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On 31st January 2025, the András Kubinyi Award was presented for the sixteenth time. This year, the prestigious prize was awarded to our colleague, historian Julianna Orsós for her paper entitled The Last Period of the Dominican Nunnery on the Island of Hares: Legal Representation, Estates, Unsuccessful Reforms.
The study scrutinized the late medieval history of the Dominican cloister on today’s Margaret Island. It focused on the structural changes in the legal representation system of the community, the management of their estates and the failure of the attempts to reform the convent in the spirit of the Observant movement. The author analysed the legal and economic situation of the religious community from the end of the 15 th century to the mid-16 th century in detail, as well as the relations between the Dominican Order and secular authorities. Her work presented the ways in which the convent tried to preserve its estates and privileges in the changing political and social milieu, as well as the obstacles encountered during the implementation of the reforms. The research also revealed that the relationship between the manuscripts preserving the German versions of Saint Margaret’s legend (the life of the community’s most famous member) mirror the order’s structure as well as the links between Nuremberg, Vienna, and Basel. The dissemination of the legend in the German-speaking territories was enhanced not only by the Dominican institutional connections and the Observant organisational structure, but also by the lively relationship between King Matthias Corvinus and the Eidgenossenschaft, as well as by the King’s attempts to carry through Margaret’s canonization.

On the occasion of the exhibition of the Codex aureus at the Batthyaneum in Gyulafehérvár (Alba Iulia), our colleague, Anna Boreczky, took part in a conversation on Carolingian culture and book history at the Marosvásárhelyi Rádio (Radio Târgu Mureș) on the 21st of December.

Between 30 July and 3 August, Fanni Hende participated in the 40th Anniversary Conference of the International Musicological Society Study Group "Cantus Planus" in Gödöllő. Hende gave a talk entitled Newly Discovered Liturgical Codex Fragments at the National Archives of Hungary. An Ongoing Research Project. She presented some essential missal fragments. Three leaves used to belong to a 14th/15th-century missal used in the Diocese of Pécs. The significance of them is that these are the first handwritten witnesses of the former existent missal codices from Pécs, since the missal have remained only in prints. A report of the conference can be accessed here.

Three members of the HUN-REN–NSZL Fragmenta et Codices Research Group presented papers at the 30. International Medieval Congress organised by University of Leeds on 1–4 July 2024.
Julianna Orsós gave a talk entitled Losses, Failure, Redesign: The Crisis of the Dominican Order in the Late Medieval Kingdom of Hungary on the late medieval crisis of the Dominican Order. She highlighted the practice of the Dominican nuns from the Insula leporum (present-day Margaret Island) concerning the administration of their estates and their legal representation during their escape from the Island because of the Ottomans.
Zoltán Tomkó presented a paper entitled Blaming the Other: Scapegoating in a Divided Hungary after Suleiman's Final Campaign on contemporary historians’ narratives about Suleiman’s final war. He demonstrated how the authors’ attachment to one or the other side affected these narratives.
Fanni Hende gave a talk entitled Newly Discovered Fragments of Henricus de Ratisbona's Vocabularius Lucianus Used as Part of a Bookbinding of an Account Book which Used to Belong to the Hungarian Chamber about codex fragments which had been detached from the bindings of two account books copied by the Hungarian Chamber in the 16th/17th century. The fragments used as paper boards in bindings were cut out from a manuscript which used to belong to the library of the Dominican convent in Vienna.

On 14 May 2024 at 4:00 pm, the head of our research group Gábor Sarbak and Julianna Orsós will give an online lecture at the invitation of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, entitled Die deutschsprachigen mittelalterlichen Handschriften von Kalocsa. 50 Jahre Forschungsgruppe Fragmenta et Codices. For more details please see the invitation.

We are proud to announce that Edit Madas, former head of our Research Group, was awarded the Széchenyi Prize, the most prestigious award in Hungarian science, on the occasion of 15 March, the National Holiday of Hungary. The honour was conferred on her for her outstanding results in the fields of codicology, Medieval Latin and early Hungarian philology, as well as Hungarian cultural and literary history, especially with regard to the cult of saints and medieval sermons.

On February 1, 2024, our colleague Anna Boreczky participated in the workshop " Cloister, Reform and Town: Religious Communities and Laity in 15th-Century Central-Europe in Olomouc. In the example of a picture book (Concordantiae Caritatis) she discussed possible impacts of late medieval social and religious reforms on book culture, like the evolvement of new production and reading practices and, in relation to these, the transformation of textual and visual contents.
Julianna Orsós, member of our Research Group, was awarded a Mobility Grant by the HUN-REN Hungarian Research Network and the Collegium Hungaricum in Vienna. During her stay in Vienna between December 4th and 22nd, she gathered materials related to the German language manuscripts of the Kalocsa Archiepiscopal Library she is describing for the collection's manuscript catalogue. She also worked on her research project on late medieval German-language chronicles. Last but not least, on behalf of our Research Group, she discussed future cooperation plans with our dear colleagues in the Austrian Academy of Sciences and Dr Iván Bertényi Jr., deputy director of the Collegium Hungaricum.

Between 18 and 20 October 2023, our colleague, Ágnes Korondi participated in the interdisciplinary colloquy entitled Historický text a jeho interpretace and organized by the Department of Language Development of the Czech Language Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences. This yearly held meeting is a scholarly forum for researchers of Old and Middle Czech texts, language historians, historians, and literary scholars. Our colleague presented a paper entitled The Old Czech Translations of the Dialogus beatae Mariae et Anselmi de passione Domini about the Old Czech verse translations of a latin devotional text attributed to Saint Anselm of Canterbury. The programme of the conference is accessible here.

Our colleague, Julianna Orsós participated in the research project centred on the Hungarian translation of those parts of the Styrian Rhymed Chronicle which refer to the Hungarian Kingdom. This Middle High German chronicle compiled by Ottokar von Steiermark discusses the historical events of the second half of the 13th and of the beginning of the 14th century in Hungary and Central Europe, therefore it is a source of fundamental importance for all medievalists dealing with the period.
The Hungarian translation, the introduction as well as the notes of the newly published edition were prepared by Professor Dániel Bagi, head of the Department of Eastern and Central European History and Historical Russistics at Eötvös Loránd University and research professor in the Institute of History of the Eötvös Loránd Research Network's Research Centre for the Humanities.

Our colleague, Anna Boreczky, gave a lecture entitled The medieval Hungarian book and its use on the traditions and possible new directions in the research of medieval book on 27.05.2023 at the conference Results and blank spots in the research of the old Hungarian book, organised by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences' Working Committee on Book History and MOKKA-R, held at the National Széchényi Library.

The biennial conference of the Medieval Central Europe Research Network entitled Continuity and Change in Medieval Central Europe took place at the Comenius University of Bratislava on 27-29 April 2023. Four members of the ELKH–NSZL Fragmenta et Codices Research Group presented papers at this prestigious gathering of Central European medievalists. Fanni Hende analysed the structure and liturgical rite of a breviary preserved in the Cathedral Library of Kalocsa under the shelfmark MS 19; this manuscript had been reshaped from an originally two-volume breviary copied for a different community of users than the reconstructed one. Julianna Orsós examined Martin Luther’s preface to the German translation of Georgius de Hungaria’s Tractatus de moribus, conditionibus et nequitia Turcorum. Edina Zsupán together with Maria Theisen, a researcher of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, presented some manuscripts in Italian humanistic style newly identified as the products of the scriptorium functioning in the vicinity of Johannes Vitéz de Zredna, Archbishop of Esztergom. Finally, Ágnes Korondi spoke about the Hungarian and Czech translations of a late medieval Marian lament in a dialogical form attributed to Saint Anselm of Canterbury and the manuscripts preserving the vernacular texts.
The programme of the MECERN conference is accessible here.

Fanni Hende participated in the conference entitled Closer to the Creator. Parish archives and libraries of the pre-modern era (ca. 1350-1650) in Mediaș between 18 and 21 May, 2023. She made a presentation on the codex fragments used as covers on some protocols of the Convent of Cluj-Mănăștur. The workshop was organised around the book collection rediscovered in one of the towers of the fortified Church of St Margaret in Mediaș.
The entire programme of the conference is available here.

Anna Boreczky, a member of our research group, participated in the book launch of two publications realised in collaboration between Hungarian and Italian researchers in 2021 and 2022. On 18th April 2023 at the Sapientia College of Theology of Religious Orders, she presented the art historical aspects of the book Le Meditationes vitae Christi in volgare secondo il codice Paris, BnF, it. 115, edited by Diego Dotto, Dávid Falvay and Antonio Montefusco. On 25th April 2023 at the Library and Information Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, she reviewed the art historical studies in the book Luigi il Grande Rex Hungariae, edited by Giovanna Baldissin Molli, Franco Benucci, Maria Teresa Dolso and Ágnes Máté.

The German-language edition of the Esztergom codex catalog prepared by the ELKH-OSZK Fragmenta et Codices Research Group published
The German edition of the codex catalog entitled "Codices of the Library of the Primatial Archdiocese of Esztergom, the Simor Archdiocesan Library, and the City Library" has been prepared by the ELKH-OSZK Fragmenta et Codices Research Group. The volume, published by the Library of the Primatial Archdiocese of Esztergom, Akadémiai Kiadó, and the National Széchényi Library, is a scholarly descriptive catalog of significant codices preserved in the extensive book collections of present-day Esztergom. The authors of this meticulously crafted work are Kinga Körmendy, Judit Lauf, Edit Madas, and Gábor Sarbak, with András Vizkelety providing the translation and Edit Madas serving as the editor of the volume. A presentation event for the Hungarian edition, published in 2021, and the new German edition was held on February 20, 2023, at the National Széchényi Library, where the research group is also based.
During the event, Kornél Szovák, the director of the Gyula Moravcsik Institute at the ELKH Research Centre for the Humanities praised the catalog for not only meeting the highest scientific standards but also for developing the Hungarian scientific terminology of codicology and being highly readable. He emphasized the groundbreaking nature of the catalog, as until now no handbook has been available in Hungarian that has made the descriptions of the codices accessible to research in the language, as Latin and later German had been the primary languages of these works.
In his welcoming address, Dávid Rózsa, the Director-General of the National Széchényi Library, highlighted the substantial endeavors of the research group towards raising the profile of medieval Hungarian writing and book culture. The codex catalog now also available in German, draws attention to the previously unseen treasures of the three Esztergom libraries, placing them on the horizon of Hungarian and international scholarly discourse.
The National Széchényi Library is a key player in the ongoing innovation in the cultural sector, and the government provides the necessary support for its valuable work of preserving and creating cultural heritage, as emphasized by Magdolna Závogyán, Secretary of State for Culture at the Ministry of Culture and Innovation. She further highlighted that the Esztergom codex catalog serves as a fine example of how national treasures can be made accessible to present and future researchers. The true worth of the volume lies in the profound care, admiration and pride that the joint research team of ELKH and the National Széchényi Library approached the treasures, which serve as the cornerstone of the catalog.
In his remarks, Cardinal Péter Erdő, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, highlighted that this highly precise and comprehensive, expertly crafted and elaborate codex catalog is the fruit of fifteen years of diligent research. He added that no one could have accomplished this task more adeptly than the members of the Fragmenta et Codices Research Group, whose work is of world-class caliber.
Academician Edit Madas conveyed the research group's deep appreciation for the invaluable support provided by the National Széchényi Library and ELKH. With emphasis, she highlighted the exceptional work of András Vizkelety in translating the volume to German, noting that it is much more than a mere translation, but rather an adaptation that surpasses all expectations.
Report taken over from the webseite of the Eötvös Loránd Research Network.
On the 9th of February 2023, our colleague, Anna Boreczky, gave a presentation at the workshop CLOISTER AND TOWN: RELIGIOUS REFORM AND LAITY at Masaryk University in Brno. She spoke about the 15th-century transformations of a 14th-century typological picture book, Concordantiae Caritatis, adapted to the needs of a changing readership.
On 19. January 2023, Ágnes Korondi participated at a conference entitled The Devotion of the Stations of the Cross in Old Hungarian Literature and Art, organized by the ELKH–PPKE Baroque Spirituality and Literature Research Group. Our colleague presented a paper about the medieval vernacular translations of Pseudo-Anselm's Planctus Mariae et Anselmi de Passione Domini.
Edina Zsupán has been elected a member of the Comité international de paléographie latine. Now two members of our department, Edit Madas and Edina Zsupán represent Hungary in this prestigious scholarly community. We offer our congratulations to Edina and the other new members wishing them a successful activity.
Edina Zsupán and Fanni Hende participated at the 5 th Scriptorium Conference on 24 th November 2022. Edina Zsupán presented a paper entitled Scriptorium in the Proximity of John Vitéz of Zredna, Archbishop of Esztergom (1465–1472). Researchers have long been aware of a few manuscripts that were prepared around John Vitéz of Zredna between 1445 and 1465, when he was bishop of Várad. Nevertheless, it has never been mentioned that the production of manuscripts initiated by him continued during his tenure as archbishop of Esztergom, despite the fact that this almost evidently derives from his goals, the steps he took to implement the humanist culture in Hungary, and from the high level of awareness he displayed in this field. However, his purchasing of luxurious Italian manuscripts hid this autochthonous line from before the eyes of posterity. The paper presented by Edina Zsupán explored the scriptorium that operated in the proximity of John of Zredna during his years in Esztergom. The identification of this workshop was enabled by complex – palaeographical, codicological, art and cultural historical – methods.
Fanni Hende and Gabriella Gilányi (ELKH Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute for Musicology) worked together on five fragments from an Antiphonal copied in Transylvania. Hende presented the fragments’ host volumes and the accompanying materials discovered in the book bindings, while Gilányi analysed the liturgical items on the fragments from a musicological point of view.

At the conference organized on 28 November 2022 with the occasion of the 220 th anniversary of the National Széchényi Library’s foundation, Gábor Sarbak presented the codicological description and the content of the Pauline Cantuale of Częstochowa recently restored in the National Library as well as the Old Hungarian prayer preserved in it. His presentation was supplemented by NSzL book restorers Zsuzsanna Tóth and Éva Benke who described the binding and the resoration process of this paper codex.
At the same scholarly event, Edina Zsupán held a lecture entitled Janus Pannonius – Verse / Prose / Rhythm. The humanist poet Janus Pannonius translated several Greek works of various length by Demosthenes and Plutarch to Latin, however, these prose translations are hardly ever analysed. Edina Zsupán examined Janus’ longest translation, the text of Plutarch’s The Sayings of Kings and Commanders. She did not present all the results of her detailed investigation focusing on a single general observation demonstrated by Janus’ case. Namely, that manuscripts texts occasionally offer essential help in understanding an author’s poetics; an aid that cannot be provided by the text edition.
The 220 th anniversary celebrations also included a workshop during which the different departments of the NSzL introduced themselves to their colleagues working in other organizational units. At this workshop, Ágnes Korondi and Fanni Hende presented the history, research areas and projects, institutional ties, as well as the publishing and educational activity of the Research Group.

Three members of our Research Group participated at a conference entitled Saint Margaret of Hungary and Her Age -- A Legacy of 750 Years on 17-19th November 2022. The event celebrated Saint Margaret of Hungary's 750th death anniversary with a two year delay, having been twice postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The former head of our Research Group, Edit Madas pointed out the differences encountered in the wording of the sources describing the resting place of Saint Margaret's mortal remains and explained their significance in her canonization process. Judit Lauf's paper presented two medieval manuscripts that were formerly unconnected with the Dominican nuns in the Island of Hares. One of them was the Franciscan rule preserved in the Franciscan Library of Gyöngyös (Cod. Med. 5). The back board of this book's binding preserves the inscription of a verse from a rhymed Decalogue also copied by the Dominican scribe Lea Ráskai into the Példák könyve (Book of Exampla), one of the Hungarian-language manuscripts of the Island of Hares nunnery. The other manuscript presented by Judit Lauf was a miscellaneous liturgical codex in Latin (Esztergom, Archiepiscopal Simor Library 2-36-4/7875) that was probably owned and used by the mentioned Dominican community. In her presentation, Julianna Orsós analyzed the relationship between the late medieval German translations of Saint Margaret's legend and the Dominican observant movement and pointed out the connections between the surviving copies and King Matthias I of Hungary's attempts to achieve the canonization of Margaret.
A collected volume has recently been published under the title: Cantuale Paulinorum s. XVI. Zene- és nyelvtörténeti tanulmányok a Częstochowai pálos kantuáléről [Cantuale Paulinorum s. XVI. Musicological and linguistic papers about the Pauline Cantuale of Częstochowa]. The volume was edited by Zsuzsa Czagány and Gábor Sarbak, the head of our research group. He is also the author of one of the papers entitled Magyar pálos kódex a lengyel pálos kolostorban [A Hungarian Pauline codex in the Polish Pauline monastery]. For more information on the volume see.
Our colleague, Julianna Orsós presented a paper entitled Die ungarischen Herrscher in Jakob Twingers Chronik at a conference jointly organized by the German Studies Workshop of the Eötvös College, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and the Austrian Cultural Forum, on 18 October 2022.
Máté Vincze, Deputy Secretary of State for Public Collections and Cultural Development of the Ministry of Culture and Innovation visited the National Széchényi Library. He was shown three corvinas by Edina Zsupán, deputy head of our research group. The digital copies of these manuscripts are available at the Corvina webseite of our Library. In May, a programme was launched for the virtual reunification of the Corvina Library. Within its framework, the National Széchényi Library obtained the digital copies of almost fifty corvinas and the right to make these available for the public on the Corvina website.
Our research community is glad to welcome a new colleague in the person of Zoltán Tomkó, PhD student at the University of Szeged, Doctoral School for Literary Studies, Neo-Latin Literature Programme. He joined our group in September 2022.
Gábor Sarbak, the head of our Research Group held a lecture about medieval formularies on 30th September 2022 at the Researchers' Night.
Julianna Orsós presented a paper at a conference organized jointly by the Institute of Historical Studies and Institute of Germanic Studies of the Eötvös Loránd University. Our colleague analyzed those passages of the Styrian Rhymed Chronicle that refer to the daughter and granddaughter of King Béla IV of Hungary, Anna of Macsó and Kunigunda of Halych. The paper demonstrated that both women carried out outstanding diplomatic activity. This research was carried out within the framework of a wide-ranging project led by Professor Dániel Bagi and financed by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFI 113848). Within this scholarly undertaking, our colleague translated and examined those parts of the Styrina Rhymed Chronicle that refer to the Hungarian Kingdom.
The head of our Research Group, Gábor Sarbak presented a paper entitled Pauline Reform at the End of the Middle Ages? at the church history conference Ordine et disciplina reformare -- Reforms of Religious Orders in Hungary on 16th September 2022 in Pannonhalma.
Two members of our Research Group, Edit Madas and Edina Zsupán participated in the 22nd Colloquium of the Comité international de paléographie latine in Prague between 14th and 16th September 2022. Edina Zsupán presented a paper entitled Development of humanistic writing in Hungary from Johannes Vitéz de Zredna until the Bibliotheca Corvina.
Between 7th and 10th September, a scholarly conference entitled Janus Pannonius, Johannes Vitéz and the Continuation of Humanistic Tradition took place at the Vitéz János Teacher Training Center of the Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Esztergom, where our colleague, Edina Zsupán presented a paper entitled Janus Pannonius, the Prose Translator.
Fanni Hende and Ágnes Korondi received certificates awarded to the recipients of the János Bolyai Research Scholarship at the Bolyai Day award ceremony held on 15th September 2022 in the ceremonial hall of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. We offer our warm congratulations and wish them success with their research projects!
The fourth, concluding volume of Tamás Adamik's book series discussing the history of medieval Latin literature has recently been published under the title Latin irodalom az érett középkorban (12-13. század) [Latin literature during the High Middle Ages (12-13th century)]. The author – a professor emeritus of the Eötvös Loránd University, Faculty of Humanities, Latin Department – launches the presentation of this 'Golden Age' of medieval literature with the age of the crusades, proceeding then to the in-depth discussion of Parisian university professors. After an excursus on the legends of Hungarian saints, he concludes his book with the review of two collections that greatly influenced the narrative and lyrical production of later centuries, Gesta Romanorum and Carmina Burana. The volume – as the previous parts of the series – was edited by our colleague, Klára Kisdi.

Two members of our research group, Fanni Hende and Ágnes Korondi have been awarded the János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. In her project entitled Codex Fragments in the National Archives of Hungary, Fanni Hende will explore the so far undiscovered codex fragments serving as bindings on documents preserved in four fonds of the National Archives of Hungary. Ágnes Korondi's research entitled Vernacular and Latin Passion Narratives in Late Medieval Hungary and East Central Europe will focus on the sources, compilation and narrative techniques of passion texts to be found in late medieval Hungarian-language codices, as well as on the devotional trends and objectives connected with these Hungarian texts. The institutional background for these three-year-long research projects will be provided by the National Széchényi Library.
On 9-11 June 2022 Ágnes Korondi participated in an international conference entitled Translation Automatisms in Early Vernacular Texts: Units, Clusters, Networks at the University of Verona. Her presentation entitled Powerful Verses: Psalm Quotations in Old Hungarian Prayer discussed the Hungarian translations of a popular late medieval prayer composed of psalm verses. The conference poster is available here.
On 16-18 June, Ágnes Korondi participated in a symposium entitled „Explorări în tradiţia biblică românească şi europeană.” Ediţia a XI-a (Researches in the Romanian and European Bible Tradition) organized by the Institute of Bible Philology „Monumenta linguae Dacoromanorum” of the University of Iaşi. The online presentation of our colleague was entitled Presumed Hungarian Sources of the Romanian Translation of the Psalter (16th c.): Changing Functions and Forms. The video recordings of the entire conference are available here.

The Committee for Art History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences bestowed the Opus mirabile Award on the catalogue of the Corvina exhibition organized in the National Széchényi Library in 2018/2019. The catalogue entitled „Az ország díszére.” A Corvina könyvtár budai műhelye [“In the honour of the country.” The Buda workshop of the Corvina Library] was edited by our colleague, Edina Zsupán. Three other members of our research group, Judit Lauf, Edit Madas, and Gábor Sarbak, also contributed texts to the publication.
The awarding ceremony will take place at 3 PM on 10th June 2022 in the main building of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (the second floor small auditorium).
For information on the catalogue see.
The 3D version of the exhibition is available on the Corvina webpage of the National Széchényi Library.
Invitation.

On 21st May Ágnes Korondi presented a paper about the passion narrative of Döbrentei Codex, a late medieval Hungarian-language manuscript preserved in Alba Iulia at the international workshop entitled Preaching in Liminal Areas of Medieval Western Christianity. Similarities, Connections, Contrasts organized by the Department of Medieval and Early Modern History and Art History of the Babeș-Bolyai University and the «George Bariţiu» Institute for History of the Romanian Academy in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The paper was entitled Between Sermon and Meditation: A Late Medieval Hungarian Passion Text.
The head of our group, literary historian and codicologist Dr Gábor Sarbak received the Pro Cultura Christiana Award of the Hungarian Catholic Bishops' Conference for the research and transmission of Christian culture. The prize was presented in Budapest on 27 April 2022 by András Veres, Diocesan Bishop of Győr, President of the Conference. The journal Magyar Kurír published an interview with the awardee for the occasion.


Fanni Hende presented a paper about the ceremonial speeches held at the Diets in the Kingdom of Hungary in the 18th century. The paper entitled Политическая коммуникация венгерского короля и сословий в парламентских церемониях, 1687–1765 гг. has come forth in the current issue of the Central-European Studies, a journal of the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Olga Khavanova, historian of the Institute, translated it to Russian.
A collective volume in English and Hungarian was published with the contribution of three of our colleagues about the breviary and missal of the Hungarian humanist prelate, Domonkos Kálmáncsehi (1432--1503). The volume accompanies the partial facsimile edition of the richly illuminated manuscript preserved in the Morgan Library & Museum (MS G 7), New York. The three papers analyzing the codex and its cultural and historical background from the points of view of codicology, art history, and liturgical history was edited by Edina Zsupán. She is the author of the study investigating the connections between the manuscript and the Buda workshop of the Corvina Library. Judit Lauf prepared the codicological description of the two combined liturgical books and analyzed their liturgical rite. Árpád Mikó outlined Domonkos Kálmáncsehi's biography and his renaissance background also examining the iconography of the manuscript. The papers were translated to English by Ágnes Korondi and Katalin Nagy. The high-quality volume, as well as the facsimile, was prepared by the Schöck ArtPrint Kft.

We are glad to announce that a catalogue describing with great erudition the medieval manuscripts preserved in the Esztergom book collections has been published by our colleagues: Kinga Körmendy, Judit Lauf, Edit Madas, Gábor Sarbak, The Codices of the Cathedral Library of Esztergom, the Archiepiscopal Simor Library, and the Esztergom City Library, edited by Edit Madas. Anna Boreczky, Péter Erdő, Gábriel Szoliva, Dominique Vanwijnsberghe, Kateřina Voleková, and Endre Zsoldos co-authored some of the descriptions. Kinga Körmendy's thorough introduction presenting the history of the collections and the detailed descriptions are accompanied by various indices, appendices, a bibliography, and colour plates. The volume printed by the Pytheas Könyvkiadó és Nyomda is the most recent volume of the Fragmenta et codices in bibliothecis Hungariae series. The book can be ordered for 6000 HUF here: bibliotheca@bibliotheca.hu. A German-language version of the catalogue is forthcoming.


An article signed by Edina Zsupán was published in the current issue of the journal Művészettörténeti Értesítő under the title János Vitéz Reading Pliny. On the Connection between the Descriptions of the Villa at Laurentium and Hungarian Humanism.

On 20 January 2022, a workshop entitled Past, Present, and Future Research in the History of Spirituality was organized by the ELKH-PPKE Baroque Literature and Spirituality Research Group at the Faculty of Humanities of the Péter Pázmány Catholic University. The workshop offered a possibility for the members of various research communities interested in the history of spirituality to present their previous and current activity as well as their future projects. Our research group was introduced by Gábor Sarbak, while Judit Lauf and Edina Zsupán gave a presentation entitled Domonkos Kálmáncsehi's New York Breviary and Missal.

On 18-19th November 2021, Ágnes Korondi participated in an international workshop on medieval manuscript fragments (Medieval Book Fragments, Libraries and Literary History. Nordic Fragment Workshop) organized by the Centre for Medieval Literature of the University of Southern Denmark, Odense. Our colleague presented a paper entitled Fragments for Grand Narratives. Vernacular Manuscript Fragments in East Central European Literary History(ies).

The thematic issue of the Lutheran journal Credo focusing on the year 1521 was launched on 20th October 2021. The participants of the round table discussion were Zoltán Csepregi, the rector of the Evangelical-Lutheran Theological University in Budapest, literary historian Tibor Fabiny, and our colleague, Julianna Orsós. Emese M. Isó, editor-in-chief of the journal, moderated the talk. The event can be watched here.

The descriptions of the codex fragments detached from incunabula and preserved in the Fragment Collection of the Library and Information Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books are available on the Fragmentarium Digital Laboratory website. The descriptions were prepared by Fanni Hende while she was the beneficiary of the Zeno Karl Schindler Foundation/Fragmentarium Fellowship in 2020.

Our research group participated in this year's Researchers' Night event series with a set of lectures collectively entitled The Anatomy of a Fragment and held on 24 September 2021 in the National Széchényi Library. The entire programme can be accessed here.


Edina Zsupán presented a paper entitled On the Development of the Latin-language Plutarchos Corpus: What Does the Plutarchos Corvina Preserved in Vienna (ÖNB, Cod. 23) Reveal? at a conference organized by the Hungarian Byzantological Society and the Eötvös College on 4 September 2021. The entire programme of the conference is available here.

The former head of our Research Group, Dr András Vizkelety, literary historian, philologist, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, professor emeritus of the Pázmány Péter Catholic University, recipient of the Herder Prize and the Széchényi Prize was awarded the Middle Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit, civilian division on 23 August 2021 in recognition of his outstanding results achieved as an internationally recognized researcher of medieval German and Latin literacy especially in discovering and publishing medieval literary sources.

The long-standing external member of our Research Group, the codicologist Dr Kinga Körmendy was awarded the Pro Urbe Esztergom prize in recognition of her outstanding role in investigating the history of the city of Esztergom and in exploring the medieval manuscripts preserved in the ecclesiastical book collections of Esztergom. The award was presented by Archbishop Péter Erdő and Mayor Ádám Hernádi in the Saint Adalbert Centre on 23 August 2021.


The Esztergom Cathedral Library and our Research Group presented Kinga Körmendy with the publication of a collected volume of her studies on the occasion of her 50th jubilee as a researcher. The volume is entitled Libri diversi magni et parvi -- Selected Studies on the History of the Cathedral Library and the Medieval Book Culture of Esztergom (eds. Kinga Körmendy and Edit Madas, Esztergom, 2021). Studies authored by other members of the Research Group discussing codices of the Esztergom Cathedral Library and medieval school books from Esztergom were also included into the volume.


A double book launch entitled The Age of the Grassalkovichs -- Society and Political Culture in 18th-century Hungary will take place in the Royal Palace of Gödöllő at 5 PM on 9th July 2021, where a recently published monograph authored by our colleague, Fanni Hende as well as a book by Tamás Szemethy will be presented to the public.


An article entitled Friendship and Politics. The History of Johannes Reuchlin and Sebastian Brant was published in the 2021/2 issue of the journal Credo by our colleague, Julianna Orsós. The paper presents the friendship between the two humanists and offers a new explanation for the deterioration of their relationship.

A member of our Research Group, Julianna Orsós participated at a doctoral conference organized between 24th and 26th June 2021 at the Department of Early Modern History of the Karl Franzens Universität in Graz. She spoke about the late medieval letter of protection (Schutzbrief, protectionalis), a legal document type that appeared in the Hungarian Kingdom after the battle of Mohács (1526).
The program of the conference can be accessed here.

Connected to the exhibition organized on the 900th anniversary of the Premonstratensian Order by the Hungarian National Museum and the Hungarian Circary of the Norbertines, a round table discussion took place about the medieval Premonstratensian manuscripts on 30th June. The discussion was moderated by our colleague, Ágnes Korondi.

The Head of our research group, Gábor Sarbak, presented a paper at the conference organized at the 9th National Meeting of Pauline Settlements (Füzér, 4--6 June 2021). His talk pointed out the connections between local events and the general history of the Pauline Order, while other speakers presented papers about the archaeological finds and architectural sites connected with the Order, as well as about other aspects of Pauline activity in the region.

A monograph entitled Politikai reprezentáció a magyar országgyűléseken 1687 és 1765 között [Political Representation at the Hungarian Diets between 1687 and 1765] authored by our colleague Fanni Hende has come forth. She discusses the forms and the communication of the political representation present at the 17th- and 18th-century Hungarian Diets, as well as reconstructs and analyses the coronation ceremonies of the age presenting their participants in a social historical framework.

Two posts were published on the blog of the National Library by our colleague, Ágnes Korondi. One of them remembers the renowned archaeologist, historian, and numismat, János Érdy, who died 150 years ago, and the late medieval Hungarian-language manuscript, Érdy Codex. The other presents the life and activity of Ernst von Birk, director of the Vienna Court Library, who died 130 years ago, and the late medieval Hungarian-language manuscript called Birk Codex discovered by him in 1889 in the fragment collection of the Court Library.

Anna Boreczky has won a Humboldt Fellowship to Freie Universität. She will there continue her previously begun research on the medieval illustrations of the late antique novella about Apollonius, King of Tyre. She is going to complete the analysis of the entire corpus by the end of the project. We wish her success with her work!

The Research Group was joined by two new members.
Tibor Klestenitz (19th-century Book and Media History) and Julianna Orsós (Fragmenta Codicum) started working in our community in January 2021.

We are glad to announce that the Festschrift compiled for the anniversary of Edit Madas, former head of the Research Group, came forth.
Title: „Mestereknek gyengyének.” Ünnepi kötet Madas Edit hetvenedik születésnapjára. Eds. Fanni Hende, Klára Kisdi, Ágnes Korondi.
The volume can be purchased in the bookshop of the Szent István Társulat, the Stephanus Könyvesház (Budapest, V. Kossuth Lajos utca 1., Tel: +36-1 318-0567).

Contents

Conference in the NSZL with the participation of the members of the Research Group on 21-22 November 2019. All interested are welcome!
The programme of the conference

Two new papers written by our colleagues about codex fragments preserved in Hungarian collections have been recently published.

Lauf Judit, Sarbak Gábor: Kódextöredékek Vácott. In: Hármas Törekvés. A váci katolikus papság és értelmiség identitáskeresése a 18–19. században. Eds. Boros István, Takács László. Budapest, 2018, 31–53.

Hende Fanni: Az Országos Levéltár Mohács előtti gyűjteményében található kódextöredékek. Turul 91, 2018, 68–80.

A round table discussion will take place at 5 PM on 7th February 2019 in the National Széchényi Library (Buda Castle, F building). This will be the closing event of the Library’s exhibition entitled The Corvina Library and the Buda Workshop. In the debate, the experts of the field will discuss the possibilities of future research aimed at the Corvina Library placing it against the background of 15-16th-century book culture.
The participants of the round table will be researchers Enikő Békés, Judit Lauf, Edit Madas, Árpád Mikó, István Monok, Klára Pajorin, Dániel Pócs, Marianne Rozsondai, Gábor Sarbak, László Szörényi, and the curator of the exhibition, Edina Zsupán. The discussion will be moderated by Ferenc Földesi, director of the Special Collections.

The poster of the event

A Memorial Conference to the 100th Anniversary of László Mezey’s Birth will take place in the Eötvös College on 5th December 2018. The event will begin at 2 PM and will be followed at 6 PM by a memorial mass in the University Church of Budapest. All interested are welcome!

The programme of the conference


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