Over the course of the past decade, the study of diplomacy has undergone a dramatic shift. New diplomatic history has opened the field to social and cultural history, anthropology, art history, the history of material culture, gender, and symbolic communication. Research has focused not simply on big peace treaties and epoch-changing decisions in international relations but also on the practices and actors at every level in different kinds of diplomatic encounters. In addition, medieval and early modern times present a particularly interesting period for the study of diplomacy, and not simply because, in the now classic and somewhat outdated works of Garrett Mattingly and Donald E. Queller, these were periods in which diplomatic work began to become professionalized and the modern resident ambassador became an increasingly prominent figure on the diplomatic stage. It is rather because, as recent works have emphasized, the context of diplomatic proceedings differed radically from the well-known classical world of equal and independent, territorially defined sovereign states, and the defined distinction of foreign and domestic, private and public, political and religious in diplomatic affairs. Medieval and early modern forms of diplomacy thus offer promising terrain for research on the individual actors engaged in diplomatic missions, the mingling of their private interests, networks of relations, and the aims of the political figures who sent them. Furthermore, forms of diplomacy in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era provide a chance to consider the ways in which diplomats’ religious and intellectual backgrounds enabled them to play the role of mediators between courts and cultures and the practices and rituals that were invented and shared by diplomats working in different contexts with little normative framework on which to rely.

The Hungarian Historical Review invites research papers that examine the social and cultural aspects of medieval and early modern diplomacy and its various forms, practices, and meanings. The geographical focus of the issue is Central and Eastern Europe. However, we do not confine ourselves to the strict geographical borders of the region, especially in the case of comparative papers. We welcome proposals from scholars at all stages of their careers pursuing work on any of the aspects of the questions raised above.

This special issue particularly welcomes papers discussing the following fields:

- characteristics of different forms of diplomatic encounters, from royal summits to the sending of envoys
- the staging of power at diplomatic meetings
- the various actors in diplomatic proceedings and their cultural and intellectual backgrounds, personal and familial interests, and roles as mediators among parties
- the functioning of cultural exchange in diplomatic encounters and the mediators in these processes of exchange, including relevant aspects of their contacts and their cultural and political backgrounds
- the mechanisms and creation of rituals and ceremonies, the messages they were used to convey, and the cultural, political, religious, and social contexts to which they referred
- the roles of objects in diplomatic proceedings, such as gifts and symbolic accessories, and their meanings and diverging interpretations of these meanings
- commemoration of diplomatic encounters in works of literature and the visual arts.

Please send an abstract of no more than 500 words and a short biographical note with a selected list of the author’s three most important publications (we do not accept full CVs) no later than October 15, 2022.

Proposals should be submitted to the special editor of the issue by email: novak.veronika@btk.elte.hu and/or vadas.andras@btk.elte.hu.

The editors will ask the authors of selected papers to submit their final articles (max. 10,000 words) no later than January 31, 2023.

The articles will be published after a double-blind peer-review process. We provide proofreading for contributors who are not native speakers of English.

All articles must conform to our submission guidelines.

The Hungarian Historical Review is a peer-reviewed international quarterly of the social sciences and humanities, the geographical focus of which is Hungary and East-Central Europe. For additional information, including submission guidelines, please visit the journal’s website: https://www.hunghist.org.