...The conference has six official languages. Four are international. The fifth is the language of the king’s most important realm. The sixth is the language of the modern state housing the conference and the burial place of the medieval monarch. For written, in the first instance, scientific communication only the first four languages, of which English has a more and more compulsory front seat, were and are used. It is however only one of the aspects of the imbroglio.
In general, most of the places, rivers and mountains in (East-) Central European have three different names that are still used, a feature that grows stronger as we near the Mid and Lower Danube line. Furthermore, sometimes there are major differences in writing and meaning between the names. Also in general, two of three names are in German and Hungarian, for reasons that involve the spread of population and the medieval and (early) modern political structure of the area. The third name became usually the official name used in the modern state were the place in question is today. Therefore we have tried to give all three names to the places mentioned in the abstracts of the lectures. Unless there was an official accepted name of the place in use in the language of the abstract, the first name given to the place was its official modern name. One can see also from this quite long paragraph how much the understanding of Sigismund’s reign and time can be a question of details, of topics that sometimes receive less attention in comparison to their potential.
We have thus tried to offer a synthetic perspective on the researches and works of each participant, putting into balance already classic achievements with new scientific endeavors, in the same framework. Our aim was to offer a small insight on the background of each lecture and its author, to reveal the peculiar nature of the studies devoted to a special, particular one may say, rule such as that of emperor and king Sigismund of Luxemburg. Hence, probably, a few aspects may seem to have received too much of attention in relation to mat ters of substance, which, on the other hand, in our aim for a balanced view on the monarch and his time, have taken center stage in terms of the scientific structure of the conference, bridging the natural gaps between different topics.
The very diverse lectures were fitted into three major units, devoted to three different ‘common features’: image, both in medieval and in modern terms, from written to ‘painted’ images, from belief to stereotypes; medieval society, from local power structures to court officials and to royal domestic politics; ‘foreign politics’ and political careers, from the Ottoman Empire in the South to the Kingdom of Poland in the north. Each of these ‘features’ was sub-dived into different common topics covering thus a vast range of themes that involve and bring closer together otherwise very distinct subjects, such as medieval devotion and modern censorship. The very composite structure of the conference is a rather eloquent proof for the complex historic nature of Sigismund’s reign, in the 14th and 15th centuries, as well as in later times.
Sigismund of Luxemburg was an equal challenge for his contemporaries and for modern historians. He still is. The conference of Oradea aims to put into perspective and reveal parts of his rule and time, beyond the few pages of this booklet. It is an honor and an obligation that can be upheld only as a scientific community, beyond language, political and interpretative barriers. |
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