More than sixty friends and colleagues pay tribute to the distinguised professor Jnos M. Bak's 70th birthday.

A Humanist on the Frontier explores the remarkable life of Sebastian Ambrosius, a sixteenth-century Lutheran minister and intellectual from Kesmark (now Kezmarok) in present-day Slovakia, formerly on the borderland of the Kingdom of Hungary. Through an examination of Ambrosius' publications and correspondence, this book throws new light on the dynamics of urban communities in Upper Hungary, communication within the humanist Republic of Letters in both Central European and wider European networks, and ecclesiastical controversies. Adopting methods of microhistory and cultural history, it also reconstructs Ambrosius' life by positioning him in various contexts that trace his relationship to, and interpretations of, themes of power, tradition, vocation, communication and identity. This book is essential reading for scholars and students of early modern European history, as well as those interested in microhistory, cultural history, and the Republic of Letters.

This collection of essays is about sanctity, demonstrating the multiplicity of aspects this condition had in Western medieval Christianity. The studies concentrate on the complex set of the socio-cultural phenomena of the cult of saints, in a variety of regions from Egypt to Poland, with a focus on Italy and Central Europe. The subjects of the contributions range in time from Pope Damasus in the fourth until St. Christopher in the eighteenth century. The diversity of approaches adopted by the contributors-from literary analysis and historical anthropology to archaeology and art history-represents the open and multidisciplinary historical research that characterizes the medievalist community at the Central European University. Top erudition and scholarly precision meets the mystical world of Catholic saints. Some of the essays contain numerous black and white illustrations.

The studies in this volume concentrate on a complex set of socio-cultural phenomena, the cult of saints, in a variety of regions from Egypt to Poland, with a focus on Italy and Central Europe. The subjects of the contributions range in time from the fourth until the eighteenth century. The diversity of approaches adopted by the contributors-from literary analysis and historical anthropology to archaeology and art history-represents that open and multidisciplinary historical research that characterizes the work of Gabor Klaniczay to whom these essays are dedicated.

The essays in this book provide interesting contributions to the ongoing debate concerning the representation of differing cultures, i.e., the "image of the Other" in the early modern period . They deal with images, projections, and perceptions, based on various experiences of coexistence. Although the individual contributions contain sources and references of iconography, this is not just another volume of art history or visual studies. As examples of practices in diverse historical contexts, the book includes a variety of textual material, such as literary productions, rhetorical exercises, dramatic applications, chronicles, epistles, and diary-like historical accounts that express ethnographic sensitivities. Thus, supported by a thorough research apparatus, these studies propose a new cultural history of the early modern coexistence of various communities, as identified in current research by young scholars. Another novel feature of the volume is the deliberate digression of traditional scholars' focus and the investigation of rarely examined regions and practices.This approach allows the contributors to spotlight their special areas of research and to share a fresh new look at "the Renaissance. "