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Relations with the King of Bohemia George of Poděbrady were a key factor in the foreign policy of Mathias Corvinus from the beginning of his reign. Initially correct and close relations between Mathias and George later became more changeable as a result of the momentary interests of the monarchs. Their relations gradually became more complicated and cooler, finally leading to open conflict in 1468. The diplomatic ties between the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia in the period 1465 – 1469 are the subject of the present study. The territory of the Kingdom of Bohemia at this time was at the intersection of the interests of various European powers. Apart from Mathias Corvinus, the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III, King Kazimír IV of Poland from the Jagiello dynasty, the Pope and various German dukes from the Wittelsbach and Hohenzollern dynasties were involved in Czech affairs. Apart from describing the relations between the Hungarian and Czech monarchs, the paper aims to put their steps into the context of international affairs in this period.
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The paper deals with the genealogy of the original medieval noble family from Hubice in the Žitny ostrov region, the Gombais. The research was based mainly on two sources: the charter of palatine Nicolas Zsamboki from 11 November 1347 and the judge royal Jacob Szepesi issued on 7 December 1377, which provide the most important data about the topic. The first known member of the family was comes Kumpurd mentioned in 1279. The research uncovered another three generations of his successors. The last living member died without an heir between 1372 and 1374. Shortly after that, a certain Jacob Literate and Michael Chuchaak acquired the properties of the family. The paper also tries to reveal their identities and families although it is not its primary goal.
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This study deals with Celtis’ practice of rewriting and recontextualizing his own poetry. His poem To the literary odality of Hungarians (Ad sodalitatem litterariam Ungarorum, Odes II.2), addressed to a Hungarian ‘coetus’ (not a ‘sodalitas’) was first published in 1492. Through a detailed analysis of the poem, I claim that this ode was not directed to an academic circle of friends in Buda, but rather to the ‘bursa Hungarorum’ at the University of Cracow. As Celtis took up teaching in Ingolstadt in the spring of 1492, he published the Epitoma, which contained his course material on rhetoric from Cracow, and contained five poems, including this poem, which he composed while still in Poland. Consequently, it cannot be regarded as a proof of the continuity of academic thought between the Neo-platonic circles of King Matthias (1485-1490) and the Vienna-centered Sodalitas Danubiana of 1497. Around 1500, to please his Hungarian aristocratic friends in the Sodalitas Danubiana, he revised the same poem in Vienna and added it to the cycle of his Odes.
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The paper focuses on the political discourses (including not only the texts but also symbolic gestures or ceremonies) forged by the Venetian Republic and Moldavia in the second half of the 15th century during their war against the Ottoman Empire. Although there are significant differences between the two political actors in terms of their institutions, customs or tradition of engagement in a „Holy War”, an analysis of their political strategies underlines some common features. Both Venetian government and Stephen the Great, the prince of Moldavia, elaborated their discourses around some major topics. They emphasised the role of their realms as ramparts of Christendom, the mortal danger represented by the infidels or the duty of all Christian leaders to fight against a common foe. The latter argument strengthened also their common effort to present the war against the Turks as a Crusade, a fight for the triumph of the Cross. Such topics, along with many others used to convince potential allies to join the fight against the Ottomans, suffered a dynamic process of reconfiguration during the conflict. They fluctuated according to the evolution of war or in connection with changes of political aims. The paper inquires also the efficiency of the aforementioned discourses as there is a certain gap between the diplomatic actions and the concrete results.
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This article aims to answer the question how the Florentine council defined the election of the Pope, his competence and importance in the conductivity of the Church and how his function influenced on overcoming conciliarism. The council showed the leading role of the pope over the universal Church and identified specific tasks and priorities of the Bishop of Rome, and the procedures the election of the Pope. In case of vacancy of the Holy See, which arise in the course of the meeting the council, election of a new bishop of Rome is to take place where at that time shall debate fathers. Before entering the conclave electors take the oath to God and the Church. The Pope is the first and the highest shepherd of sheepfold of Christ and therefore he has to be a person caring for the salvation of all souls and the advantage of the whole Christian world. The Bishop of Rome has strongly profess and preserve the Catholic faith, according to the Apostolic Tradition, the councils common and holy fathers. The Pope has to be aware of his function and ready for the greatest sacrifices in the service of God and the faithful, and he has to take care of conducting and directing the path of salvation, the clergy and the Roman people, and he has to repair and remove anything that could be tainted with simony or concubine. He can’t follow the ties of kinship and shall be available for the faithful.
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In the summer of 1475, Matthias Corvinus, Stephen the Great, and Basarab Laiotă established a coalition against the Ottomans. The coalition reached a major turning point in 1477 when Despite de lack of direct sources on the artillery of Stephen the Great, prince of Moldavia (1457–1504), a close look at the documents and chronicles of the period may reveal some details which can lead to some conclusions. The narrative and documentary sources reveal military events when Voivode Stephen’s army used artillery: the two sieges of the Kilia fortress (1462 and 1465), the pitched battles of Vaslui (1475) and Războieni (1476), as well as the siege of Suceava and Neamț fortresses by sultan Mehmed II (1476) and the siege of the Suceava fortress by the Polish king John I Albert (1497). Thus, one can conclude that Prince Stephen’s army used siege artillery (at Kilia in 1462 and 1465 and, maybe, at the two sieges of Bucharest in 1473 and 1476), field artillery (at Vaslui and Războieni) and immobile artillery, located on the walls and towers of the Moldavian strongholds. The Moldavian prince bought artillery from the German towns of Transylvania (Sibiu Hermannstadt, Brașov Kronstadt and Bistrița Bistritz) and Poland (especially from Lvov), as well as from the Genoese sailors and merchants from Kilia and Moncastro (until 1484). The Moldavian army also captured artillery from the enemies, like in 1467 from the Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus, in 1473 from the Wallachian voievode, Radu the Fair, in 1475 from the Turkish Pasha Suleyman, and in 1497 from the Polish king, John I Albert. The artillery (bought or captured) was kept in Moldavia’s strongholds. The few sources preserved until today reveal the fact that the Moldavian army from the second half of the 15th century was equipped with artillery, just like the other armies of the time, in Eastern Europe.
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The present study aims to analyze in detail the characteristics of the ecclesiastical architecture from the time of Voievode Stephen the Great. Comparing the elements specific to the architecture of each edifice, which shape the personality of every church built between 1457 and 1504, led to interesting findings. Thus it became apparent that each of the analyzed monuments is unique, with a distinct individuality. Consequently any attempt to reconstruct the general aspect or the architectural characteristics of the edifices built in the same period, but which disappeared in the meantime, is a hopeless endeavor.
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The Talovac nobility belonged in the 15th century to the circle of the most powerful noble families in Croatian-Hungarian Kingdom. Due to their extreme wealth, which they thanked to the profit collected from numerous estates across the territory of present Croatia, Slavonia and Austria; the traditional family policy of loyalty to Croatian-Hungarian king Sigismund of Luxembourg and his successors to the throne; as well as to matrimonial bonds with distinguished central-European aristocratic families (Alsace; Levant), the Talovac nobility had – during the first three decades of the 15th century – risen from lower aristocracy of the end of the 14th century to one of the most powerful noble families in Croatian-Hungarian Kingdom.
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Kaiser Sigismund (1368–1437). Zur Herrschaftspraxis eines europäischen Monarchen Herausgegeben von Karel Hruza und Alexandra Kaar. Böhlau Verlag Wien-Köln-Weimar, 2012. 564 pp.
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In the early 15th century, a significant era in the formation of contemporary Turkish musical systems, Abd al-Qādir al-Marāghī's books, especially Maqāṣid al-alḥān occupy an important place. Many subjects like the creation of musical sound and its characteristic, showing the notes by using abjad letters, intervals, quartets, fivefolds, maqāms, awāzās and shubes are detailed and explained clearly in these theory books written on Turkish Music. In his book, Marāghī has elaborated the basics as well as the notes which compose the melodic structures, intervals, quartets, fivefolds, awāzās shubes and the well-known maqāms used in his time. For every note in the melodic structures of all these maqams, Marāghī uses abjad letters, sometimes cent values to emphasize the intervals. By this method he reflects some clues about the modal conception of his century. Being a composer and a theorist, in his book Marāghī also discusses his predecessor’s approaches on the theory of the musical sound system and helps us understand their consistency in modal understanding correctly.
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This is a chronology of Marsilio Ficino’s life. The sources figure on the text’s first page.
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The court banner was composed of courtiers, called horse courtiers (curienses). Court banner was an elite formation, a private military unit of the king. According to the register written in the last years of the 15th century, after the Moldavian expedition, 60 riders were standing in the ranks of the banner, standing at the head of their retinues, the majority of which ranged from 4 to 6 riders. In total, 288 riders were recorded in the register (saved with the first hand). More than half of the riders were riders at light horses (equi sagittarii) with light armor and a crossbow. About 13% of them were lancers at heavy horses (equi hastarii). In addition, various types of horses have been registered in the register, such as: lancers horses, Tatars horses, etc. Courtiers from the court banner were nobles. Service on the court was for them the possibility of further career. The register also included courtiers (cubicularii). They served at the royal court and the court banner, along with their retinues.
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Since 1453, Via Terrestris, or the land route used by the Genoese to travel from Genoa to Caffa, in Crimeea, begins to appear more frequently in the written sources. Without substituting the traditional sea route, or the Via Maritima, this land route represented a much safer alternative especially for the transport of correspondence between the two medieval citadels. Next to this function, another one was added, of a diplomatic nature, since these couriers turned aside from their fixed destinations and visited kingly and princely courts in the region. Sometimes the route could even have an economical or military role. Last but not least, an important version of this route, which was not invented but institutionalized by the Genoese, passed through the Moldavian territory of Stephen the Great, thus constituting another element of Moldo-Genoese coexistence, not without incidents.
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The present study was prompted by a heraldic element from the coat of arms of Stephen the Great. It analyses the possibility that the pope conferred the golden rose to the prince of Moldavia. The research focuses on the way the news about Vaslui victory reached Rome. The messenger of the victory was Nicholas of Ilok, a Hungarian nobleman, dubbed, at Rome, king of Bosnia and Wallachia. He is the one who also distributed in Italy copies of the victory letter of Stephen the Great, in which the voivode was called captain of the king of Hungary. The victory was exploited by the king of Hungary as a notable result of his in the crusade against the Turks, which explains the special reception of Nicholas of Ilok at Rome. Regarding scene no. 34 from Corsia Sistina, the author considers that it combines the speech of Ladislaus Vetesi and the reception of the king of Bosnia, expressing Pope Sixtus’ support for the anti-Ottoman crusade. It could be a depiction of the offering of the golden rose, but this cannot be fully ascertained due to the present state of conservation and to the restoration from the end of the 16th century, which may have altered some of the details.
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The present study analyses several fragments from the History of Scythians authored by Andrei Lîzlov in 1692. The History is a rather ample polemic work which circulated in manuscript form, initially among the Moscow elites, and which was intended to determine members of this elite to start a campaign against the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire. Through his work, Lîzlov brought the necessary arguments for a “crusade” against the two. Borrowing information from the Polish chroniclers, which he combined with various other Russian writings of a historical character, Lîzlov presents also, besides the history of the Scythian lands, events from the lives of the ones who fought either against the Tatars or the Ottomans, placing alongside each other events that happened at large time intervals. Thus he gives examples of rulers who defended Christendom, among them, Stephen the Great, voivode of Moldavia. That fight had to be continued, and the only ones who could do it were the “right-believing emperors from the East”.
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The epitrachelion from Pătrăuți is one of the most important embroideries of the Romanian Middle Ages. The two embroidered portraits of the donors, Stephen the Great and Lady Mary Voichița, are among the few original representations of these two figures. In the fifth decade of the last century, the epitrachelion was erroneously attributed to Voroneț Monastery. In 2005, upon a thorough research, Professor Ștefan S. Gorovei restored the truth, namely that the piece belonged to the church of Pătrăuți and that it never had any connection with Voroneț Monastery. The new documents presented in this article underscore this truth. We learn from them that in 1883 the epitrachelion was still in the parish church of Pătrăuți, after which, in 1886, it was sent by Father Theodore Danilovici to the Consistory in Cernăuți. One of the documents also brings new information about the epitrachelion’s iconography: it featured eight icons of saints standing under arches, an unknown detail from other sources.
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This study resumes older investigations into the Moldavian-German Chronicle (1502), a particularly important narrative source for the reign of Stephen the Great, Voivode of Moldavia (1457–1504). The novelty of the present analysis is the paleographic perspective it proposes. Following the studying of the script of the historiographical text – which is both an analytical and comparative approach – the author-copyist of the chronicle now kept at the Bavarian State Library in Munich (Clm. 952) can be identified without any hesitation as being Hartmann Schedel, a physician and scholar from Nürnberg (1440–1514). The interest of this polymath with a strong humanistic orientation for the Moldavian voivode can be explained in the context of his broader gathering of information about the realm which we nowadays call Romanian. The main consequence of identifying Schedel’s autographic participation in the written transposition of the Moldavian-German chronicle opens the prospect of finding in the vast library of the German humanist, a so far little-researched “cultural space,” the prototype, be it Latin, German, or Italian, which could have inspired the historiographical synthesis transmitted through the manuscript kept today in Bavaria.
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After taking over the northwest of Moldavia, the Habsburg authorities started inventorying all assets of the boyars and of the monasteries from this territory and so they copied and translated the old princely charters. One such document is the princely charter from March 2, 1464 (6972), in which Stephen the Great endorsed the villages Șișcăuți on Prut, another Șișcăuți on Hodorin, Sinești, Mareșinți, Nabotnic, Naculi, Mohasani, Leușeuți and Beșani to boyar Petru Braevici and his wife Anușca, daughter of Sima Mihailovici, villages which she inherited from her father. The author uses the new data provided by the charter and brings up several arguments to prove that Michael of Dorohoi is the son of Roman I and the brother of Alexander the Good.
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