Adinel Dincă is Associate Professor at Babeș-Bolyai University (UBB) in Cluj-Napoca.  In this interview he talks about his major research project “Restory – Recovering Past Stories for the Future: A Synergistic Approach to Textual and Oral Heritage of Small Communities”.  While this project focuses on the little known group of Transylvanian Saxons, it includes partners from all over Europe. The project aims to rediscover local experiences and micro histories by working along-side local galleries, libraries, archives, and museums, to share them with the localities that the stories came from.

Adinel breaks down how the endeavour was developed, how the several elements of the project function and how the partners are working together.  He also points out that the research is particularly interested in the local stories of good resource management, whether this is through primary education to build better human resources, or through re-use and re-purposing of physical resources for pragmatic and symbolic aims.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Department of Historical Studies.

The Restory project is funded by the European Research Executive Agency through the Research and Innovation Actions, Cluster 2 - Culture, Creativity, Inclusive Society, Pillar 2 of Horizon Europe (call HORIZON-CL2-2023-HERITAGE-01-04: Cultural heritage in transformation – facing change with confidence; Project nr. 101132781). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

In this interview, Nicholas Tayler talks about his thesis research into the migration of missionaries and merchants from the Lotharingian region, in the current day Low Countries, to ‘New Europe’ and specifically to Hungary.

Nick looks at how he is tracing this fascinating, but largely forgotten migration route from Lotharingia to Hungary through a mixture of documents and histories, mostly from ecclesiastical archives, archaeology, place names and personal names.  This vast, complex and challenging research highlights the migration and it‘s multi-vectoral influence on the developing kingdom of Hungary.  Nick also discusses his research’s methodological foundations in Bruno LaTour’s ‘Actor Network Theory’ and the concept of Entangled History,  and how these tools help with the understanding of these routes of people and influence.  Nick explains how understanding medieval episcopal politics can help make sense of modern Europe. 

Nicholas Tayler was awarded the Bak Fellowship scholarship in 2023 -2024 to support his research.  For information about this scholarship please click here.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Department of Historical Studies.

In this interview, Lena Sadovski talks about her current research into the community of New Christian merchants trading between Apulia in southern Italy, and Spalato, modern day Split, in Dalmatia in the 15th and 16th century.

Lena explains who the New Christians were, and why they moved between Apulia and Spalato. She shows how, and why this route of international trade was so important for Spalato and their colonial over-lords, the Venetians, and the types of goods moving in both directions.  This trade also highlights the importance of family connections within and between the communities of New Christians in both Apulia and Spalato.   And despite the New Christians having converted from the Jewish faith to Christianity several centuries earlier, Lena shows that the memory of their religious alterity could be weaponized by their opponents in moments of conflicts, underlining the persistence of Jewish ‘otherness’ despite decades of successful integration into the Dalmatian society.

Photo credit - Državni Arhiv u Zadru, 16: 59/66.7-IV, fol. 188r.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Department of Historical Studies.

In this interview, Katalin Szende, Professor of Medieval Studies at the Central European University, and founding member and current President of MECERN, talks about her on-going research into Fair Relations: Business, Church and Power in the 11th – 13th Century.  Her focus is on the cathedral cities of the three major polities of the period and region, Bohemia, Poland and Hungary, their differences and similarities. 

Katalin notes that there are few traditional, archival sources of information for her research, and so uses the method of spatial analysis to understand the changing relationship between ecclesiastical , secular , and mercantile power.  These relationships become clear from the locations of, and physical and visual links between the cathedral, the stronghold and the marketplaces of a city. 

The research presented in this podcast was funded and hosted by the Religion and Urbanity: Reciprocal Formations research group of the Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies at the University of Erfurt (DFG – FOR 2779).

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Department of Historical Studies.

In this interview, Gregor Rohmann, Professor for Regional Cultural History, University of Rostock, talks about his research into Pirates and Privateers – a Linguistic Conundrum of the 15th Century Baltic. 

Gregor considers how pirates, and the concepts and semantics related to piracy emerged in the Baltic. He links the emergence of specific actors who engaged in armed violence at sea to the need for both merchants and nobility to protect their legitimate interests.  In addition, he notes how the frequent inter-state conflicts within the region gave rise to the use of sea-based privateers and mercenaries commissioned by the states engaged in conflict.  Gregor also describes the number of terms used to describe the actors involved, and these terms vary partly according to how the ‘pirates’ were paid or rewarded and by whom, and party according to the view point of the person using the terms.  However, there are no records of what terminology the ‘pirates’ used to describe themselves.

Finally Gregor explains how the semantics influenced the development of the rule-of-law and thus state building, and he notes how these developments were, effectively undertaken by merchants to protect their economic interests and trade within the Baltic region.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Department of Historical Studies.

In this interview, Karen Stark discusses her on-going research into the cult of the Virgin Mary in late medieval Hungary.  Originally an archaeologist, Karen retains a great interest in material culture and place-making, and she uses this lens to analyse the Marian cult.

Following King Stephen I dedicating the Hungarian kingdom to the Virgin, Karen notes how later kings venerated, and promoted the veneration of the Virgin Mary.  This public veneration, echoing and linking to King Stephen I, was particularly strong during times of dynastic transition when kingship and the right to rule was liable to be challenged.  Karen also notes how the nobility also promoted the cult of the Virgin Mary, potentially in order to gain favour with the king.

Karen also discusses the malleability of the image of the Virgin, enabling many different communities to venerate her, for example, royalty, nuns, mothers, newly converted pagans.  Finally, Karen considers why understanding the cult of the Virgin is relevant today, citing both on-going veneration to political propaganda.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies.

The image of the Virgin for this podcast is from Manfred Koller, “Das Schatzkammerbild in Mariazell. Untersuchung und Konservierung,” in Ungarn in Mariazell, Mariazell in Ungarn: Geschichte und Erinnerung, ed. Péter Farbaky and Szabolcs Serfőző (Budapest: Historisches Museum der Stadt Budapest, 2004), 301. 

In this interview, Jakob Zsambok of The Complexity Science Hub in Vienna, talks about the Seshat and Cliopatria databases, what they contain, their data sources and confirmation, and how they are accessed, used and enhanced by historical researchers.

Seshat: Global History Databank, founded in 2011, aims to bring together the most current and comprehensive body of knowledge about human history in one place by systematically collecting what is known about the social and political organization of human societies and the evolution of civilizations over time.

Cliopatria is a geospatial database of world-wide political entities from 3400BCE to 2024CE (then continuing with the existing description)  it builds on work originally done by Andrew Tollefson for a YouTube video. Seshat and Cliopatria are now linked, so that data related to a polity can be taken in relation to its physical location, its geo-spatial context, and over time. Jakob uses the Holy Roman Empire and Sigismund of Luxemburg as examples of the management of inter-locking relationships

Seshat and Cliopatria both actively welcome enhancements, additional data and suggestions from their users.   The web addresses are

Seshat: https://seshat-db.com/   and https://seshatdatabank.info/  (Note : in order to see all the data and suggest edits, an account is needed which has to be manually approved)

And Seshat database on github: https://github.com/Seshat-Global-History-Databank  

Cliopatria on github:  https://github.com/Seshat-Global-History-Databank/cliopatria  And on Zenodo: https://zenodo.org/records/13363121

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies.

In this interview, Grzegorz Pac, Professor at the Faculty of History of the University of Warsaw, discusses his on-going research into the cult of saints and canonisation in Medieval Poland.  Through a case study of the canonisation of St Stanislaus of Krakow, Grzegorz focusses on how a saint, particularly a popular and highly venerated saint, could confer symbolic capital onto a specific church, diocese and individual bishops or archbishops.  And in turn, how this symbolic capital offers the beneficiaries greater status and power within the ecclesiastical hierarchy.  In addition, Grzegorz considers how the medieval process of canonisation, while becoming more formalised, was more difficult and less effective in the newly Christianised regions peripheral to the centre of Christianity in Rome.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies.

In this interview, Merike Kurisoo, Director, Niguliste Museum, Tallinn, discusses her work on the Rode Altarpiece and how it enables ‘time travel’ to the 1480s.

The Niguliste Museum (branch of the Art Museum of Estonia) is based in the medieval St Nicholas ( Niguliste ) Church in central Tallinn.  One of the most important items in it’s collection is the massive and stunning beautiful altarpiece by Herman Rode of Lübeck.  Based on documents in the Tallinn City Archives, Merike describes how the unique altarpiece was commissioned for St Nicholas Church by the major guilds of the city; how funds for the work was collected from the wider congregation, and finally how the altarpiece was delivered in August 1481 and erected in place by workmen from Lübeck.  Merike extends the story of the Rode Altarpiece to the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, as the work and City Archives were evacuated and returned to Tallinn due to wars and peace. Today Tallinn clearly loves and is proud of its medieval history and art.

Workshop of the Lübeck master Hermen Rode. Retable of the High Altar of St Nicholas’ Church in Tallinn. 1478–1481

https://nigulistemuuseum.ekm.ee/en/the-retable-of-the-high-altar-of-st-nicholas-church/

Books:

https://pood.ekm.ee/en/et/rode-altar-tallinn-niguliste-church-main-altar-retable/ https://pood.ekm.ee/en/et/rode-altar-side-view/

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies. 

In this interview, Jessica Knowles discusses her current research into the apocalyptic stained glass window in  St Martha’s pilgrim hospice church in Nuremburg, comparing it to the apocalyptic window in All Saints’ Church in York, northern England.

Jessica is considering St Martha’s window in its fullest context of the late 14th century.  Therefore this includes not only the images and surviving text surrounding the images, but also the story these images and texts told, and how these stories fitted with the stories told by adjacent windows, now lost, in St Martha’s.  In addition, she considers the people who saw the window and the ways in which they would have seen and experienced it, also the people who paid for the window and how they benefited from this donation and memorial.  Jessica concludes that, although today we see the apocalyptic images and windows as perhaps negative as the physical world burns and is destroyed, late medieval people would probably have seen them as positive, happy and an image of the salvation of their souls.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies.