MUSICIAN OF THE 16th CENTURY, FROM STATUS SYMBOL OF THE COURT TO SOCIAL OUTCAST

Author(s): Andrew C. ROUSE / Language(s): English Issue: 1-2/2002

Contemporary sources use the word “minstrel” to describe a wide social range of musical entertainers. Legal and other documents of the period provide a rich social tapestry of these late medieval entertainers, and point to the beginnings of the schism between court and country and the attitude(s) of Tudor society/ies to those whom they paid to sing to them. The paper investigates how the minstrel’s art was exploited and abused by non-minstrels, and how this contributed to the stigmatization of these “musical vagabonds”.

“Verily, This Is the Sheepfold of that Good Shepherd”: The Idea of the “True” Church in Sixteenth-Century Polish Catechisms

Author(s): Waldemar Kowalski / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2016

The article discusses how the authors of sixteenth-century Polish Catholic and Evangelical catechisms perceived and analysed the notion of “the Church”. Following the Tridentine programme, the Catholic authors present their Church as unified under the Pope’s authority and the only inheritor of the works of the Apostles. The veracity of its teaching is testified to with God’s unnatural interventions – miracles. Protestant theologians teach about “the visible and outward Church”, which exists whenever the pure Word of God is preached and where sacraments are administered in accordance with the Holy Writ. Alongside the Visible Church, there exists “the invisible and inward Church” that unites all those following Christ, who is the one and only head of the Church.

„A kiváló erdélyi fejedelem” - A török elleni hosszú háború (1593–1606) a relaciones de sucesos tükrében

Author(s): Rubén González Cuerva / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 04/2016

The “relaciones de sucesos”, a humble precedent of modern journalism, offer a very rich source yet to be investigated by Hispanic modern history. At the end of the 16th century, the interest in the fight against the Turkish Empire was focused on the “long war” of Hungary (1593–1606), with the emperor Rudolph II and the prince of Transylvania, Zsigmond Báthory facing the Ottoman Empire. We will analyze in detail the mechanisms of news diffusion to the Sevillan press of Rodrigo de Cabrera, where the majority of the relations were released, and the role of the Jesuits, who also acted as creators and transmitters of opinion. This provides a common contextual background to the embassy of the prince of Transylvania to Philip II in 1596 and the premiere of The prodigious Transylvanian prince, attributed to Vélez de Guevara. The play not only offers a model image of the Christian prince, but also its sources were clearly these relations of events.

„Domnul fie lăudat [...], turcii au predat cetatea”. Cucerirea Lipovei otomane de către transilvăneni, în 25 august 1595

Author(s): Liviu Cîmpeanu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 26/2018

The quotation in the title comes from the post scriptum of a letter, sent by the two commanders of the militia from the Transylvanian-Saxon town of Bistritz / Besztrece / Bistrița, to the council of their hometown, in the same day that the Transylvanian army conquered the Ottoman fortress of Lippa / Lipova. The unpublished document, kept in the Romanian State Archive of Cluj, in the collection of medieval documents of the Bistrița Townhall, reveals unknown data about the military operations of the Transylvanian army under the walls of Lipova (20-25 august 1595), as well as an interesting description of the fortified town and of the fortress of Lipova. The aim of our study is to reveal this military operations in the context of the Transylvanian-Ottoman war in the summer of 1595, and the role of the Transylvanian-Saxons in the military organization of the Transylvanian Principality. For the first time, we offer in the Appendix a whole transcription of the document, along with its Romanian translation.

„HANOVI U KIKAČIMA“ - DOSADAŠNJA SAZNANJA O POSTOJANJU HANOVA I KARAVAN SARAJA NA PROSTORU OPĆINE KALESIJA

Author(s): Ekrem Sakić / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 7/2014

Han predstavlja zgradu, odnosno kuću koja služi za svratište, prenoćište putnika, kiridžija i njihovih karavana. U hanovima se i trgovalo. Istu ulogu su imali i karavan saraji s razlikom što su se u hanovima prenoćište, tj. konak plaćali, a u karavan sarajima nisu. Postojale su tri vrste hanova: 1. hanovi uz puteve, koji su služili za kraći odmor i konak 2. trgovački hanovi, koji su se nalazili po većim trgovačkim centrima i u njima su se putnici zadržavali više dana, sedmica i mjeseci, gdje su se ujedno podmirivali robom, i 3. sezonski hanovi u koje su ljudi dolazili radi liječenja ili teferiča.

„Jiným hodným mládencem hotov jsem školu Vašich Milostí fedrovati.“ Rakovnická partikulární škola a pražská univerzita v předbělohorském období

Author(s): Jan Černý / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1/2016

This contribution interprets documents related to the Latin grammar school (so-called ‘particular’) school in Rakovník in the second half of the 16th and early 17th century, which belong to collections of the City Archive of Rakovník and in the Archive of the Charles University. It focuses on relations between the town and the institution of higher learning, while taking note of graduates of the Rakovník school and administrators of the town school, who had links to the system of universities.

„Konstantynku, drogi synku…” Niderlandzkie piśmiennictwo dla dzieci i o dzieciach do końca XVII wieku

Author(s): Piotr Oczko / Language(s): Polish Issue: 27/2016

The aim of the given paper is to describe the changes that occurred in the Netherlandish (i.e. Dutch and Flemish) juvenile texts from the Middle Ages up to the end of the 17th century. The introductory remarks focus upon the methodological issues, such as defining the child and its age in the past and the questions concerning the ‘identity’ and possible forms of old literature/ writings aimed for children. In the Netherlands, up to the end of the 16th century, children, were mostly the addressees of the numerous schoolbooks, both Latin and vernacular ones. The revolt against the Spanish rule (1555) resulted in the division of the Netherlands into the Catholic South and the Calvinistic-minded North, namely the Dutch Republic. Whereas in the southern provinces the shape and form of the juvenile writings remained practically unchanged, in the North the publishing market for children grew rapidly, greatly stimulated by the rise of the common education in the Republic, spectacular increase of literacy and the social advancement of the country, based upon the Protestant faith and economical progress. Within few decades young Dutch readers from the North, boys and girls alike, were able to choose from a considerable publishing offer, designed not only for instruction but also for pleasure. Finally, the multitude of representations of children in the 17th century Dutch literature and their contexts (emblem books, conventional didactic and vanitas texts, more personal confessions) have been briefly suggested in the paper.

„Középkori" templomtornyok a Csíki-medencében

A székelyföldi dendrokronológiai kutatások első eredményei

Author(s): István Botár,Tamás Grynaeus,Boglárka Tóth / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: I/2006

This paper presents the first results of a Transylvanian dendrochronology project. Dendrochronology is a dating method, which uses the analysis of tree rings of recent trees and historical timber as well, for historical, architectonical, archaeological, and art history researches. When there is a sufficient number of samples and master chronologies, dendrochronology is able to give a year accuracy dating. In other cases a relative dating method can give detailed information about the chronological relationship of different buildings or building phases. The Transylvanian dendrochronological project was initiated by the authors in 2003. So far a floating pine chronology and absolute dated oak chronology have been made in the eastern part of the region. Moreover, due to this method, the dating of many church towers from the Csík-basin (Eastern-Transylvania), that were generally known in the historical and art history literature as having medieval building phases, were successfully corrected. Furthermore, the research has proved that these towers were built mostly in the 17th and 18th centuries, more or less in late gothic style. The dendrochronological data is also supported by the written sources, by the epigraphic inscriptions, and by the analogies of the exterior paintings. Although these facts had been known earlier, they were neglected because their data didn't fit into the literature's mainstream. All together lead to the conclusion, at one hand, that the study of the medieval architecture of the region must step over the many times superficial observations of the last decades and it should rather use and reanalyse the whole available data. On the other hand, the accordance of different types of data proved the correctness and applicability of the dendrochronological method and dating, suggesting the necessity of an extended data sampling. This work can lead to the construction of such master-chronologies, of which validity will cover larger geographical areas and wider periods of time. Nevertheless, dendrochronology will give a useful dating and interpretation tool for the research of the historical monuments and archaeological sites.

„Lažna vijest“ i kršćanska sloboda – nužnost dijaloga

Author(s): Benjamin KL Simon / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 1/2018

Politics and media development in our days is terrifying. Manipulation is dominating the social space. The so-called Overton window concept show us how, by way of “fake news” in a particular setting, certain completely unacceptable opinions slowly become part of the social consensus. Without understanding this change, people become deprived of their freedom and begin to feel more and more helpless. Five hundred years ago, theologian Martin Luther (1483-1546) rose against such attempts, defending his theological beliefs form estranged and twisted interpretations. In his essay, On Christian Freedom (1520), he took a firm position. Using a twofold thesis - that the Christian is both a free man and master of everything so he is not subjected to anyone, and that the Christian is also a humble servant to everyone and that he is subjected to everyone - he clarified that faith and love lead the Christian in all his activities and works. Luther clarified that in faith and love a fullness of the relationship between God and His loved ones - the mankind - is achieved, thus being humble does not mean giving up on our freedom; instead, it means to have the strength and courage to achieve it! Based on the four dimensions of freedom - political, social, identity, and dialogue - Luther provides an insight into his own understanding of freedom, which is still applicable in today’s social climate and the challenges of this age. These four dimensions helps the believer to take a clear stance against targeted attempts at deception which are immersed in “fake news.”

„Pirkit mane ir skaitykit“. Pirmieji spausdinti LDK akrostichai

Author(s): Ilja Lemeškin / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 77/2017

The first printed books in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania – The Small Travel Book in 1522 and Catechism in 1547 – paved their way to the Ruthenian and Lithuanian reader though acrostics. The books of uniform format and similar purposes originated one after another in the same historical cultural domain; however, the acrostics by Francisk Skorina and Martynas Mažvydas have not until now been the object of a thorough comparative study. The article attempts to fill this gap. The Ruthenian acrostics of the period 1519–1522 from which M. Mažvydas could have potentially drawn his inspiration are first discussed. With reference to analogy, the characteristics of acrostics are analysed; the source of M. Mažvydas’ pieces of writing is discussed.

„Projekt Regina Protmann" - szkic z historii podmiotowości w Prusach XVI wieku

Author(s): Bogdan Radzicki,Grzegorz Białuński / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2014

This paper is an attempt to summarize the person of Regina Protmann, founder of Sisters Saint Catherine Sister Cloister in Braniewo, as a “regional identity project”. According to authors its structure and its meaning can be fully understood by taking into consideration the cultural context in which the “project” was delineated. Full context is com-posed not only of political and economic factors of time and space, but also a rapid process of cultural change - clash of two ideas of interpretation of Christian Symbolic Universe (theological discourses) and thus different visions of good and modest life. Most of all, the context consists of local customs and habits, which reinterpret official religious dis-course in frames of own, local experience (of “lived through” world).The main interpretation frames of problem essayed here are limited to theological discussion on the general concept of Church, which found its counterpart in social practice, eg. the “Chalice dispute” for laymen (Holy Communion in two forms) and, on the other hand, dispute about conception of Christian life – the concept of subjectivity. The latter polarized Catholics and Protestants around practices, beginning from the concept of priesthood and ending on penance. The importance of those two was eclipsed by the issue of opposition of life engaged in matters of this world and life, which meant to be out of temporal context.This paper is attempt to describe the consecrated life of beatified Regina Protmann as an element of dialectical process, in which both oppositions in the dispute clarify and complement with each other.

„Qui vult venire post me, abneget semet ipsum et tollat crucem suam et sequatur me”. Proclamarea cruciadei din anul 1514

Author(s): Erich Noris SZAKÁCS / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 11/2018

The first main objective of this paper is to bring to our attention some aspects related to the organisation of the crusade from 1514. The classic and consacrated Romanian historiography tends to pay more attention to the analysis of the event only after its seditious metamorphosis. For a more profound understanding of the problem we believe that its nature must be known, which in conjunction with the context, the cultural and the canonical aspects, can provide explanations about its evolution and its outcome. Therefore, the key role was played by the Archbishop Strigoniensis, Bakócz Tamás, who was legatus latere of Pope Leo X. He was entrusted with the proclamation of the crusade, but a fundamental role was also played by the auxiliary elements such as different bishops and the observant branch of the Franciscan order. The problem has such dimensions that it would be impossible to enlighten the whole unclear situations related to the event from 1514 through one single study, but the paper’s objective is to draw the main lines of the proclamation and dissemination of the Crusade with a more detailed approach upon Transylvania.

„Śmierć Stefana Jegomości króla polskiego w Grodnie 12 Decembra Anno Domini 1586 (Prawdziwa sprawa o chorobie i śmierci nieboszczyka Stefana Batorego króla polskiego)” – źródło do losów Stefana Batorego i historii medycyny

Author(s): Agnieszka Pawłowska-Kubik / Language(s): Polish Issue: 56/2018

The sudden and unexpected death of Stephen Bathory, king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, on 12 December 1586 provoked many hypotheses. Since the king was generally regarded as a healthy man in his prime, historians and physicians have for centuries tried to solve the mystery of his sudden death. One of the primary sources to this question is a text attributed to one of the royal physicians – Jakub Gosławski. The document, entitled The Death of His Majesty Stephen King of Poland at Grodno on 12 December Anno Domini 1586, better known as The Real Truth about the Illness and Death of Late King Stephen Bathory of Poland, was written soon after the king’s death. Its original version has not been found, while two copies have been preserved in the Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw and in the Princes Czartoryski Library in Krakow.The source contains information extremely valuable for historians and historians of medicine about the last days of King Stephen, symptoms of his illness, and treatments meted out to him by his physicians. A valuable supplement is made by a post-mortem report describing the appearance and state of his internal organs. Gosławski’s text has already been published in the past, but either it was done without due care, with many mistakes and omissions, or on the basis of some other manuscript, unknown to us. The present edition juxtaposes the two known copies, with a substantial body of editorial commentary and that pertaining to the content. This makes it possible to see the differences between the two copies, in the first place. There is also the first edition of the text included, issued in 1830 by Edward Raczyński, which in the most important fragments is quite different to that of the texts kept in the Central Archives of Historical Records and in the Princes Czartoryski Library.The edition of this source is even more pertinent given the fact that, in recent years, there is a number of specialists questioning the widespread and preserved diagnosis that the king’s death was caused by uraemia. The well-edited source text, with a commentary pertaining to the content, can help researchers in thoroughly analysing the symptoms of Bathory’s illness and shed new light on the causes of his death.

„Som len človek, kráľ môj, nie kameň” – Alexej Thurzo v službách Habsburgovcov

Author(s): Gabriella Erdélyi / Language(s): Slovak Publication Year: 0

V marci 1530 Alexej Thurzo takto spomínal na rozhodujúce obdobie po bitke pri Moháči: „Potom, ako sa vznešenému pánovi dostalo na vedomie, že kráľ Ľudovít blahej pamäti zahynul, pokúsili sa ma tak poľský kráľ [Žigmund I. Jagelovský], ako aj vojvoda Ján [Zápoľský] ponukami mnohých odmien nahovoriť na to, aby som sa pripojil k nim, ale vznešená pani kráľovná Mária, sestra jeho veličenstva, ma stále naliehavejšie prosila a žiadala, aby som sa pridal na stranu jeho veličenstva, pričom mi naznačovala, že ak sa záležitosť bude šťastne vyvíjať pre jeho veličenstvo, nik sa nebude tešiť väčšej priazni a nebude viac odmenený, ako ja. Tak som sa, nevšímajúc si iných, pridal k jeho veličenstvu“. O rok neskôr zase napísal kráľovi Ferdinandovi I. nasledujúce: „Verte mi, vaše Veličenstvo, že ak by som sa nebol tak verne držal vášho Veličenstva, záležitosti vášho Veličenstva by boli v Uhorskom kráľovstve nabrali už viackrát iný smer“.

„Szerelemből” – a törvény elé

Author(s): Gyöngy Kovács Kiss / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 12/2016

Indoor and outdoor feasts have become increasingly frequent with the spread of the Renaissance way of life in 16th century Kolozsvár – Cluj. These were held at trade fairs, in taverns, and also in private houses, etc. Among their regular participants, we can find the male musicians called “fiddlers” and the women “meretrices” or “fiddler wives”. The study presents criminal lawsuits against prostitutes on the basis of the recorded testimonies, some of them prosecuted not only for fornication, but also for practicing witchcraft.

„To jest owczarnia onego Dobrego Pasterza”. Pojęcie „prawdziwego” Kościoła w polskich szesnastowiecznych katechizmach

Author(s): Waldemar Kowalski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2016

The paper focuses on the way in which the authors of Polish Catholic and Evangelical catechisms of the 16th century understood and explained of the idea of the Church. According to the decrees of the Council of Trent, the Catholic Church was presented as the continuator of the teachings of the Apostles, with its power deriving from the authority of the Pope, the successor of Peter, and unity of faith confirmed by miracles. Protestant theologists preach about the visible church, which exists wherever the pure Word of God is preached, and claim that sacraments are administered in accordance with the Gospel. The universal invisible Church exists alongside the visible Church. It connects every person following the Christ, who is the only head of his Church.

„W kręgu swoich”: O świadomości ruskiej szlachty Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego w dobie Unii Lubelskiej (na przykładzie Filona Kmity Czarnobylskiego)

Author(s): Irina Koluzaeva / Language(s): English Issue: 5/2016

The main aim of this article is to reconstruct the Ruthenian nobleman’s (szlachcic) perception of “us” and “the sphere of familiarity” in the second half of the sixteenth century and to place him within his respective communities and social groups by analyzing successive levels of his identity. It seems to be particularly important to study ideas and awareness of the common representative of the Ruthenian political nation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, as scholars have so far been paying attention only to the notions of identity held by particular representatives of the elite, or else by intellectuals. Clientelist relationships of particular Ruthenian families, which are of crucial importance for reconstructing the complete image of the period, have not commonly been the subject of scientific research. The main thesis posited by this work is that the perception of one’s inner, familiar circle, of “us” as opposed to “them,” in the case of Ruthenian nobility was as multilevel as their national identity. To elucidate the posed questions, I am going to analyze Filon Kmita’s personal correspondence, his public, family and matrimonial relationships, the social practices he engaged in, and military and official environments to which he belonged. Such approach can help us not only to reconstruct the circle of relationships of this remarkable person but also to show how one of three primary nations of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth – the Ruthenians – was experienced from the perspective of one of its representatives.

„Wyjście żaków z Krakowa w roku 1549” – uwagi na marginesie dzieła Jana Matejki

Author(s): Janina Wilkosz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 23/2015

The painting Students Leaving Kraków in 1549 is a late work of Jan Matejko, associated with some particular circumstances in his life. He began painting the picture in 1892 and completed it in February 1893. It depicts a rather dishonourable chapter in the history of the Kraków Academy. The story is based on events which are remembered as a dispute of academic youth in Kraków with the parish priest of All Saints’ Church, Canon Andrzej Czarnkowski. There conflict between him and the students when the esteemed priest was accused of entering into collusion with the underworld, and as a result one student lost his life. Further developments showed rather disgraceful roles of university authorities, King Sigismund August and city authorities in the dispute. When perpetrators of the murder escaped punishment after a biased trial, Kraków students decided to leave the university and the city in the act of protest. It was not by accident that the artist chose their exodus as the theme for his work. After a dramatic struggle with the City Council to save the Church and the Hospital of the Holy Ghost – which he lost – he also intended to leave Kraków. However, as he could not do it, he decided to transform his dramatic into art. He depicted the culminating moment of the sixteenth century feud – the fourth of June, when indignant students gathered on the Kleparski Square, just about to leave the city walls. Kraków buildings are in the background, among which the Gothic monastery of the Holy Ghost – the subject of the 19th-century dispute – takes the central place. Perhaps Matejko’s dispute with city councillors brought to his mid his past, equally painful loss. In 1863, Stary Wiśnicz, which was dear to his heart and which he frequently visited to meet his fiancée Teodora, then Miss Giebułtowska, was burnt by fi re. By pure accident, the day before the fire he was out, drawing Wiśnicz houses. When, as a result of his recent dramatic experience, he created his Students Leaving Kraków, his other, he also referred to his equally painful memories. The square from which students set off is surrounded by wooden architecture of burnt Wiśnicz.

„За хазната неверникът е най-полезен“: За религиозната политика на османците в Унгария

Author(s): Pál Fodor / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3-4/2015

Similarly to Beldiceanu’s thesis, who claimed, that conversion to Islam on the Balkans was against the interests of the central treasury, as it created exemption from the so-called poll tax (cizye), Pal Fodor argues in the same tone when investigating the religious policy of Ottomans in Hungary. Islamization remained limited owing to several factors beside the mentioned interests of the central treasury. As the territory of Hungary was never totally controlled, the Hungarian nobility was more or less able to tax the serfs from the refuge area and prohibit any relations with the Ottoman authorities (even under the penalty of death). Beside the existence of the condominium, the relatively small number of conquerors (50-100 thousand, beside them many Orthodox – compared to the 850 000 local reaya population), also implied that Islam could not be established among broad layers of society. Forced conversion was against the principle of zimma, but of course minor repressions against Christianity were regular (prohibition of reconstructing ruined churches, insulting priest or kidnapping them for ransom was a good business, etc.). The Ottomans tried to increase the existing opposition between Catholics and Protestants, but in this respect their attempts were mostly futile (although Catholics often claimed, that the success of Protestantism in Hungary is partly the result of the Ottoman support). The puritanism of Calvinist churches and the anti-Habsburg behaviour of Protestants were advantageous for the Ottoman rule. It is true that Catholicism was never treated so well, but even this initial sympathy towards Protestantism disappeared by the 1560s as many Protestants fought against the Ottoman army. Furthermore, the Antitrinitarians wanted a syncretic religion reforming the Islam too instead of accepting it. The Ottoman behaviour soon shifted to neutralism (they even let Catholic monks entering the occupied zone from 1615 on), and religious questions only had relevance, when these could serve political or economic goals. Favouring Orthodox people (establishing churches) was also among the tactics partly because of the family ties of the conquerors. On the whole, the attitude of the Ottomans towards their Hungarian subjects can best be described by the term “religious indifference”. Taking advantage of the constant religious disputes between the various denominations, the main aim of the Ottoman’s “religious” policy was to extort as much money from the local Christians as possible.