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This study explores a particular interface between fine art and mass culture: how cartoonists reimagined a well-known or lesser-known painting or illustration. I analyse political cartoons based on these reworkings in four selected Budapest comic papers (Bolond Istók, Borsszem Jankó, Kakas Márton and Üstökös) between 1890 and 1910. In the present study, I analyse only those drawings whose originals feature the leader Árpád or a ruler as the protagonist and relate the paintings to their actions. The caricaturists replaced them with political figures, thus updating the message of the paintings. First I will present the actualised metamorphoses of Árpád, then the transformations of the rulers of later periods, followed by the reimagined representations of the contemporaries, Franz Joseph and Elisabeth. I close the analysis with an example from abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the second half of the 19th century, György Apponyi founded paper(s) to discuss the political objectives that were important to him. In preparation for dualism, he launched his German-language newspaper Die Debatte in Vienna, where, working together with Mór Ludassy, they created a mouthpiece for their views. After the opening of the Parliament in 1865, he bought the newspaper Magyar Világ in Pest, in which the views related to the agreement to be created were also expressed. While in the former paper Apponyi published under the name Von der Theiß, in the latter he did not appear as a publicist. In 1872, he wanted to found a conservative Catholic party and to create the right intellectual environment and social base, he started the weekly Der Katholik (Das Recht from 1874), in which he published under his name the issues that interested him the most. As the founder of the paper, Apponyi had success with Die Debatte and Magyar világ, both the number of copies and the achievement of the set goals show this. However, this cannot be said about Der Katholik, as the readership was even less receptive to church-political topics at that time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“It’s been ten years since I started the business of founding a weekly newspaper for an audience that doesn’t exist yet, with writers who will yet exist”, József Kiss wrote on A Hét’s tenth anniversary. But who did this readership consist of, or even, perhaps even more, a “reading community” that A Hét “cultivated” around itself? And what can be said about the readers of Uj Idők, another important literary weekly of the period, edited by Ferenc Herczeg? Are there similarities between the audiences of the two papers? The staff used various means to reach and retain readers. One-sided or rather “one-way” initiatives were the various subscriber gifts or the publication of holiday and jubilee issues, which assumed more passive participation on the part of the audience, but ensured reader insidership and “belonging to the circle of the paper” (rich with editorial “secrets”, unusual writings and pictures). The simplest way of keeping in touch, which assumed active reader participation, was to create and secure the editor’s messages column, where the journalists responded to letters written under a pseudonym. In addition, readers’ interest was maintained and strengthened with several other initiatives: different questions for the readers and the announcement of competitions. Reviewing the first two (and a half) decades of A Hét and Uj Idők, the study looks for the answer to whether there was overlap and similarity in the implementation of their initiatives and ideas, and what kind of relationship developed between the editors (writers) and their audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the encyclopedic journal Vasárnapi Ujság was launched, its main objective was to spread knowledge and support national identity: it also subordinated its writings related to domestic culture and scientific knowledge dissemination. Its articles related to all disciplines published the latest research results of the era. In my article, I examined one area, the beginning of domestic castle research, which summarized the results of many scientific fields. The appearance of the topic can be linked to Ferenc Márton’s article „Regarding our Old Castles” published in Vasárnapi Ujság, in which the author proposed the establishment of archaeological associations in the counties with the support of the Academy, but urged the survey and methodical research of private, family, city and church archives, the documents found preparation and collection of certified copies. Renowned scientists published informative articles on the results of the works. In my study, I examine the Nógrád-related writings of Iván Nagy, who is also known as a family and local historian, which have the characteristics of a scientific essay and popular knowledge dissemination. I quote details from his correspondence with the editor-in-chief of the paper, which also shed light on the process of the paper’s editing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The old printed books of the historic library of Zagreb cathedral (today housed in the Metropolitanska knjižnica u Zagrebu or Metropolitan Library, Zagreb) were given a special kind of binding around 1692. The bookbinder glued onto the covers of the printed books pieces of medieval parchment codices in a very special way. The binding that resulted (generally referred to as “Metropolitanski uvez” or “Metropolitan binding” in the Croatian literature on the subject) resembles half-leather binding, the crucial difference being that, with the books of the cathedral, parchment was used instead of paper. Around 1692, when Aleksandar Mikulić, the bishop of Zagreb (1688–1694), had a new building erected for the cathedral library, between 2000 and 3000 books were bound in this particular way, to safeguard the printings. In this paper, I give a detailed description of this special type of binding and also survey the history of the cathedral library. Between 1692 and 1846, when Zagreb canons were allowed under strict conditions to borrow books from the collection, several volumes went their way. According to present knowledge, outside the Metropolitanska knjižnica, at least 5 libraries in Croatia and 3 in Hungary have preserved altogether 70 books bound in this way. For this reason, I introduce a new term for the type of binding, namely “Mikulić binding”, as the majority of the books kept outside the Metropolitanska knjižnica were never stored in this modern collection, but in the library of Zagreb cathedral, which had existed only until 1906. I give a short history of the collections where books bound in this way are preserved; publish detailed bibliographical descriptions of the volumes in question; identify the manuscripts found on the bindings; and try to reconstruct the itinerary of the books with the help of the possessors’ notes. I was finally able to identify 21 codices surviving on bindings in either a small or relatively large number of fragments; these manuscripts had been used as raw material by the 17th-century bookbinder working at Zagreb. One of these manuscripts is the 13th-century notated breviary of Esztergom (Strigonium), which was identified in 258 fragments on bindings in the Metropolitanska knjižnica in 2019. My recent research has discovered 14 further fragments taken from this invaluable codex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social democratic labour movement appeared in Eger a few years before the First World War. The population of the city was largely Roman Catholic, and the clergy had a great influence on the social and economic life and cultural relations of the Catholic church centre. As a result, the conflict between the progressive socialist movement and the conservative clerics intensified. The influential clerics supported separate Christian socialist movements to weaken the social democrats, and in the age of dualism, ideological conflicts can be found throughout the local press, including in the paper Egri Munkás published between 1910 and 1911. This newspaper shows the anti-church criticism of the socialist movement but also informs about specific local events and shows the complex character of the labour movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The life cycle of the newspaper Figyelmező, published from July 1848 to January 1850, can be divided into a total of four stages. After the suppression of the 1848–1849 revolution and war of independence, the Hungarian conservative camp, which was the only legitimate political force and was opposed to the revolution throughout, but could not be called united, had a close bond with the newspaper, which slowly became the mouthpiece of the conservative movement. After the publication of the imperial constitution on March 4, 1849, the conservatives disappointed in Vienna did not give up their principles even when facing the imperial elite operating in the capital, i.e. that the political consolidation in Hungary should take place according to their vision. The purpose of this study is to show exactly how the principle of the Hungarian conservatives and the paper can be seen in action, as well as how Figyelmező tried to support the activities of a political grouping that became oppositional in the imperial sense, and what consequences it had for its fate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the illustrated press of the 19th century, the circulation of texts and images operated on a global scale. Researchers of fashion periodicals have long recognized the flow of fashion images across nations, namely the European and overseas import of French fashion magazines, and their exemplary role in the fashion press of various countries. The fashion images that came directly from Paris or via German media were copied, modified, compiled, recycled or published with permission by the fashion magazines of the reform era. The fashion image was related to the paper’s self-definition, communication, socio-cultural ideals promoted in its columns, and the European press market. It was common practice for the editor and engraver to adapt the composition of French origin to the local environment by changing the textual and visual elements, which thereby acquired a new meaning and became national. In my study, on the one hand, I examine the French sources of Hungarian fashion images, and on the other hand, the circulation and modifications of these fashion images in reform-era Hungarian fashion magazines: how they problematize the concept of the nation, the domestic-foreign dichotomy, social gender roles, the relationship between the transnational and the national context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My study deals with one of the lesser-known works of Henrik Marczali, which in 1923 undertook no less a task than the „presentation of the real perpetrators” of the „Great War”. During World War I, Hungarian university professors – similarly to the intellectuals of other belligerent countries – took an active part in war propaganda, but after 1918, few undertook this. Not so Marczali, who, while reconstructing the events that led to the outbreak of the war, essentially repeated almost all of his narratives and war topos from 1914–1918. In addition to presenting the history of the creation of the work, my paper presents the most important claims of the study with a critical edge and also pulls back the veil on the motivations of the historian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to present the press-historical aspects of the relationship between the young Max Nordau and József Kiss, primarily based on their extant correspondence and the study of relevant journals. The first part of the paper examines the guidance in Nordau’s letters to Kiss as a teenager, while providing numerous press-historical information related to Nordau’s early publicism before the Pester Lloyd, as well as revealing Kiss’s efforts to appear in literary life, i.e., in publishing in the capital’s newspapers. The second part presents the points of connection between the editorial activities of the two editors in the early 1870s through the Ungarische Illustrirte Zeitung and the Képes Világ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 15th century, geographical descriptions of some regions appeared due to the advance of humanism. These descriptions can be independent volumes (such as Georg Reicherstorferr’s Chorographia Moldaviae or Chorographia Transilvaniae), or by following the humanist tradition they can be a schorarly prooemium to a comprehensive historical work written on one of the countries (for example the 2nd and 3rd chapters of Ransanus’ Epitome Rerurum Ungaricarum). The genre of the geographical description is part of the famous Viennese humanist, Wolfgang Lazius’ opus. He wrote chorography in Latin language: Interpretatio chorographiae utriusque Austriae (chorography of Austria), Regni Hungariae archaeologiae libri tres (chorography of Hungary), Descriptio Daciae sive Transylvaniae (chorography of Transilvania), and he published a geographical description of Hungary in German titled Des Khünigreichs Hungern. Among the above works, I focus on Regni Hungariae archaeologiae libri tres, especially as a source of Hungarian history from Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin to the medieval ages. In Lazius’ sources we can find extremely precise source indications, for example „Plinius libro quarto capite duodecimo” or „Herodianus graecus author libro sexto”. Despite this Lazius’ references to sources of Hungarian history are rough-and-ready. He used the annales Hungarici or annales Hungarorum denotation. The paper invites the reader to investigate which persons and books inspired Lazius, and what were the sources of his work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to provide a bibliographic description of the works published in the series The Library of the Hungarian Geographical Society, based on contemporary library sources. The study on the history of publication of the series will eventually follow as a separate paper in which I shall present the cooperation between the Hungarian Geographical Society and its publishers, R. Lampel (F. Wodianer and Sons) and Franklin-Társulat at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I articulate the following hypothesis: an occasional poem may have some masonic relevance, how little soever this reference may be expressed openly. What are the markers which may allow this to be tested? In this respect my case study invokes a masonic constitution called Draskovich observance which was elaborated in 1775 and was amended in 1777. With this obser- vance a masonic province called Liberty (Libertas) was established under the protection of the Holy Crown of the Kingdom of Hungary, aiming to connect Croatian and Hungarian lodges into a Grand Lodge independent from the Austrian and German Grand Lodges, thus implementing a separate system on its own. In terms of politics this system was attached to the Austrian Grand Lodge in 1781, however, the accession procedure was drawn-out until 1784. Under such circumstances – and in the light of latter changes exerted in the case of a 1789 issuance of the poem by Karl Joseph Michaeler who was a mason indeed – it is telling that István Agyich (or regarding his Croatian origin, Stjepan Hadžić, 1730–1789) wrote a salutary poem to Count Ferenc Balassa in 1785 when the Count was appointed to Ban of Croatia, Dalmatia, and Slavonia. On the other hand, in the same year Count Balassa was also appointed to the commissioner of the Zagreb District (one out of the ten newly established administrative unite by Joseph II) which consisted of such counties where masonic activity was current at the time: Zagreb, Kőrös (Križevci), Pozsega (Požega), Szeverin (Severin), Varasd (Varaždin), and Zala Counites. Lodges in these counties were included in the Grand Lodge of Liberty. And Agyich’s poem does not miss to reflect some crucial facts concerned here. This is clear in a single reference to Zala, a Hungarian county, which was attached to Zagreb district later, which further alludes to a historical-political unity of the two countries, Croatia, and Hungary, in a symbolic way under the auspices of the Holy Crown, which altogether is embodied by the gover- nance of the newly appointed Count Balassa. As Count Balassa wrote a treatise on the Holy Crown in his formative years at the Theresianum in Vienna, and later he was a keeper of the relic, these facts exposed in the poem may gain some ambiguous meaning as well. Beyond that, the career of Count Balassa is displayed by a narrative based on a catalogue of virtues. Although, these virtues are not specified only described in the poem, at this point one can observe a certain resemblance to the text of the Draskovich observance in which a copiously detailed catalogue of virtues can be found as well. However, the most striking parallel between the poem and the masonic thought is Hercules since Count Ferenc Balassa is represented as Hercules many times in the text, and the antique hero is a key figure for the masonic constitution too. Along these details and by detecting such allusive tactics as above (typical for masonic thought), I provide an interpretation of the poem in favour of freemasonry. However, I must specify that I was unable to tell whether Agyich and Balassa had been masons themselves or not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I publish two previously unpublished letters sent by Daniel Klesch in the summer of 1677 to Peter Lambeck, a confidant of Emperor Leopold I, the historian and scholar, who was the head of the imperial court library. In the paper accompanying the text edition, I examine in more detail the philosophical and poetological ramifications of the letters. The pastor of Spišská Nová Ves (Hung. Igló, Ger. Iglau) had already sent his letters from his exile in Germany, apparently with the aim of gaining favor with Emperor Leopold and the title of Comes Palatii Caesarei. The letters in question are not unknown to Hungarian literary history, but I have been able to clarify several unanswered questions about them and, most importantly, to identify the prints sent with the letters. The pastor also reports on several of his poetic experiments: writing Hungarian text in Hebrew letters and transcribing certain ancient poetic forms into German, following the example of Pope Urban VIII. We only knew of these attempts, but the sources themselves were not available until now. I examine in detail Klesch's now discovered Latin and German Alcaic and Pindaric odes, and compare them with contemporary German poetic practice. Placing Klesch's statements and texts in this dimension, it is clear that our author was breaking new ground, since he was not joining an already existing German-language practice, but was seeking to give voice to the Latin metrics of Pope Urban VIII and, through them, to the ancient tradition in German. Klesch also sent Lambeck a Hungarian poem in one of his prints, transcribed in Hebrew letters. This is a curiosity in Hungarian cultural history, which cannot be found in Hungarian literature of the 17th century, and I will therefore deal with this text and its linguistic background in more detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The Latin-Hungarian poem De Sancto Ladislao, written around 1470 in the time of King Matthias Hunyadi, is considered to be one of the most beautiful pieces of medieval Hungarian literature. What was the original use of this poem of outstanding aesthetic value in the 15th century? This problem has long been a matter of interest to literary historians. Who, when, under what circumstances, where, and how the poem titled De Sancto Ladislao was sung? Earlier analysts have established that the two early 16th-century manuscript copies of the text which preserve the poem, the Codex Peer and the Codex Gyöngyösi, were in secular (i.e. non-clerical) use. They have also pointed out that the Latin and Hungarian stanzas of the work form a single text, i.e. it is a bilingual, responsorial chant. A close reading of the poem now reveals that the whole of the De Sancto Ladislao is narrowly linked to the shrine of the holy Hungarian king, the pious knight-saint of the 11th century, St. Ladislas, in Várad (=Nagyvárad, today Oradea, Romania). In various forms, it depicts the cathedral founded by St. Ladislas, the center of the cult of St. Ladislas, the most famous pilgrimage site in medieval Hungary. Unfortunately, the cathedral of Várad, with the tomb of St. Ladislas, was destroyed after the Ottoman siege of the city in 1660. The present study seeks to situate the origins and once widely known original function of the poem in the spirituality of the pilgrims of the Várad Cathedral singing and praying around the shrine of the saint. If the poem is interpreted as a pilgrim’s song, not only the rich references to Várad as the center of the cult of St. Ladislas in the poem will be found, but also all the findings concerning the semi-secular character of the work, its political objectives, its paraliturgical function, and its bilingualism can be explained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]