MECERN is a semi-formal interdisciplinary network of scholars, students and interested others, fostering research, and spreading knowledge of medieval Central Europe. It was created at Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, Hungary, in 2014, building on the renown and expertise of the CEU Department of Medieval Studies and its founding members. In collaboration with the host university, MECERN organizes biennial conferences with broadly themed agendas since its foundation. The University of Gdańsk, which hosted this conference, was faced with the big task of transferring the approximately 150 lectures and associated discussions into an online format that would make scholarly exchange possible against all odds. Participants from 17 countries exchanged views on current research topics of medieval Central Europe in 44 sessions.
The conference was opened by PIOTR STEPNOWSKI, rector of the University of Gdańsk, followed by BEATA MOŻEJKO on behalf of the University of Gdańsk's organizing committee, and KATALIN SZENDE (Budapest) as president of MECERN. In her lecture on monastic networks in East Central Europe, EMILIA JAMROZIAK (Leeds/Erfurt) and showed how the exploration of networks between material, the human, and the immaterial is a practical approach for dynastic research.
The conference offered a variety of presentation formats by including plenary sessions as well as thematic sessions. The plenary sessions were offered to all participants simultaneously, while in the thematic sessions, participants could choose between up to seven panels offered in parallel. Within each panel, selected speakers gave short presentations, followed by a discussion with the audience. Therefore, only selected individual contributions can be presented in the following text.
In session 3, three researchers presented their current work on the topic of "Mendicants and Missions". MARIE-MADELEINE DE CEVINS (Rennes) focused on the networks of spiritual brotherhoods of mendicants and faithful supporters in Central Europe. In this, she examined the surviving correspondence between religious and noble families who made donations in the period between 1250 and 1530. De Cevins made it clear that representatives of the mendicant orders wanted to bind the charitable families to their own order in the long term, for example, by offering memorial services or by suggesting that the noble children be taken into one of their monasteries.
PAWEŁ CHOLEWICKI (Leeds) illustrated the complex construct of the Bosnian Vicariate and its immense territorial extent, which included Bosnia, Dalmatia, the southern part of the kingdom of Hungary, and Apulia. The monasteries were widely distributed and spread over varied regions. The Vicariate functioned as an organism, which emphasized the economic efficiency of the houses. A system was established that made it possible to stabilize less profitable houses financially. However, the uncertain political situation and the recurring attacks of the Ottomans eventually led to the dissolution of the Vicariate.
In Hungary, the political challenges, such as the Ottoman invasion and the Battle of Mohács, also affected the ecclesiastical landscape. Since the beginning of the 15th century, the Franciscan Order consisted of two branches, the Conventual and the Observant. MÁRIA LUPESCU MAKÓ (Cluj) elaborated on the differences and similarities of the two streams. The members of the Conventual branch, whose province was named after the Virgin Mary, were mainly people from the cities and members of the lower nobility from the surrounding countryside. Observants counted mainly influential aristocrats and noble families among their followers. It is not surprising that the two branches faced different problems due to the various structures of their estates. The Conventuals, for example, struggled with excessive drinking and a lack of respect for superiors, which the Vicariate leadership sought to rectify with the help of new ordinances. The Observants struggled to successfully integrate both newly founded convents and noble benefactors, who were to be recognized as spiritual brothers in the Franciscan communities. Decrees of the provincial chapters addressed moderate disputes between the two strands, such as burial styles and ceremonies.
The conference was not only special because of the unique pandemic situation; it was also the first MECERN meeting held after the death of the exceptional historian/medievalist János M. Bak (1929–2020). Bak played a crucial role in establishing MECERN in 2014, which is why he is now rightly considered one of its founding fathers. With a mixture of personal memories and excerpts from Bak's works, PAUL W. KNOLL (Los Angeles) recalled his longtime companion in a moving lecture in the plenary panel of the first evening.
Following this, the 2020 János Bak Research Fellowship recipient MYKHAYLO YAKUBOVYCH (Ostroh) gave an illuminating talk on the historical account "Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems," written by the medieval historian and geographer Al-Masūdi. His contribution focused primarily on the passages containing remarks on the medieval Slavic tribes in Central and Eastern Europe.
BART HOLTERMAN (Göttingen), KASPER H. ANDERSEN (Højbjerg/Aarhus), and TOMASZ ZWIĄZEK (Warsaw) presented their latest research in session 25. Roads, bridges, and ferries are indispensable preconditions of building and maintaining contacts and networks. The session offered methodological insights and results from two projects investigating the physical communication infrastructure of Northern Europe (Denmark, the Low Countries, the Hanseatic regions of the Holy Roman Empire, and Poland). The Viabundus project, centered in Göttingen and represented here by researchers from Denmark and Germany, Andersen and Holtermann, offers a digital map of the roads of this region between 1350 and 16501. The "Historical Atlas of Poland" is a long-standing project that includes the reconstruction of the road system of Poland's various provinces in the 16th century. The speakers hope that similar enterprises in the future will cover other regions and countries of Europe, too.
In session 27, after a short methodological introduction by JULIA BURKHARDT (Munich), the participants discussed the use of "otherness" and "foreignness" as strategies to produce legitimacy in premodern Europe based on case studies from Germany, Bohemia, and Poland-Lithuania.
CHRISTA BIRKEL (Düsseldorf) presented the Bohemian example of John the Blind and discussed to what extent the first Luxembourg king on the Bohemian throne was considered "foreign" in 14th-century Bohemia and what factors his contemporaries used to define potential “otherness”. Her findings show how phases of foreignness determined public discourse and the various goals pursued by its contributing actors.
GRISCHA VERCAMER (Chemnitz) examined the Chronica Regum Romanorum of Thomas Ebendorfer (1388-1464) concerning the perception of Polish rulers, Poland's foreign contacts and kinship relations (e.g., through marriage).
The panel concluded with the remarks of IRYNA KLYMENKO (Munich), who examined the aspect of "otherness" during the transformative phase of the late 16th century in multicultural Poland and Lithuania. This contribution illuminated a spectrum of discourses on collective “otherness” through body practices, such as eating and fasting, based on sources by different religious and confessional groups.
KATE HAMMOND (Leiden) spoke about the series “East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450” published by Brill. Subsequently, selected publications connected to MECERN’s previous conference at Zagreb in 2018, thematic issues of the journals East Central Europe, the Hungarian Historical Review and Povijesni Prilozi, were presented.
In session 30, GRISCHA VERCAMER (Chemnitz) dealt with three chronicles written at different decades of the 14th and 15th centuries by Peter of Duisburg, Wigand of Marburg, and Johann of Posilge. He observed the author's attitude towards Poland and the Poles (particularly the Polish kings including Władysław Łokietek, Casimir III, and Władysław-Jagiełło) and how this changed at times of peace and war, or how this was influenced by the events of the period under study.
VÁCLAV ŽŮREK (Prague) focused on the king as a judge and negotiator, analyzing the rulers' function reflected in two medieval chronicles commissioned by Emperor Charles IV. Žůrek compared the Cronica Boemorum by the Florentine Franciscan John of Marignol, former papal legate to the Far East, and the chronicle of Příbík Pulkava z Radenína, which were intended to present the history of Bohemia from the Flood to the Emperor's reign.
The second day concluded with a plenary talk by PIOTR GÓRECKI (Riverside), who addressed fundamental and universal research questions regarding Central Europe.
The last day was opened by three project presentations. NADA ZEČEVIĆ (London) spoke about the current publication status of the Oxford Handbook of Medieval Central Europe, and MARIE-MADELEINE DE CEVINS (Rennes) presented her managing guidance in the development of the French reference work Dictionnaire historique de l'Europe centrale. Finally, ANTONÍN KALOUS (Olomouc) gave a short insight into his current project “Observance Reconsidered: Uses and Abuses of the Reform (Individuals, Institutions, Society)”.
In session 36, MARCIN MICHALAK (Gdańsk), MARIA LEWANDOWICZ (Gdańsk), and MICHAŁ GAŁĘDEK (Gdańsk) discussed various case studies of legal regulations from different centuries and regions.
Session 37 and 42 discussed the impact of the Mongol Invasion 1241/42 in various ways. Besides the reflections on historiography, the political, economic, and social implications in the Hungarian Kingdom were presented.
In the closing lecture, GÁBOR KLANI-CZAY (Budapest) introduced networks of saints in late medieval Central Europe. As an example of such networks, he presented royal saints in general and St. Wenceslas in Bohemia in particular. Other well-known saints who, according to Klaniczay, may be counted in the category of royal saints are St. Stanislaus for Poland and St. Elizabeth of Hungary. As another type of network, he mentioned dynastic networks, which were often connected by the joint patronage of dynastic saints. Various historiographical and art-historical examples supported Klaniczay’s explanations.
The Gdańsk MECERN conference has shown how fruitful the work in a scholarly network can be and how vital exchange and cooperation are for modern historical science, whether online or face-to-face. The next conference will take place in 2023, hosted by Comenius University in Bratislava.
Conference overview
Welcoming Remarks: Piotr Stepnowski (Gdańsk) / Beata Możejko (Gdańsk) / Katalin Szende (Budapest) / Arkadiusz Janicki (Gdańsk) / Wojciech Zalewski (Gdańsk)
Plenary Lecture
Chair: Beata Możejko (Gdańsk)
Emilia Jamroziak (Leeds/Erfurt): Connections and Disconnection of Monastic Networks in East Central Europe
Session 1: Social Bonding
Chair: Sobiesław Szybkowski (Gdańsk)
Hana Komárková (Opava): Network of Oaths – Urban Life from the Late Middle Ages to the Early Modern Era (on the Example of Silesian and Moravian Towns)
Grzegorz Myśliwski (Warsaw): The Transfer of Sumptuary Laws into and within Central Europe
Wojciech Zarosa (Kielce): Functions and Meaning of the Oath Ritual in the International Relations of Late Medieval Poland
Session 2: Trade Networks
Chair: Julia Burkhardt (Munich)
Dariusz Adamczyk (Warsaw): Why Did Trading Networks Collapse? The Case of the Emporium at Janów Pomorski/Truso
Katalin Szende (Budapest): Fair Relations. Marketplaces and the Formation of Cathedral Cities in East Central Europe up to the 13th Century
Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz (Amsterdam): The Trader and the Emperor: Networks and Conflict Escalation in Late Medieval Northern Europe
Session 3: Mendicants and Missions
Chair: Anna Adamska (Utrecht)
Marie-Madeleine de Cevins (Rennes): Spiritual Confraternities in Central Europe (c.1250–c.1530): The Key to Successful Cooperation between the Mendicant Friars and the Laity?
Paweł Cholewicki (Leeds): The Disintegration of the Bosnian Vicariate (1444–1448): Factors, Course and Consequences
Mária Lupescu Makó (Cluj): One Order – Two Branches. Franciscans in Late Medieval Hungary
Session 4: Networking through Fighting
Chair: Attila Bárány (Debrecen)
Benjámin Borbás (Budapest): The Process of Booty Distribution in the Crusades of the 13th Century – Securing and Storing the Spoils of Wars
Zoltán Véber (Debrecen): The Network of familiars in John Hunyadi’s Service
Katarzyna Niemczyk (Katowice): The Ideology of the Protector of the Christianity in the Politics of Southeastern Poland in the First Half in the 16th Century
Session 5: Iconography of the Visual Arts
Chair: Zoë Opačić (London)
Beata Purc-Stępniak (Gdańsk): What Links the Triptych of the Last Judgment by Hans Memling with Florence, Rome, Nuremberg, Breisach and Kraków?
Sabina Madgearu (Bucharest): Networks of Faith in Late Medieval Europe: The West and the East
Andrzej Woziński (Gdańsk): Between Gdańsk and Königsberg. Artistic Relationships in the Field of Late Medieval Sculpture and Painting
Session 6: Power and Its Perception
Chair: Eduard Mühle (Münster)
Jakub Izdný (Prague): Early Central European State Formation. Empire or Network?
Dániel Bagi (Pécs): Historiographical Concepts of the 11th-century Dynastic Conflicts in Hungary and East Central Europe in the Hungarian Medieval Research of the 19th and the 20th Centuries
Michał Machalski (Budapest/Vienna): Zbigniew’s First Return to Poland and Networks of Loyalty in the Gesta principum Polonorum
Session 7: Literary Networks
Chair: Farkas Gábor Kiss (Budapest)
Levente Seláf (Budapest): A Double Network. Family Ties with and Textual References to Central Europe in Medieval French Romances
Pavlína Cermanová (Prague): The Movement of Secret Knowledge: Secretum Secretorum and Academic Channels of its Dissemination
Zaneta Sambunjak (Zadar): Networking, Cooperation and Rivalry in Croatian Medieval Literature in Slavko Ježić’s History of Croatian Literature to the Present (1944)
Session 8: Diplomacy and Benefices
Chair: Marie-Madeleine de Cevins (Rennes)
Attila Bárány (Debrecen): Crusading Itinerary and Dynastic Network: King Andrew II of Hungary and his System of Alliances from the Outremer to the Balkans
Gergely Kiss (Pécs): The familia as Network and its Impact on the Policy Regarding Church Benefices and Diplomacy
Anna Pobóg-Lenartowicz (Opole): The Beginning’s Myth. Historiography as a Tool in the Rivalry of Medieval Silesian Monasteries
Session 9: For or against the Pope?
Chair: Robert Antonín (Ostrava)
1. Gábor Barabás (Pécs): Nos tuis supplicationibus inclinati, auctoritate tibi presentium indulgemus: Pope Innocent IV and the Decline of Delegated Jurisdiction in Hungary in the Mid-13th Century
Pavel Soukup (Prague): Preachers of the Hussite Crusade: Authority and Rhetorics in the Anti-Heretical Campaign in Central Europe, 1420–1471
Paweł Figurski (Warsaw): Medieval Liturgy and the Making of Polish Political Identity
Session 10: Urban Economies: Conflicts and Cooperation
Chair: Balázs Nagy (Budapest)
Renáta Skorka (Budapest): Mine – Networks, Cooperation, Rivalry
András Vadas (Budapest): Waters as Sources of Conflicts in Medieval Hungarian Mining Towns
Piotr Łozowski (Białystok): Together, Separately, or Indifferently? Economic Relations between Elites of Old and New Warsaw in the Late Medieval Period
Session 11: Merchants and Trade
Chair: Gregor Rohmann (Frankfurt am Main)
Ivona Vargek (Budapest/Vienna): Networking on the Adriatic: Commercial Contracts between Dubrovnik and Italian Towns in the High Middle Ages
Judit Gál (Budapest): King Louis I of Hungary’s Economic Policy and its Impact on the Trade of the Dalmatian Towns
Leslie Carr-Riegel (Budapest/Vienna): A Merchant of Venice in Poland: The Life and Times of Pietro Bicherano
Patrycja Szwedo-Kiełczewska (Warsaw): How to Procure Privileges from the King? Deputations, Gifts and Contact Network of the Cities in the Late Middle Ages – The Example of Poznań, Kraków, and Lviv
Session 12: Higher Nobility and Gender Relations
Chair: Anna Pytasz-Kołodziejczyk (Olsztyn)
Iurii Zazuliak (Lviv): Noblewomen and the Historical Tradition of the Polish Conquest of Galicia (Red Ruthenia). Family Alliances, Ethnicity, and the Local Boyar Elite in the Late 14th to Early 15th Centuries
Sobiesław Szybkowski (Gdańsk): The Network of Family Connections between the Magnate Elite of Kujawy and the Lands of Łęczyca, Sieradz and Dobrzyń (End of the 14th and 15th Centuries)
3. Witold Brzeziński (Bydgoszcz):Marital Alliances of Higher Nobles in Late Medieval Greater Poland. Case Studies
Session 13: Diplomatic Networks – Networking Diplomats (I)
Chair: Attila Györkös (Debrecen)
Angelica A. Montanari (Bologna): The Ritual Expression of Political Rivalry: Henry VII of Luxembourg and the Italian Cities
Přemysl Bar (Brno): The Diplomacy of Sigismund of Luxembourg in the Dispute between the Teutonic Knights and Poland-Lithuania
Valentina Šoštarić (Zadar): The Social Network of the First Ambassadors of Dubrovnik to the Sublime Porte
Session 14: Networking in Church
Chair: Beatrix F. Romhányi (Budapest)
Sebastian P. Bartos (Valdosta, GA): Baronial Oligarchy, Piast Dukes and Episcopal Authority during Wisław of Kościelec’s Tenure in the Bishopric of Kraków (1229–1242)
Zofia Wilk-Woś (Łódź): Between Cooperation and Competition – Ecclesiastical Contacts between Gniezno and Wrocław in the 15th Century?
3. Zsolt Hunyadi (Szeged): The General Chapters of the Hospitallers and the Hungarian–Slavonian Priory: Functioning of a Network (13th to 15th Centuries)
In memoriam Professor János M. Bak
Chair: Emilia Jamroziak (Leeds/Erfurt)
Paul W. Knoll (Los Angeles): “Times of Upheaval” – Tribute to János Bak
Plenary lecture of the 2020 János Bak Research Fellowship recipient
Mykhaylo Yakubovych (Ostroh): Al-Masūdi on the Medieval Tribes of the Baltic Region: Coming Back to the Sources
Session 15: Art and Architecture
Chair: Gerhard Jaritz (Budapest/Vienna)
Marta Graczyńska (Kraków): The Network of Architectural Plans
Béla Zsolt Szakács (Budapest/Piliscsaba/Vienna): Modeling Artistic Networks: The Case of Medieval Spiš
Tomasz Torbus (Gdańsk): Alien Enemies Still Copied in the Arts? Remarks on Supposed Artistic Relations Between 14th-century Prussia and the Islamic and Byzantine Cultures in the Middle East
Session 16: Managing Conflict in Emigrant Networks in Late Medieval and Early Modern Central Europe
Chair: Daniel Ziemann (Budapest/Vienna)
Suzana Miljan (Zagreb): Did “Nation” Play a Role in Conflicts in Slavonia in the 15th Century: Nobility, City and the King
Krisztina Arany (Budapest): The Role of Homeland and the Hungarian King in Negotiating Conflicts of the Italian Diaspora in Late Medieval Buda
Nada Zečević (London): Caught in Crossfire: Mediating Conflict in Serbian Communities in Habsburg Hungary (17th/18th Centuries)
Session 17: The Network of Artworks
Chair: Andrzej Woziński (Gdańsk)
Juraj Belaj (Zagreb) and Iva Papić (Osijek): Artistic Legacy of Military Orders in Croatia – A Network of Traces and Influences (Case Studies)
Weronika Grochowska, (Gdańsk), English Alabaster Sculptures on the Territory of the State of the Teutonic Order in Prussia in Local Context
Aleksandra Stanek (Gdańsk): The Coat of Arms of Louis II, King of Hungary and Bohemia in the Choir of the Barcelona Cathedral. The Role and Significance of the Jagiellonian Dynasty in the Nineteenth Assembly of the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1519
Session 18: Medieval Books in Migration: Western / Eastern Europe
Chair: Levente Seláf (Budapest)
Stanisław Wołoszczenko (Lviv): Between Lutsk and Florence: Usage and Migration of the Psalter of 1384
Oleksandr Okhrimenko (Kyiv): Collecting Science: The 15th-century Manuscript for Nicolas from Illrush
Dmytro Lukin (Kyiv): The Paths of Incunabula through Central Europe: A Survey on the Book from Maksymovych Scientific Library Collection
Session 19: The Papacy and East Central Europe in the Middle Ages: Ecclesiastical Networks between Cooperation and Rivalry (I)
Chair: Paweł Kras (Lublin)
Gergely Kiss (Pécs): When the Papal Representative is Mistreated: Cooperation or Rivalry
Antonín Kalous (Olomouc): The Papal Legates and Nuncios Who Have Visited the Countries of Central Europe
Session 20: Intellectuals and Texts
Chair: Benedek Láng (Budapest)
Anna Zajchowska-Bołtromiuk (Warsaw): The Observant Network and Circulation of People, Texts and Ideas. The Case of the Polish Province of the Order of Preachers at the Turn of the 14th Century
Petra Mutlová (Brno): Shared University Models? A “Very Special” Case of the Czech Reformation
Sylwia Konarska-Zimnicka (Kielce): People of Entertainment in Kraków Astrological Forecasts of the Fifteenth and the Beginning of the 16th Century
Etleva Lala (Budapest): John Gazulli, the Albanian Master of Networking
Session 21: Politics and Statehood
Chair: Anna Kuznetsova (Moscow)
Márta Font (Pécs): The Southern Principalities of the Kievan Rus’ in the Second Half of the 12th Century
Alexandru Madgearu (Bucharest): The Competition for Cumania between Hungary and Bulgaria (1211–1247)
Jeremi Ochab (Brno) / Jan Škvrňák (Kraków): Social Network Analysis of the Bohemian Civil War in 1248/49
Session 22: Dealing with Conflicts in Medieval Historiography (I)
Chair: Pavlína Cermanová (Prague)
Daniel Ziemann (Budapest/Vienna): Conflicts at the Eastern Border Zones in Saxon Historiography (10th to 11th Centuries)
Artur Pérodeau (Prague): How Should the Bishop of Prague Deal with Dynastic Conflicts according to Cosmas of Prague? The Figure of Otto I of Bamberg in the “Chronicle of the Czechs”
Vojtěch Bažant (Prague): Aggressive Nationalism in the Second Redaction of the Verse Chronicle by the So-called Dalimil
Session 23: Holy Bonds – Earthly Ties
Chair: Gábor Klaniczay (Budapest)
Anna Kuznetsova (Moscow): St Stephen of Hungary and St Vladimir of Rus’: Two Saints-Apostles
Silvija Pisk (Zagreb): Pauline Monastic Networks in Medieval Croatia
Session 24: A Physical Network: Roads, Towns and Transport in Northern and Central Europe in the late Middle Ages
Chair: Katalin Szende (Budapest/Vienna), Organizer: Niels Petersen (Göttingen)
Bart Holterman (Göttingen): Routes, Roads and Rivers: Towards a Digital Map of the Pre-Modern Transport Network in Northern Europe
Kasper H. Andersen (Højbjerg/Aarhus): The Infrastructure of Medieval Denmark: Roads and Towns in a World of Water
Tomasz Związek (Warsaw): How to Reconstruct the Late Medieval and Early Modern Road Network in Central Europe? Experiences, Remarks and Perspectives after the Project “Historical Atlas of Poland. Detailed Maps of the 16th Century”
Session 25: Integrating Influences in the Urban Space
Chair: Felicitas Schmieder (Hagen)
Anna Paulina Orłowska (Warsaw): How to Develop a Trade Network as a Newcomer without Getting Married? Examples from the Account Book of Danzig Merchant Johan Pyre
Anu Mänd (Tallinn): Rome, Rostock, and a Remote Region: Livonian Bishops, their Networks and Art Commissions
Agnieszka Bartoszewicz, (Warsaw): Inclusion and Exclusion. Intercultural Relationships in Old Warsaw in the 15th and 16th Centuries in the Light of the Municipal Registers
Session 26: Depicting, Restoring and Using the Desired Past: Representations of Medieval Circles and Networks of Power between Western and Eastern Empires
Chair: Gábor Barabás (Pécs)
Tudor Sălăgean (Cluj): The Intriguing and Fascinating Anonymous: Contemporary Historiographical Trends
Alexandru Simon (Cluj): Hungary of the Hunyadis’ in the 1470s and in the 1590s: The Milanese Copies of a Venetian Assessment of the Realm
Ovidiu Cristea (Bucharest) / Ovidiu Olar (Bucharest/Vienna): Shaping the Past, Legitimizing the Present. The Life of St Nephon and its Uses in 16th/17th-century Wallachia
Session 27: Making Foreigners in Pre-modern Central Europe: Legitimation Strategies in Times of Socio-political Change (14th to 16th Centuries)
Chair: Václav Žůrek (Prague)
Julia Burkhardt (Munich): Strangers over Night? A Brief Methodological Introduction
Christa Birkel (Dusseldorf) : Vos autem estis advena. John of Luxembourg and the Political Argument of Foreignness in 14th-century Bohemia
Grischa Vercamer (Chemnitz): South-German Chronicles in the Late Middle Ages and Their Perception of Polish Rulers and Poland as a Whole – Esp. Thomas Ebendorfer, 1388–1464
Iryna Klymenko (Munich): Constructing “Otherness” through Body Practices in Multi-Religious Poland and Lithuania after 1548
Session 28: Humanists Networks in East Central Europe: On the Occasion of the Forthcoming Series “Companion to Humanism in East Central Europe”
Chair: Petra Mutlová (Brno)
Gábor Farkas Kiss (Budapest): Latin and the Vernacular in 15th- and 16th-century Hungary: Patterns and Changes in a Large-Scale Dataset
Lucie Storchová (Prague): Early Humanists from Northwest Bohemia: Literary Circles Adaptations of Classical Traditions
Jean-François Morvan (Rennes): Composing the Statutes. Adoption of Norms among Observant Franciscans in Central Eastern Europe: between Rivalry and Cooperation (c. 1450–1520)
Plenary Lecture
Kate Hammond (Brill): Collections in Medieval East Central and Eastern Europe at Brill
Presentation of selected publications connected to the Zagreb 2018 MECERN conference
Session 29: Material Contacts
Chair: József Laszlovszky (Budapest/Vienna)
Ioan Marian Țiplic / Maria Crîngaci Țiplic (Sibiu): Power and Religion in Central and South-East Europe: Political Rituals and Funerary Customs (6th to 11th Centuries)
Robert E. Lierse / Florin Curta (Gainesville, FL): Networks of Masculinity: Bearded Warriors in East Central Europe (6th to 9th Centuries)
Matthias Hardt (Leipzig): Albrecht the Bear and the Polabian Slavs
Session 30: Dealing with Conflicts in Medieval Historiography (II)
Chair: Renáta Skorka (Budapest)
Petr Elbel (Brno): Emperor Sigismund as a Peacemaker in the Light of Eberhard Windeck’s Chronicle
Grischa Vercamer (Chemnitz): Chronicles in Poland and the Teutonic Order’s Prussia: Mutual Relations in Times of Peace and War (14th to 15th Centuries)
Václav Žůrek (Prague): The King as a Judge and Negotiator. Reflections on the Function of the King in Czech Medieval Chronicles
Session 31: The 14th-century Reunification of the Polish Kingdom from a Regional Perspective
Chair and introduction: Anna Adamska (Utrecht)
Paul Knoll (Los Angeles, CA): Reunification of the Polish Kingdom in the Context of Changing Scholarly Paradigms and Methods
Robert Antonín (Ostrava): The Process of Reunification of the Kingdom of Poland from the Bohemian Perspective
Attila Bárány (Debrecen): Consolidation of the Polish Kingdom and the Hungarian Interests in Central Europe
Paul Srodecki (Kiel): The Reunification of Polish Lands Seen from German Lands
Session 32: The Papacy and the Local Church
Chair: Antonín Kalous (Olomouc)
Beata Wojciechowska (Kielce): Medieval Synodal Legislation in Poland against the Norms of the Universal Church
Dušan Coufal (Prague): An Agreement with Heretics? Seeking Legitimate Ways to Return the Hussites to the Roman Church in the 1430s
Monika Saczyńska (Warsaw): People within the Apostolic Net. Examples of Supplications from Poland and Lithuania to the Penitentiary from the 15th Century
Session 33: Administrative Networks in the Service of Realms
Chair: Márta Font (Pécs)
Antun Nekić (Zadar): Royal Knights from Slavonia, Croatia and Dalmatia in the 14th Century: Angevin Court and the Integration of the Provinces
Anna Pytasz-Kołodziejczyk (Olsztyn): The Evolution of Forms of Administration of Royal Property in Lithuania from the 14th to the 16th Century
Bartosz Kędzierski (Gdańsk): The Origins of Electronic Monitoring. Imprisonment in Old-Polish Law
Session 34: Law and Justice
Chair: Judit Majorossy (Vienna)
Wojciech Zalewski (Gdańsk): “Justice as a Sanctuary”. Some Remarks on the Crime Control System in a Historical Perspective
Tünde Veres (Debrecen): Judges and Jurisdiction in 15th-century Sabinov
Michaela Antonín Malaníková (Olomouc): Networks of Town Law “in Practice” – Family Law of Medieval Brno in Comparison with Olomouc
Piotr Kitowski (Gdańsk): Chojnice City Council from the Middle Ages to the End of the 18th Century. An Interdisciplinary Approach
Session 35: Material Culture
Chair: Christina Lutter (Vienna)
Gerhard Jaritz (Budapest/Vienna): From Soup to Shoes: Late Medieval Object Communication between Central and Western Europe
Péter Levente Szőcs (Satu Mare): Network of Urban Material Culture Mirrored in Grave Goods: Cases from the Late Medieval and Early Modern Burials of the St Stephen’s Churchyard Cemetery, Baia Mare (Nagybánya)
Plenary Lecture
Chair: Nora Berend (Cambridge)
Piotr Górecki (Riverside, CA): Tyranny of an Adjective? What We Name Our Big Subject, and Whether That Matters
Project Presentations
Chair: Luka Špoljarić (Zagreb)
Nada Zečević (London): “Oxford Handbook of Medieval Central Europe”
Marie-Madeleine de Cevins (Rennes) : The “Dictionnaire historique de l’Europe centrale“
Antonín Kalous (Olomouc): Observance Reconsidered: Uses and Abuses of the Reform (Individuals, Institutions, Society)
Session 36: Survival of Legal and Institutional Structures
Chair: Anna Mazurkiewicz (Gdańsk)
Marcin Michalak (Gdańsk): “He Had So Negligently Treated Her that the Wound Became Septic and She Was Maimed” – Stratton v. Swanlond (1374) and the Medieval Origin of the Liability for Medical Malpractice in Common Law
Maria Lewandowicz (Gdańsk): Gemächde as a Non-Statutory Method of Inheritance in Switzerland in the Middle Ages and in the Early Modern Period
Michał Gałędek (Gdańsk): The Roots of Polish Republicanism in Historical and Political Thought of Joachim Lelewel (1786–1861)
Session 37: The Expansion of the Mongol Empire and Central Europe (I)
Chair: Felicitas Schmieder (Hagen)
Balázs Nagy (Budapest/Vienna): Reflections on the 1241/42 Mongol Invasion of Hungary in the Medieval European Historiography
Dorottya Uhrin, (Budapest): The Historia Mongalorum and the Historia Tartarorum
Adam Lubocki (Gdańsk): Political, Economic and Social Impact of the Mongol Invasion of Poland and Hungary – Comparison, Cooperation or Rivalry? Hungary and Poland after the Mongol Invasion in 1241/42
Beatrix F. Romhányi (Budapest): A Kingdom in Transformation: The 13th-century Hungarian Kingdom Facing the Mongol Invasion
Session 38: Trade Networks and Ports
Chair: Beata Możejko (Gdańsk)
Gregor Rohmann (Frankfurt am Main): Duke Barnim VI of Pomerania – Amphibian Rule, Violence and Social Networks
Michael Meichsner (Greifswald): A King without a Throne – Eric of Pomerania on Gotland and Maritime Violence as Means of Politics
Philipp Höhn (Halle-Wittenberg): Networks at the Margins? The Prosopography of Maritime Violence in the Eastern Baltic around 1450
Jesús Ángel Solórzano Telechea (Cantabria): The Northern Iberian Ports in the Connection of the Mediterranean and Atlantic Europe in the Late Middle Ages
Session 39: Diplomatic Networks – Networking Diplomats (II)
Chair: Witold Brzeziński (Bydgoszcz)
János Szakács (Debrecen): A Lesser Noble Family in the Angevin Period in Szabolcs County: The Ibronyis
Cosmin Popa-Gorjanu (Alba Iulia), Building Meaningful Connections: The Himfi Nobles and Their Networks of Support in the Fourteenth and First Half of the 15th Century
Ádám Novák (Debrecen): The Diplomats and Supporters of Matthias Hunyadi – The Seals of the Ófalu Peace Treaty (1474)
4. Ioanna Georgiou (Innsbruck): Reconstructing the (Invisible) Web: Antonius Gratiadei (†1492) and the Beginnings of his Diplomatic Career
Session 40: Shepherds and Pastoralists as Cross-Cultural Agents in Southeast Europe (15th to 16th Centuries)
Chair: András Vadas (Budapest)
Dana-Silvia Caciur (Bucharest): Morlach Shepherds Crossing the Border: Implications and Consequences (15th to 16th Centuries)
Katerina B. Korrè (Rethymno): From Shepherd to Warrior: Exploiting the Manpower of Pastoral Communities in the Late Medieval Balkans
Fabian Kümmeler (Vienna): Pasturing Islands: Seasonal Routine and Herding Conflicts in the Late Medieval Eastern Adriatic
:Session 41: Urban Elites – Urban Networks
Chair Mária Lupescu Makó (Cluj)
Filip Vukuša (Bielefeld): (Re-)Constructing Urban Medieval Social Networks: A Comparative Study of 14th-century Populations of Zadar and Rab
Judit Majorossy (Vienna): Network-Building between Families, Kin-groups, Social Groups in East Central Europe, Especially in the Austrian-Hungarian Border Areas
Jacek Wałdoch (Gdańsk): The Evolution of the Concept of Local Government in the Polish Legal System on the Example of the City of Vilnius
Session 42: The Expansion of the Mongol Empire and Central Europe (II)
Chair: Christian Raffensperger (Springfield, OH)
József Laszlovszky (Budapest/Vienna): Archaeological and Historical Interpretations of the Mongol Invasions in Hungary, 1241/42: Destruction, Desertion and Recovery
Stephen Pow (Budapest/Vienna): Reconstructing the Mongol Withdrawal Routes from Europe in 1242
Jason Snider (Budapest/Vienna): Of Tartars and Teutons
Session 43: Diplomatic Networks – Networking Diplomats (III)
Chair: Paul Srodecki (Kiel)
Bence Péterfi (Budapest): Subjects of the Czech or the Hungarian King? Lobbying for Wrocław in the Court of King Wladislaus II of Hungary and Bohemia
Tomislav Matić (Zagreb): Men of Wealth and Taste. The Role of Early Humanism in the Development of a Central European Diplomatic Network
Stanislava Kuzmová (Bratislava): The Rhetoric of Dynastic and Familial Cooperation between the Hungarian-Bohemian and Polish Jagiellonians around 1500
Session 44: Urban Elites – Urban Networks (II)
Chair: Michaela Antonín Malaníková (Olomouc)
Marija Karbić a/ Zrinka Nikolić Jakus (Zagreb): Marriage Networks and Building Structures of Power within the City Communities between the Drava River and the Adriatic Sea: A Comparative Approach
Denis Njari and Monika Bereš (Osijek): Marital Relationships as Strategies for Expanding Power – the Example of the Korođski (Kórógyi) Family
Tadeusz Maciejewski / Mai Maciejewska-Szałas (Gdańsk): Cities of Prussia in a Longue Durée Perspective
Plenary Lecture
Chair: Felicitas Schmieder (Hagen)
Gábor Klaniczay (Budapest): Networks of Saints in Late Medieval Central Europe
Closing remarks
Beata Możejko (Gdańsk), Balázs Nagy (Budapest/Vienna)
Note:
1 www.viabundus.eu.