A Cantacusine foundation between the act of secularization and contemporary restoration – The Doamnei Church in Bucharest

Author(s): Dan Mohanu / Language(s): English / Issue: 8/2017

Neglected through the 18th-19th centuries by the priors of the Cotroceni Monastery, dispossessed of its riches and income, the Doamnei Church slowly entered a downward spiral of degradation and devastating events. In 1868, in an era when the Church suffered the effects of secularization and Occidental renewal, the foundation of Lady Mary suffered radical reparation. The essential gesture that produced the change and the damaging simplification of the iconographical discourse was the partial hammering of the 17th century painting, and its covering with a new layer of painting, after the taste and mentality that has defined the second half of the 19th century. The information acquired from the analysis of archive photographies, corroborated with in situ observations, allowed for the reconstruction of the dramatic journey that the old painting of the Doamnei Church was to suffer, from the destructive act of hiding it under a new pictorial decor to the moment of its rediscovery and bringing to light. The recent reconstitution, of an archaeological type, of the iconographical ensemble from 1683 lead to a new lecture of the manner in which the works of painters Constantinos and John developed. The interruption of the iconographical programme of the Doamnei Church and their leaving the site generates questions and hypotheses regarding the evolution of the reign of Șerban Cantacuzino.

A darlaci középkori falképek vizsgálata

Author(s): Erika N. Feketics / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: VIII/2013

Die mittelalterliche, heute evangelisch-lutherische Kirche in Durles (Dârlos/Darlac, RO) befindet sich im Norden des Landkreises Hermannstadt (Sibiu/Szeben, RO). Durles liegt 10 Kilometer westlich von Elisabethstadt (Dumbrăveni/Erzsébetváros, RO) und 6 Kilometer östlich von Mediasch (Media􀜈/Medgyes, RO). In einer Urkunde der päpstlichen Kurie aus dem Jahr 1332 erscheint der Ort unter dem Namen Dorlako. Die ältesten Dokumente, die Bezug auf die Wandgemälde der Kirche nehmen, verdanken sich dem französischen Schriftsteller Auguste De Gérando und stammen aus dem Jahr 1845. Die detaillierte Beschreibung umfasst Informationen über die Wandgemälde im Langhaus, im Chorraum und auf den Außenseiten des Kirchenbaus. Auf der Laibung trägt der Triumphbogen eine Aufschrift, die das Datum 1701 und den Vermerk enthält, dass im Jahr 1845 umfangreiche Renovierungsarbeiten am Kirchenbau vorgenommen worden sind. Während dieser Renovierungsarbeiten wurden die Wandgemälde in Chor und Langhaus mit Kalkfarbe überdeckt. Die Aufschrift gehört der ersten Kalkschicht an, die den Triumphbogen und die Wandgemälde der Chorwände bedeckt. Die letzten größeren Renovierungsarbeiten wurden im Jahr 1972 durchgeführt. Vermutlich sind mit dieser Gelegenheit auch die Wandgemälde auf den Wänden des Langhauses entfernt worden. Heute ist es nicht mehr möglich, Reste dieser Wandbemalung zu finden. Im Jahr 1975 wurden zufällig wenige Fragmente der Wandgemälde des Chorraums entdeckt. In den Jahren 2009–2011 führte der Restaurierungsfachbetrieb Imago Picta GmbH Rechercheund Konservierungsarbeiten in mehreren Etappen durch. Dabei trat auf der Nordwand des Chorraums eine Darstellung des Jüngsten Gerichts zutage; auf der gegenüberliegenden Südwand wurden Szenen aus dem Leben der Heiligen Katharina von Alexandrien und solche, auf denen Helena und Konstantin zu sehen sind, entdeckt. Die Fachliteratur hält keinen Aufschluss über den Fertigungsprozess von Wandgemälden in den mittelalterlichen Kirchen Siebenbürgens bereit. Der Großteil der verfügbaren Beschreibungen bezieht sich lediglich auf Maltechniken und Stilfragen. Die von mir durchgeführten Untersuchungen bieten neue Erkenntnisse über den aktuellen Zustand der Wandbilder, die Fertigungstechniken und die Abfolge der Malschichten, die verwendeten Materialien und Werkzeuge.

A Desaix jelenség

Author(s): Zsolt Forgó / Language(s): Hungarian / Publication Year: 0

A dravida nyelvek genetikai rokonsága más nyelvcsaládokkal

Author(s): István Major / Language(s): Hungarian / Publication Year: 0

A hasznos állampolgár képzése - Közjó és oktatás-nevelés kapcsolata a 18. századi Habsburg Monarchiában

Author(s): Zsolt Kökényesi / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 04/2016

The role that philosophers and government advisers of the Enlightenment era attributed to convenient education and training in the process of social advancement needs not be emphasized. The same realization on the part of the Habsburg political elite in the second half of the 18th century led to the emergence of a state-run educational policy. The present paper focuses on one special set of problems, namely the (intentional) transformation of the mentality of the nobility, more precisely the Hungarian nobility. Its aim is the survey of a cultural process that led from a change in the cultural ideal of the court through the gradual expansion of noble schooling to the political commitment of the privileged estate to public good and reforms. The change in noble claims to culture is briefly presented in a broader European context, special attention being paid, with regard to the knight’s academies (Ritterakademie), to the conception elaborated by the Prussian minister, baron Karl Abraham von Zedlitz, about the connection between noble education and patriotism. Consequently, the views of imperial advisers and theorists on noble education are explored. For the Viennese government circles the dismissive attitude of the Hungarian nobility to sharing public financial burdens in general had long posed a serious problem. In the 1760s the state council (Staatsrat) identified a possible solution in the purposeful training of Hungarian noble youth: it aimed to provide the future decision-making group with an education in state sciences and patriotic sentiments. In this respect, the advisers, especially baron Egyd von Borié, intended a crucial role to be played by Joseph von Sonnenfels and the Theresianum in Vienna. Sonnenfels emerged as the key figure in the education of state sciences in the Habsburg Monarchy, and his works, which proclaimed commitment to the state, were mandatory readings at the universities and academies of the Monarchy until the mid-19th century. The ideas of the state sciences and Sonnenfels’ also prevailed in the Theresianum, and this noble academy of the imperial capital accordingly played an important role in the education of the Hungarian nobility, thanks to the great number of its stipends. In the last section of the paper the later political career of the first aristocratic generation trained to the service of public good is examined, through the case of count Károly Zichy, with an emphasis on the cultural and ideological connection between the reform generations in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

A kézdivásárhelyi oktatási intézmények rövid története a 17. századtól a 20. század első feléig

Author(s): Attila Dimény / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 01/2017

One of the fundamental pillars of the guild system formed in Kézdivásárhely from the 16th century was the wide spread of literacy. Later this process was significantly helped by the development and institutionalization of the educational life. The educational system in Kézdivásárhely developed due the start of confessional education. The Protestant particula and the Roman Catholic school from Kanta established in the 17th century initially had an important role in the acquisition of basic literacy, but later they contributed to the creation of schools that provided professional training and a higher level of theoretical knowledge. The educational institutions created by the Szekler Border Guard Regiment also had a positive effect on the intellectual growth of the city and the surrounding villages, even if for a short time. As a result of the civil transformations in the second half of the 19th century, the urban middle class demand created the civil boys and girls schools, where students received theoretical knowledge and practical training, in order to be able to stand in their place in life without a higher education qualification. Some talented students of the city’s educational institutions continued their studies in various upper secondary schools, which facilitated the awareness and dissemination of bourgeois ideas and cultural patterns of the new era.

A kolozsvári Esterházy-ház és lakói (I.)

Author(s): Daniella Ludvig / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 05/2019

The first orphanage in Kolozsvár used to be in the building on Egyetem Street Nr. 8, in the later so-called Esterházy House. A memorial tablet from 1742 commemorates the donation of the building by count László Gyulaffy, whose name is kept in secret on the tablet. A note from 1880 by count János Esterházy, who was one of the owners of the House, contains the history of the building which was unpublished yet. The House became the home of the Esterházy Family in 1790, when the Governor of Transylvania moved to Kolozsvár from Nagyszeben. Several illustrious family members grew up here in the next centuries, with heroes of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, Miguel and Kálmán, among them. The guests of the house were also reputable: Miguel de Braganza, the later Portuguese king, or count Pál Teleki, the prime minister, who always stayed there when he was in Kolozsvár. The house was the property of the Esterházy’s until 1949, when the communist Romanian government expelled the residents and nationalized it. The family got the house back in 2008.

A kolozsvári Esterházy-ház és lakói (II.)

Author(s): Daniella Ludvig / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 06/2019

A kolozsvári Szent Erzsébet-ispotály a 17–18. században (1670–1789)

Author(s): Gyöngyvér L. Kajtár / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 2/2018

Starting with the Middle Ages institutionalized care for the poor and the appearance of hospitals became a clear sign of urban development. This was the case in medieval and early modern Kolozsvár also. When the city had lost its status as a free royal city in 1665 all the institutions administered by the local counsel underwent a series of changes. These changes did not leave unaffected the hospitals either. By the time Kolozsvár regained her lost privileges in 1712 out of the three medieval hospitals, only one was still operating, the Saint Elisabeth. Right around this time Catholicism started to regain some of its former status in Kolozsvár shattered by the reformation and it became once more the crown’s favored religion. This change in status led to the repossession and reorganization of formerly catholic institutions and properties in the city, chief among them the hospital of Saint Elisabeth.

A kolozsvári Unitárius Kollégium matriculái a Magyar Unitárius Egyház Kolozsvári Gyűjtőlevéltárában

Author(s): Lehel Molnár B. / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 4/2016

A közjó Bessenyei György Tariménes útazása című regényében (1804)

Author(s): Márton Szilágyi / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 04/2016

The study analyses the state-novel that was written by György Bessenyei (1746?–1811) in the last section of his life, and remained unpublished then. It chiefly explores the picture the novel draws about ideal government, and the way it imagines the working of parliament in the world of idealized kingship. This work, a late Hungarian adaptation of a genre that had been representative throughout the 18th century, uses its utopia-like structure to present political questions that were on the agenda in contemporary Hungary: the key motif is the state that creates harmony in both the agrarian world and among the various religious confessions. In the novel this ideal monarchy also proves its strength on the battlefield: it defeats the aggressive country in its neighborhood, governed tyrannically, and exports its own form of government into the political vacuum that evolves after the fall of tyranny. The novel ends in a rather mysterious way: the ideal state, governed by a beautiful and wise queen, proves inable to integrate the novel’s hero, a visitor coming as a guest from outside. Married in the meantime, this protagonist, instead of settling there, decides to return with his bride to the provincial house of his parents. Thus, the ideal state, while embodying the common good, cannot serve as the worthy framework of individual happiness even in a fictional novel.

A közjó fogalma a kora újkori politikai diskurzusokban

Author(s): István M. Szijártó / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 04/2016

Papers presented originally at a conference at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest in 2015, these four studies explore the usages of the term ’common good’ in early modern politics. Since this term was interpreted differently in various ages and different discourses, analyses of these usages of the expression offer a convenient starting point to explore the characteristics of the political discourses. This short introduction to this unit of four articles mentions some of the usages in 18th-century Hungarian politics, especially those by representatives of the enlightened absolutism on the one hand and the estates on the other, the latter using the political language of republicanism.

A közlekedés története Magyarországon (1700-2000)

Author(s): Richárd Bércesi / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2017

Majdán­ János:­ A közlekedés­ története­ Ma­gyarországon­ (1700–2000).­ Pécs,­ Pro­ Pan­nonia­ Kiadói­ Alapítvány,­ Pannónia­ Könyvek, 2014,­ 244­ p.

A kulturális és nemzeti identitás megfogalmazása Japánban és Közép-Európában a 18-19. században

Author(s): Mária Ildikó Farkas / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2016

Kokugaku of the Edo period can be seen as a key factor in defining cultural (and national) identity based on Japanese cultural heritage in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Kokugaku focused on Japanese classics, on exploring, studying and reviving (or even inventing) ancient Japanese language, literature, myths, history and also political ideology. ‘Japanese culture’ as such was distinguished from Chinese (and all other) cultures, and thus ‘Japanese identity’ was defined. Meiji scholars used kokugaku conceptions of Japan to construct a modern nationalism that was not simply derived from Western models and was not purely instrumental, but made good use of pre-modern and culturalist conceptions of community. The role of pre-modern cultural identity in the formation of modern Japanese (national) identity – following mainly Miroslav Hroch’s comparative and interdisciplinary theory of national development – can be examined in comparison with the ‘national awakening’ movements of the peoples of EastCentral Europe. Before modernity, in the shadow of a cultural and/or political ‘monolith’ (China for Japan, and Germany for Central Europe), ethnic groups or communities started to evolve their own identities with cultural movements focusing on their own language and culture, thus creating a new type of community, the nation. A comparative examination of texts (discourses) illustrates that similar modes of argumentation (narratives) can be identified in these movements: ‘language’ as the primary bearer of collective identity, the role of language in culture and ‘culture’ as the main common attribute of the community; as well as similar aspirations to explore, search and develop the native language, ‘genuine’ culture, and ‘original’ traditions. This comparative research offering ‘development patterns’ for interpretation can help us understand how ‘cultural identity’ played an important role in the formation of national identity, with its effect (‘cultural nationalism’) present even today in Japan and in Central Europe, too.

A levélküldés nehézségei a lengyel örökösödési háború dél-itáliai frontján

Author(s): Tamás Szemethy / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 63/2016

The War of Succession which broke out after the death of Polish king, Augustus II, in 1733 is mentioned in Hungarian scholarship mostly on account of the treaty that ended the conflict: Francis of Lorraine, Maria Theresa’s husband, renounced his claims to Lorraine as his inheritance which in turn entitled him to appropriate Tuscany after the death of the last Medici. The present study, however, focuses on a different aspect of the war and its progress. Szemethy examines the Csáky correspondence held at the National Archives of Austria to reconstruct the available means of communication connecting officers of the Csáky Regiment in the remote and hard-to-access southern Italian areas and their general, György Csáky residing in Sopron and Vienna. The corpus, especially the letters smuggled across the frontline after the defeat at Bitonto on 25 May, 1734, reveals substantial changes in the mode and content of the hussars’ communication with their regiment owner.

A magyarországi zsidóság áttérési gyakorlata Buda, Óbuda, Pest településeken és Bécsben 1746 és 1850 között

Author(s): Erzsébet Mislovics / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2015

The study focuses on the conversion of Jews in Buda, Óbuda, Pest and Vienna between 1746 and 1850. The converts belong to two main groups: those converting in Hungary and those who converted in Vienna, but were residents of Hungary. Although the number of converts was not really significant, the fact and the phenomenon of conversion raise several demographic, economic and social issues and had an influence on both the Jewish and the Christian society. On the basis of the converts' background we can observe two societies: a traditional society and a transitional society, in which the framework of the traditional society lives on, but the beginnings of a new, modern society are also visible. In the traditional society, conversion was the choice of underprivileged people, whereas in the transitional one was also chosen by those who were hoping to economically and socially benefit from it. Many Jews chose to convert to Christianity in order to climb the social ladder. In Buda, Óbuda, Pest, the conversion could be interpreted as an expression of Hungarian nationalism

A marosvásárhelyi barokk mesterkör kutatásának újabb eredményei

Author(s): János Orbán / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: III-V/2010

Our study analyses the 18th century Marosvásárhely (Târgu-Mures) craftsman society through an approach from the perspective of architectural history based on archival sources, and with special emphasis on the development of the status of masons, not ignoring however the situation of carpenters, joiners, locksmiths and potters, who were in close relation with the construction industry. The results of the study unequivocally state that from the mid 18th century onwards there is a definite headcount increase within the construction industry and pertaining to this, within masonry as well. A key role in this process is held by the mostly German craftsmen migrating to the city. Their linguistic and religious separation makes them clearly distinguishable within the society of the city in this period, bringing thus validation and also a special connotation to the concept of “Craftsman Circle”. Hence, the linguistically isolated, mostly Catholic immigrants (especially in the first decades) have necessarily formed a sort of separated community in the predominantly Hungarian and typically reformat society of the city. We must emphasize that the immigration processes in Marosvásárhely are in line with the contemporary phenomena specified by Margit B. Nagy in other Transylvanian cities such as Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca) or Szamosújvár (Gherla). In comparison with Kolozsvár discrepancy can be determined only in the intensity of immigration (number of the immigrants) or in the temporal distribution of the process. The Baroque patterns have permanently spread in Marosvásárhely as a result of the activity of these craftsmen. Arriving from Austria, Bavaria, Silesia, Hungary and from various regions of the German linguistic areas, these craftsmen had already been familiar with the forms and technical solutions of the Baroque, and this knowledge was continuously refreshed and enriched by other influences (even if springing from similar artistic roots) of the various craftsman centers of Transylvania, here it is enough if we mention Anton Schuchbauer working at the Toldalagi-palace, or Romanus Lehr the stucco-modeler from Szamosújvár, or the inevitable import of the products delivered by the stone-cutter workshops from Kolozsvár. Being aware of the rather obsolete architectural circumstances previously prevailing in Marosvásárhely, these immigrants, bearers of a new kind of architectural knowledge, must unquestionably be considered factors of modernization. This basically Late Baroque architectural tradition established due to the 18th century craftsmen was afterwards successfully conserved and prevailed firmly in the city even in the first decades of the 19th century.

A miklósvári templomfoglalás narratívái

Author(s): Kinga Papp / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 2/2018

The paper collects the narratives on the seizing of the Calvinist church in Miklósvár/Micloşoara and the forced confession change of the local community in the 18th century. The sources gathered show that the situation of the Calvinist of Miklósvár repeatedly gained public attention during the 18th century, through various written requests, letters, public hearings and ecclesiastical history works. These sources not only document the facts but also show how this event became part of the community’s collective memory and was later transformed, after its de-personalization, into a place of memory.

A Monarchia: örökség és emlékezet

Author(s): András Gero / Language(s): Hungarian / Publication Year: 0

A nagybányai önkormányzati testület szerkezete a 16–18. században

Author(s): Kálmán Zsolt Süto / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2018

The aim of the study is to present the structure of the local government of Baia Mare. During the 16th–18th centuries the free royal mining town of Baia Mare was led by an inner and an outer council. The outer council was made up of sixty members. They elected the judge and the twelve jurors of the inner council. The first and the second juror were called consul jurors, they acted as the judge’s substitutes. From the end of the 17th century the central power was trying to narrow the self-government of the town.