This selection of articles, published for the 50th anniversary of the author's doctorate at GAttingen, opens with studies on his teacher, Percy Ernst Schramm, and his contribution to the study of the medieval state and continues with examples of state symbology from Central Europe. Questions of legitimization and representation of kings and queens through texts and Herrschaftszeichen as well as the development of 'coronation studies' are addressed in a comparative framework. The second part contains articles on social and political history mainly of the kingdom of Hungary in the fifteenth century, also attempting to place the issues into a wider context. Finally, two pieces present and discuss the 'use' or 'abuse' of the Middle Ages in the political discourse and display of our times.

The Latin-English bilingual volume presents the text of The Chronicle of the Czechs by Cosmas of Prague. Cosmas was born around 1045, educated in Liege, upon his return to Bohemia, he got married as well as became a priest. In 1086 he was appointed prebendary, a senior member of clergy in Prague. He completed the first book of the Chronicle in 1119, starting with the creation of the world and the earliest deeds of the Czechs up to Saint Adalbert. In the second and third books Cosmas presents the preceding century in the history of Bohemia, and succeeds in reporting about events up to 1125, the year when he died. The English translation was done by Petra Mutlova and Martyn Rady with the cooperation of Libor Svanda. The introduction and the explanatory notes were written by Jan Hasil with the cooperation of Irene van Rensvoude.

The present volume of studies-a joint publication with the National Szechenyi Library, Budapest-is the first Subsidium of the Central European Medieval Text series, accompanying CEMT vol. IX on the Illuminated Chronicle, composed in the fourteenth century at the royal court of Louis I of Hungary. The large size of the volume, with the text and its annotations, did not permit the inclusion of a detailed scholarly introduction, unlike other CEMT items, so it is here printed separately. The first essays analyze the text and the illuminations of the Illuminated Chronicle (formerly called the Vienna Chronicle) from literary-historical, art historical and heraldic perspectives. They also summarize the literature on the chronicle for the past two hundred years. Additional studies address the narrative. Since the chronicle starts with the history of the Huns, the imaginary ancestors of the Hungarians, one essay addresses the Attila tradition in Hungarian historiography. Others devote attention to the dynastic struggles of the eleventh century, placing them in the context of amicitia and deditio, and to the image of St. Ladislas I as the "ideal king". The final essays examine the fate of the fourteenth-century chronicle texts over the subsequent centuries, their appearance in legal texts, and their reception abroad.

The Illuminated Chronicle was composed in 1358 in the international artistic style at the royal court of Louis I of Hungary. Its text, presented here in a new edition and translation, is the most complete record of Hungary's medieval historical tradition, going back to the eleventh century and including the mythical past of its people. The pictures in this manuscript-formerly known as the Vienna Chronicle-are not merely occasional illustrations added to some exemplars, but text and image are closely connected and mutually related to each other, to qualify it as a proper "illuminated chronicle". The artistic value of the miniatures is quite high, and the characters are drawn with detail and with a knowledge of anatomy. Forty-two of the miniatures are included in the present volume. A full color facsimile will be accessible online. The 147 pictures are an invaluable source of information on late medieval cultural history, costume, and court life. In a historiographical context, The Illuminated Chronicle is an attempt at the popularization of the national history and a systematic appeal to circles beyond the old monastic-clerical audience.

Contains two very different narratives: a work of literary imagination on early Hungarian history, and an eye-witness account of the Mongol invasion of 1241-1242. Both are for the first time presented in an updated Latin text with an annotated English translation. An anonymous notary of King Bela (probably Bela III) of Hungary wrote a Latin Gesta Hungarorum (ca 1200/10), a literary composition about the mythical origins of the Hungarians and their conquest of the Carpathian Basin. He wove into it stories of heroic ancestors of the great men of his time. Anonymus tried to (re)construct the events and protagonists-including ethnic groups-of several centuries before from the names of places, rivers, and mountains of his time, assuming that these retained the memory of times past. One of his major inventionsA" was the inclusion of Attila the Hun into the Hungarian royal genealogy, a feature later developed into the myth of Hun-Hungarian continuity (by Simon of Keza and other chroniclers). The Epistle to the Sorrowful Lament upon the Destruction of the Kingdom of Hungary by the Tartars of Master Roger includes an eyewitness account of the Mongol invasion in 1241-2, beginning with an analysis of the political conditions under King Bela IV and ending with the king's return to the devastated country.

After nearly three decades of dutiful service to the Communist Party, Imre Nagy led the popular uprising against the Soviet authorities during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Two years later he was disgraced and executed. How did the formerly loyal Party servant become one of its most ardent critics? How did he reconcile his own beliefs with the demands of the Party for so long -- and what finally drove him to take a stand? And how should we understand his legacy for the modern democracy of Hungary?

This definitive biography of the Communist leader traces his life from his conventional, petty bourgeois childhood in south-west Hungary, through his tremendous political achievements and ultimate dramatic failure. The first complete portrait of this complex and contradictory figure, Imre Nagy is vividly brought to life as an enigmatic figure whose actions shaped Hungary's destiny in 1956 and ever since.

Written around 1112-1116, The Deeds of the Princes of the Poles is the oldest narrative source from Poland formerly attributed to 'Gallus, ' a French monk. The anonymous author tells the ancient history of Poland down to the reign of Boleslaw Ill.