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Arts and Humanities
The Brāhmī leaf in Sanskrit and Uigur (TT VIII H) from the Berlin Turfan collection, edited by A. von Gabain in 1954, suggests an Indian origin, although this cannot be definitively proven in its current form. The fragment appears to be a commentary on the Agraprajñaptisūtra, the sūtra that declares the triratna (Buddha, Dharma, Saṃgha) as the best. The preserved part is about the question of its origin or occasion (utpatti). The present new edition includes an introduction on the Agraprajñaptisūtra (I), the text, translation, and comments (III), along with the description of the leaf, characteristic usage of the Uigur Brāhmī script and thoughts on dating (II) and three Appendices (IV) on the Agraprajñaptisūtra, the *Ekāgrasūtra in Uigur sources, and the interpretation of etadagrikeṣu vyākr̥teṣu. Additionally, three glossaries (V) (Sanskrit – English – Uigur; Uigur – English – Sanskrit; Uigur – English), abbreviations and bibliography (VI) and plates (VII) are provided.
Abstract
The paper has a dual purpose, one historical and one theoretical. It aims to show, first, that Plotinus' notion of perceptual memory heavily draws on Stoic views insofar as both regard memory as a linguistic phenomenon. Furthermore, it aims to answer two questions, both are intimately connected to the Plotinian thesis of the impassibility of the soul. How could it happen that a present tense perceptual judgment changes into a past tense memory judgment and what explains that our judgments on perceived objects change, and occasionally fade, over time, that is, how can we remember in a way different from sense-perception?
Néhány gondolat az avar kori fülkesírok értelmezéséhez
Some thoughts on the interpretation of the graves with an end-wall shaft
A fülkesírok eredete már régóta megoldatlan kérdése az avar kor kutatásának. Jelen tanulmányban új szempontokat kívánunk nyújtani a sírforma értelmezéséhez. Ehhez belső- és közép-ázsiai, valamint kelet-európai analógiákat mutatunk be. Ezek a kora avar kori sírokhoz képest jóval korábbiak, néhány esetben egykorúak. A padmalyos sírokkal való együttes előfordulásuk alapján a két típus valószínűleg egymás formai variánsaként értelmezhetők.
Abstract
The paper provides a close reading of Plotinus' obscure chapter Ennead IV.6.2. I try to make clear, beyond the central thesis that sense-perception is an active power, how it contributes to the argument of the whole treatise, how its seemingly disconnected comments make up a coherent line of thought, and how it remains consistent with Plotinus' positions expressed elsewhere.
From passion to knowledge
Plotinus' grades of virtues as stages in the development of practical moral agency
Abstract
In this paper, I aim to situate the practical agency of the sage in an overall picture of the development of the Plotinian moral agent. This development can be seen as a gradual transition from external to internal principles of action guidance which endow the agent with autonomy and coherence in her practical actions. The transition from external to internal principles corresponds to a changing relationship between the agent's telos and particular actions. Non-virtuous agents aim at the attainment of an object of desire, while the civically virtuous person aims to perform virtuous actions irrespectively of the achievement of particular objects of desire. Finally, the telos of the sage is the contemplation of forms and she acts practically as a consequence and external activity of having achieved her goal. The analysis of Plotinus' theory of moral development shows that the sage's inward turn and detachment from external circumstances do not involve inactivity in the practical sphere but figure as a necessary condition of her making an active contribution to the order of the sensible world through her actions as opposed to passively responding to external circumstances.
Abstract
The aim of this study is to analyze the beginning of different dance tunes in connection with variously performed dance tunes. The purpose of this paper is also to draw attention to the need for micro-analysis, which has been neglected for a long time in instrumental folk music research, in order to better understand instrumental musical melody creation. The selected musical examples come from different (partly historical) eras and different geographical areas of Western Transdanubian and Transylvanian Hungarian folk music collections. Typical starting elements (fifth-forth changes, direction of moving of scales, etc.) are related to dance music with different names. The analysis ignores the evolution of tempo and variation throughout the piece, as well as the ensemble's “Primas” ornamentation, timbre, harmonies and unique solutions of the accompaniment. At the same time, the author paid attention to the form and structure of the entire piece in addition to the beginnings of the melody. The study was written in honor of the 100th birthday of Walter Deutsch, the creator of modern Austrian ethnomusicology.
Abstract
From 1847, the head of the Budapest ballet was Federico Campilli (1820–1889), an individual of Italian origin. He regarded Viennese taste as authoritative in designing the program, thereby building on the international ballet repertoire. This repertoire included romantic pieces from Western Europe, along with Campilli's own choreographies. Campilli concluded his forty-year tenure in Budapest in 1887, and Cesare Smeraldi (1845–1924) assumed his position. The imperial city served as the model for shaping the ballet program, commencing its operations with the staging of Manzotti's spectacular Excelsior, which had premiered in Vienna two years earlier. This sensational performance, focused on the rise of human civilization and the development of technology, involved hundreds of actors and was destined for success throughout Europe. It ran for 29 years in Vienna and nine years in Budapest. In this study, an exploration of the driving forces behind this ballet success story with unconventional themes is undertaken. Various aspects are examined, such as the discourse of dance and the articulation of otherness in local and global spaces. The study delves into what technophile ballet entails, how cultural history, abstract concepts, discoveries, and inventions can be narrated through ballet. The thesis also highlights the debatable aspects of the ballet's music, utilizing music reviews from Budapest and Viennese newspapers. Through these reviews, an attempt is made to map the reception history of the ballet in Vienna and Budapest. The significance of Excelsior in the political power field within Hungarian conditions is also emphasized.
Abstract
Industrial heritage is not just the industrial landscape, buildings, and material objects, but also the highly complex cultural heritage created by industrial society, with many unique features. The former industrial towns of East-Central European countries have little memory of their early capitalist industrial past, and their socialist legacy is mostly seen as an unwanted and unwelcome burden. Industrial heritage preservation in Hungary was also adversely affected by the ideology of de-industrialization in the late 1980s, and this was compounded by struggles over the politics of memory. Salgótarján, as the seat of Nógrád County, is a city with county rights that has one of the worst social and economic indicators in the country, with dozens of slums, many of them on former industrial sites. The number of sites suitable for greenfield investment in the valley town is low, while the proportion of under-utilized brownfields is high. The real turning point in the development of the settlement was the opening of the mines and the mining boom in the second half of the 19th century. The opening of the mines was soon followed by the construction of larger industrial plants: the steel mill, the hollow-glass and later flat-glass factory, and the ironworks (stove factory). Initially, skilled workers were recruited from abroad, which laid the foundations for a unique society, as much of the population had no ties to the settlement, or even to Hungary—only to the work and their employer. The industrial society of Salgótarján formed a well-defined local community with a sense of identity. The management of the companies and factories, the network of workers' welfare institutions, the managed leisure programs and facilities, and of course the built environment of the colonies played a major role in all this. Under state socialism, the factories continued to operate with an artificially inflated workforce, and after the political regime change in 1989, the privatized plants closed down with dramatic abruptness, leading to social trauma and high unemployment in the settlement. The preservation and presentation of industrial heritage is also important for the city's identity while the built environment is undergoing a radical transformation, which is why buildings that are deemed worthy of preservation should be given a new function as soon as possible so that they may remain an integral part of the settlement.
Abstract
Bei der Erforschung des deutschsprachigen Pressewesens im historischen Ungarn in der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts stößt man bei fast jedem Organ auf den Namen Adolf Silberstein. Er bereicherte mehrere deutschsprachige Zeitungen der Hauptstadt mit zahlreichen qualitätsvollen Feuilletons, in erster Linie mit Bezug zur Literatur und zum Theater. Eine Darstellung seiner journalistischen Tätigkeit bzw. eine Bestandsaufnahme seiner Feuilletons ist allerdings bislang nicht erfolgt. Ersterem Desiderat soll nun durch die Durchsicht der zeitgenössischen Medien Abhilfe geschaffen werden.
Abstract
Ferenc Rákóczi II is known primarily as the leader of the anti-Habsburg Hungarian War of Independence between 1703 and 1711, but in recent years there has been a growing interest in his literary work, too. Research has shed light on several aspects of moral problems represented in his Confessions, written in the early 18th century in Latin. The defining element of the self-understanding in the Confessions is the anthropological concept that classifies human actions according to whether they are motivated by self-love or the love of God. The condemnation of sins of self-love is therefore a recurring theme in Rákóczi's spiritual autobiography. However, the fact that the opposite of self-love, the concept of pure love also appears in the Confessions has not been noticed so far. The analysis of the description of earthly loves and the sometimes ambivalent reflections on them can contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the moral discourse of the Confessions.
Abstract
The object of this presentation is Júlia Hajdu (1925–1987), the first and only female Hungarian operetta composer. Although there is no abundance of female composers in either international or Hungarian music literature, most of the few were canonically mistreated, despite their creations being worthy of research. The author of choice, Júlia Hajdu, had a rather rich artistic career during which she excelled in various musical genres, such as the composition of dance songs, operettas, revues, dance suites, and incidental music. Besides composing, she was also an outstanding pianist. At the Zeneakadémia (Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music), her master teachers were Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967) and György Ránki (1907–1992) – the latter, too, being a composer of operettas. Hajdu studied folk music from Kodály and jazz orchestration from Ránki. Hajdu's name was soon mentioned next to the best-known creators of popular genres by both her contemporaries and the critics of the age. Among others, she worked on the popular music shows of Magyar Televízió (Hungarian Television) and was employed as Hanna Honthy's piano accompanist. Hajdu recorded hundreds of dance songs, revues, and dance suites, as well as fourteen operettas, including those for radio and television broadcasts. Her career is to be explored within the cultural, political, and civilizational contexts of state socialism, thus understanding her work as not only another oeuvre of an operetta composer, but also as a representation of the artistic sentiment of a whole era. During her active years, she had to make compromises which she later interpreted as assertions of herself as a female artist in a male-dominated cultural milieu. After recognizing various narrative patterns in her creations, I aim to discuss Hajdu's career along two of the most prevalent and recurring issues: the “female composer as a sensation” narrative, and the “significance of the master teacher” narrative.
A rare Sarmatian coin imitation in lead from a grave at Hódmezővásárhely
Ritka szarmata éremutánzat ólom medalionja egy hódmezővásárhelyi sírból
Abstract
The paper discusses a very rare type of Sarmatian coin imitation cast of lead of which only two other specimens are known. The one from Martfű is best preserved, which is very helpful for the interpretation. This piece was found in the grave of a Sarmatian woman in one of the biggest Sarmatian-period cemeteries in the Carpathian Basin, Hódmezővásárhely-Aranyági-halom. The crouched position of the deceased only adds to the peculiarities of the find, since it is very rare for the Sarmatians.
Abstract
In this paper I focus my attention on the debate between three renowned Germanists of the interwar period: Elemér Moór, Elemér Schwartz and Walter Steinhauser. Their discussion of the population history of Burgenland can serve as a case study of knowledge production. This was a discourse in which the relationship between science and politics or the boundary between scholarship and dilettantism were often tested. Relying on both published material (their books and papers) and unpublished sources (correspondence, commission reports) I analyse the different standpoints of the three scholars and show the development of their rivalry. At the end of my paper, I will draw some lessons concerning the history of historical writing.
Abstract
On March 24, 2020, the international flower trade association Union Fleurs issued a statement on the situation of the ornamental plants sector hit by the Covid-19 crisis. In a study published in April 2020, Copa-Cogeca (European Farmers and European Agri-Cooperatives) echoed the findings of the above-mentioned international flower trade association, stating that the flower and ornamental plants sector was the agricultural sector most impacted by the coronavirus in the EU, as in most Member States, including Hungary and Romania, there was a historical drop in demand and consumption of almost 80%, and unfortunately the virus hit at the worst possible time, as the spring season would have been the peak period for ornamental horticulturalists. In my case study, I examine the flower growers of Curteni, a settlement in the Mureș region of Transylvania (Romania). How has this global phenomenon caused by the coronavirus manifested itself locally in a settlement where nearly 60 families make their living from growing and selling ornamental plants? Has this community been able to maintain its territorial/regional competitiveness? Have the people of Curteni joined the group of producers known in economic anthropology as farmers who chose to halt and wait, or did they find a quick and resilient response to the obstacles they encountered? How did this crisis become an identity-shaping factor in their lives? The pandemic has also exacerbated the situation in Curteni, made it more difficult to act and make decisions, and has brought new perspectives and values into play. The example of the florist community of Curteni shows that a new situation, and indeed any crisis, can bring about positive changes in the lives of communities. In any crisis, emergency, or exigency, members of a community may almost instinctively, but mostly also consciously, seek innovative responses to their problems. One way is to discover and exploit the opportunities inherent in a crisis, communally re-assessing and utilizing the available values, opportunities, and resources, and finding truly resilient responses.
Abstract
Food culture has played, and continues to play, an important role in the definition of identity and community cohesion. Food is not just a matter of sustenance but is also a cultural element with myriad links to the material world and to festive and everyday customs. Meals and individual dishes also function as mediators, providing a means and a channel of communication. Local communities select, reconstruct, or construct their common food heritage through their social discourse on the past, belonging, and locality. This paper presents the institutional framework for the management, preservation, and transmission of food-related traditions at the national and local levels in Hungary and looks at the practice of heritagization through one specific local example.
Abstract
Vessels decorated with domed metal discs were extraordinarily rare and valuable commodities of the Late Bronze Age. Pottery adorned with bronze discs and tin first appeared in Hungary during the earlier Urnfield period (14th/13th century BC). A vessel adorned with three ring motifs inlaid with a high-tin alloy on its belly is known from Nagykanizsa-Bilkei-dűlő and a cup decorated with bronze domed discs was recovered from Grave 222 of the Vörs-Battyáni-Disznólegelő cemetery, both in southern Transdanubia. The decorative bronze discs similarly had a high tin content. The metal composition was analysed with particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE) spectroscopy. Pendant ornaments of “white bronze”, an alloy with a high tin content, are principally known from southern Transdanubia: the elemental composition of two pendants with bird protomes from Grave 51 of the Vörs-Battyáni-Disznólegelő cemetery and of a funnel-shaped pendant from the Pamuk hoard were examined by PIXE for compositional make-up, which indicated a high tin content for all three. These pendants had been worn as adornments. Tin was an important raw material in the production of bronze. Most of the vessels decorated with bronze discs were brought to light in the late Urnfield cemetery uncovered at Budapest-Békásmegyer (boot- and amphora-shaped vessels, a feeding vessel, resin balls). It seems likely that these vessels had once served ritual purposes. Regrettably, they have not yet been submitted to PIXE analyses.
Abstract
The curious shape of the so-called early Christian mausoleum of Iovia, Pannonia has attracted much attention since its discovery in the 1980s. The main part of the building, a hexagon flanked by alternating semi-circular and rectangular rooms was complemented by a bi-apsidal vestibule and a rectangular peristyle courtyard. The hexagon was a relatively rarely used form in late antique architecture compared to the octagon, however, hexagons can still be detected in all parts of the Roman Empire in all kinds of architectural contexts: they appeared in late Roman villae, baths, funerary buildings, early Christian mausolea and baptisteries.
The architectural parallels of the mausoleum of Iovia are traced among the thin-walled hexagons that were flanked by protruding semi-circular and rectangular rooms. The buildings closest in shape were the pagan mausoleum of Louin in France and the trefoil hall of the Villa of Aiano in Italy. Other related structures include the so-called Stibadium A of the Villa with Peristyle in Mediana in Serbia, the reception rooms of the Keynsham villa in England, the hexagonal hall of the Palace of Antiochus in Constantinople, the Domus delle Sette Sale in Rome, the baptistery of Limoges in France, and the cella quinquichora of Aquincum in Hungary. Although similar in general layout, they had different functions: early Christian mausoleum, baptistery, pagan mausoleum, and foremost dining halls or reception rooms. This warns us that it is essential to study early Christian buildings in the context of late antique architecture in its complexity and not only in the limited context of other early Christian buildings. Late antique architects seem to have been fascinated by the opportunities offered by the different polygonal or central-plan halls and buildings and used them for different purposes.
The investigation of ninth–eleventh century burials from Himod (NW Hungary)
Physical anthropology data in the light of artifact typology
Abstract
This study presents the results of a classic physical anthropological and paleopathological study of the early medieval human bone material from the Himod-Káposztáskertek site. A smaller part of the graves can be dated to the ninth century but the majority of graves dates to the tenth–eleventh century. Since the possibility of population continuity was raised, the archaeological data related to the question were also reviewed (with special emphasis on the typology of a knife found in Grave 68), with the intent of seeing whether the anthropological data supported this hypothesis. Both samples represent only a small number of cases and the remains are poorly preserved. The ninth century series especially provided very little data, ultimately making comparison impossible. The remains of 25 individuals were found in the Carolingian cemetery section: childburials number 15, the juvenile age group is not represented by any skeletons, there are ten adult burials (4 males, 5 females, 1 of undeterminable sex). The skeletons from 87 individuals were excavated from the tenth–eleventh century section of the cemetery, of which 25 were children, 5 were juveniles, and 57 were adults (29 males, 28 females). For both men and women, people of tall stature form the majority; male skulls are characterized by large absolute dimensions, mainly a broad forehead and a broad face. Fractures, degenerative changes of the spine and extravertebral joints (especially the elbow joint) were common. Tuberculosis infection was suspected in the case of one individual. Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease with bilateral involvement and a rare developmental disorder, congenital scoliosis, occurred in the material as well.
Abstract
The main goal of this paper is to study a specific element of women's depicted costumes. Pictures on stone monuments present local, so-called native women wearing complex attire of cloth, headwear, brooches, jewels, and other dress accessories. Thirteen stone monuments from Hungary depict local women with headwear-related accessories. The main questions are: what kind of accessories are they, and how can we evaluate their presence on depicted attires? I collected analogous depictions from other Provinces and studied archaeological material. Finally, I concluded that these headwear-related accessories connect to new cultural effects and the complex phenomenon of acculturation.
Abstract
In his paper the author summarizes the research of Roman Pannonia in the recent decades, mainly after 1986 when Pavel Oliva edited his volume of the series Tabula Imperii Romani, He examined the most important historical and administrative events of the province. Kovács also delt with the new historical monographs that studied the entire history or administration of Pannonia and the most important towns. The author separately examined the new epigraphic works, corpora and the new inscribed finds. In the last part of his paper he delt with the new archaeological discoveries from Brigetio to Sirmium.
Abstract
This paper covers the glass bowl fragments brought to light at Intercisa (Dunaújváros, Hungary). Bowls occur in relatively high number among the finds from the vicus and the military fort of Intercisa. The open vessels assigned to this category have a rim diameter exceeding the vessel height or exceeding the vessel height by at least 60%. Of the roughly 700 glass fragments known from the site, no more than 72 represent bowls, accounting for about 10% of the vessel glass, a relatively high proportion. Facet-cut bowls are the most frequent type among bowls: 40 pieces can be assigned to this category. Mosaic and ribbed bowls, as well as some cast and mould-pressed bowls are typical of the early Roman period. The vast majority of the bowls are blown vessels and date to the later second and the third centuries, with a few exemplars dating to the fourth century. Two bowl types stand out from among the finds, namely the facet-cut bowls and the scallop bowls of the late Roman period, which, judging from their regional distribution, had probably both been produced in a glass workshop active on the Intercisa settlement. One remarkable fragment from a hemispherical bowl bears a male head with a hedgehog hairstyle; it is paralleled by several vessels not only from the Cologne area, but also from Pannonia.
Abstract
The aim of this article is to better define how changes in the Latin vowel system evolved over time in the stressed vs. the unstressed syllables in the Latin of Rome. To this end, the cases of <e> for /i/ and <o> for /u/ in an epigraphic corpus of 6,599 inscriptions from this city have been analysed by comparing the number of epigraphic errors occurring under and out of stress in five different periods. Our results indicate that, until about the 4th cent. CE, cases of <e> for /i/ and <o> for /u/ occur mostly in the unstressed syllables in our inscriptions, which is consistent with the view that the reorganisation of the vocalic qualities in the Latin vowel system affected the unstressed vowels before it affected the stressed ones. However, the same results also indicate that the number of epigraphic deviations concerning the stressed vowels /i/ and /u/ in our corpus increases from about the 4th–5th cent. CE onwards, and that this fact should be linked to the dephonologisation of contrastive vowel quantity (in the stressed syllables).
Abstract
The main scope of the present study is the semantic and syntactic analysis of the use of the Latin demonstratives based on quantitative and qualitative data from the volumes I, II, CXVIII of the Chartae Latinae Antiquiores (ChLA). These volumes contain original parchment charters between the 7th century and 801, written in St. Gall or in its vicinity. For the current analysis, 133 private legal documents were selected. The underlying principle of the examination is concerned with the ‘genre’ of the legal documents, namely the formulas, i.e. the strict set of words embedded in the tradition of charter composition that can only be changed when difficulties in understanding emerge and prevail. Therefore, anomalies presented 3–4 times in the corpus are evaluated, if they differ in the identity of the scribe, in the place and time of the composition, although, statistically, they could be excluded from the examination as outliers. Thus, the analysis focuses on the following anomalies: determiner multiplication, substitution, additional metalinguistic participles and articuloїde cases.
Abstract
The present study analyzes the transformation of the vowel system and especially the process of vowel mergers based on the Latin inscriptions of the Danubian provinces. With the help of the Computerized Historical Linguistic Database of the Latin Inscriptions of the Imperial Age (http://lldb.elte.hu/), it tries to draw and then compare the phonological profiles of the selected provinces and to describe the dialectal position of the Danubian provinces regarding vocalism in the first four centuries AD. The analysis, which also covers comparisons with certain provinces of Italy and Dalmatia, is carried out considering four aspects: the ratio of vocalic versus consonantal changes, the ratio of vowel mergers compared to vocalic changes, the ratio of e-i and o-u mergers compared to each other, and the ratio of vowel mergers by stressed and unstressed syllable. As a result of the present study, it was revealed that Danubian provinces cannot be treated as a unit or as clearly separate from the other areas studied according to either aspect of the study. The Dacian development, which can only be observed in the 2nd–3rd century, can easily be placed among the Danubian provinces, so it is not necessary to connect it with the developmental trends in southern Italy. The present study, which continued József Herman's research, managed to explore the hitherto little-known linguistic and dialectological features of Latin in the Danubian provinces.
Abstract
This paper looks at the alternations introduced by the Old Hungarian regressive labialization of front vowels through the example of a lexical set, the derivational family based on the stem dics- ‘glory, praise’. This alternation was highly variable, but in a patterned way. All the data found in the Old Hungarian codices have been investigated with the help of the online Old Hungarian Corpus, and the distribution of the relevant forms has been mapped, along with a discussion of a highly interesting exceptional form recurring in several of the source texts.
Abstract
In order to provide for a linguistically and cognitively sound theory of negation, we argue for the introduction of a dyadic negation predicate lack and a force dynamic account of affirmation and negation in general.
Abstract
Our point of departure is László Kálmán's system of radical anti-mainstream argumentations about such central but dubious, or at least debated, constituents and concepts of dynamic semantics as discourse representation, information state, compositionality between semantics and syntax, bridging, deferred information, and ambiguity/vagueness. We strive for pointing out that Kálmán's observations and stances concerning these fundamental, ultimate problems of pragmasemantics are worth relying upon the formal theory that is to realize the desirable purpose of creating a version of formal pragmasemantics simultaneously capable of meeting the criteria and requirements appearing in different non-logics-based/informal areas of the description of human communication and – what is behind it – thinking.
Abstract
This paper highlights theoretical issues in construction grammar and presents a simple computational language model as a preliminary solution to these issues. The specific issues dealt with are the lack of explicit definition of syntactic categories and the lack of explicit proposals regarding how constructions can be learned from linguistic experience. The proposed language model, called the “analogical path model”, learns two-word syntactic patterns from sentences by finding distributional analogies between word pairs. The theoretical relevance and implications of the analogical path model are discussed at the end of the paper.
Abstract
Ferenc Rákóczi II, Prince of Transylvania, the leader of the Hungarian war of independence against the Habsburgs between 1703 and 1711, was the first legend of Hungarian national independence at the turn of the century. In the early years of the 20th century, after decades of social and political struggle, the transportation of the prince's body from his original burial place in Constantinople to Hungary came within reach. Until that happened, his tomb was visited several times and for various purposes by Hungarian historians, politicians, religious leaders, and public figures – visits known as the Rákóczi pilgrimage. The most significant was the Rákóczi pilgrimage of 1903. It involved important rituals of cultic attitudes: visiting the tomb of a saint, participating in cultic ceremonies, and collecting relics. The event was one of the most important modern pilgrimages of the early 20th century, with historical roots dating back to the early modern period.
After the abolition in 1782 several works of art owned by the Clarisses were lost. Some of them were identified in recent years; I would like to write about an other one that was found in the cloister of the Order of the Sisters of Saint Elisabeth in Bratislava. It is fairly unique because of its theme: it commemorates the escaping of the Clarisses from Stephen Bocskai’s attack on Graz and Vienna in 1605, also the taking over of the reformed and stricted Regula. It was painted together with another, recently hidden picture that has since been lost almost twenty years later in 1623, most likely in the Austrian capital, when Clarisses escaped secondly to Vienna.
In this paper I analyse the photomontages of Endre Bálint (1914–1986) in the context of the cultural politics of the Iron Curtain period in Eastern Europe and Hungary. First, the study takes a diachronic, historical approach to photomontage as a creative method that maintained continuity between the avant-garde generations of artists, a way of thinking and a creative process accordingly, cultivated in the circles of persecuted, banned or silenced artists experimenting during the decades from the 1920s to 1970s. Second, by placing Endre Bálint’s late photomontages (made after his 1963 return from his “exodus” to Paris) in the context of contemporary artistic phenomena (e.g. Brecht’s photobook, Jean-Luc Godard’s work, David Hockney’s montages or bricoleur punk artists), I argue that, in contrast to the generally held view, they are not the withering signs of renunciation, but rather a way out of renunciation, that is, a solution. “We breathe in fragments,” Bálint wrote, and the pictorial form to fittingly reflect a fragmented way of existence (together with the psychological burdens, shadows of the past, and the social and cultural-political determinations) was the montage-technique that had flourished from the 1920s, and whose Eastern European, distinctively Hungarian variant found its guardian, its good shepherd in Bálint, in his creative practice. Bálint’s late photomontages also deserve attention from the point of view of a silent narrative of art history, which does not focus on middle-aged artists’ major works, but on the profuse production by the old masters, the masters of sprezzatura, which is characterised by an aesthetic lightness, a kind of aesthetic liberation and swiftness, and the ability to allow memories a free influx into the creative work. One of the conclusions of this study is that Hungarian photomontage, and especially the late work of Endre Bálint, can be instructively read in conjunction with the equally restrained psychoanalytic literature of the period, in which the splitting of Self as a traumatic consequence of shocking events and also a means to survive those events is a key concept. A critically productive artistic construction that is based on fragments can be seen and read as the visual counterpart of a psychological notion of Self-splitting.
Style and Inscription
Inscriptions in classical and early humanist capital letters cut in stone in Hungary in the age of King Matthias and the Jagiellos
The practice of using classical capital lettering was introduced north of the Alps from Italy in the second half of the 15th century, and appeared very early in the Kingdom of Hungary. The article contains six case studies on the problems of architectural carvings, stone tabernacles, tombstones and the classical inscriptions on them. I. Tabernacles. All’antica tabernacles were produced in large numbers in late mediaeval Hungary and survive in churches from monumental to very small. The tabernacle frames, which followed the antique architecture of the façade, were accompanied by inscriptions: quotations about the Eucharist or, less frequently, inscriptions referring to the maker. II. Inscriptions outside the royal court. Outside the Buda residence of King Matthias, inscriptions engraved with humanist capitals also appeared, earlier than in the royal court, according to our present knowledge. The earliest dated inscriptions in Hungary survive in Veszprém and are attributed to Bishop Albert Vetési, the best known being a text written on ribbons running on a Gothic console (1467). The all’antica heraldic stones known from several places in the country are often dated, the earliest being found in the Nógrád castle of Miklós Báthory, the humanist bishop, with the date 1483. III. The royal court. Monumental all’antica inscriptions adorned the royal palace in Buda: building inscriptions, statue bases. Their texts are mostly known only from sources, as few original stone carvings have survived. These inscriptions were sometimes in bronze letters, but there were also engraved ones. The monumental inscriptions were associated with King Matthias, while the inscriptions known from the time of Vladislaus II are smaller in size and do not have bronze lettering. IV. Epitaphs. Antique letters also appeared as circular inscriptions on late medieval tombstones. The epitaph written in distychs was often engraved in a tabula ansata. Rarely, the wording was also antiquated, as exemplified by the abbreviations DOM, DOMS, DM. V. Inscriptions around Hungary in the Jagiellonian period. The commissioners of early inscriptions were familiar with the all’antica inscriptions of the Buda court. In Vienna, the first known all’antica inscriptions can be attributed to a citizen of Buda, Peter Juncker, and in Moravia to the lords of Tovačov and Moravská Třebová (Ctibor Tovačovský z Cimburka; Ladislav z Boskovic). VI. Architectural inscriptions of the Jagellonian period in Hungary. Inside the sepulchral chapel of Tamás Bakócz in Esztergom there is a bronze donation inscription (1507), in keeping with the perfect Renaissance centralised space. After 1500, all’antica building inscriptions became common in Hungary. We know of many of them, mainly in the Transdanubian region, written in pure classical capitals. In the northern part of the country, the early humanist capitals are more common; the Biblical quotations and proverbs on the staircase of the town hall of Bártfa were written in such letters. In Transylvania, classical capitals are again common: the inscriptions of the Lázói Chapel, built next to the cathedral in Gyulafehervár, or the Várday Chapel were also carved in such letters.
Három évtizeddel azután, hogy Karl Krumbacher megszervezte a Müncheni Egyetemen az első bizantinológiai intézetet, a tudományos eredmények bemutatására nemzetközi bizantinológiai kongresszust hívtak össze. A kezdetben politikai okokból szűk körre korlátozódó rendezvény fokozatosan megnyílt minden nemzet számára, miközben a bizantinológiai kutatásban az egyes országok saját törekvései mellett egyre nagyobb szerepet kaptak a nemzetközi együttműködések és a tudományos eszme cserék. A magyar kutatók aktívan részt vettek ezekben a folyamatokban, és magas szintű tudományos munkájuk mellett kulturális-diplomáciai erőfeszítéseikkel is igyekeztek Magyarországot integrálni a globális tudományos diskurzusba. Törekvéseiknek köszönhetően Budapest elnyerte a bizantinológia legrangosabb nemzetközi kongresszusának rendezési jogát, de a kényszerítő külső körülmények miatt a rendezvény végül nem kerülhetett megrendezésre. A tanulmány az eredeti terveket és koncepcionális kereteket követi nyomon a korabeli dokumentumokon keresztül.
A XI–XII. századi, ismeretlen szerzőtől származó Timarión című szatíra főhőse egy utazás során tetszhalott állapotba kerül, két démon erőszakkal az alvilágba kényszeríti, ahol egy bírósági tárgyaláson bebizonyítja, hogy még nem halt meg, úgyhogy visszatérhet az élők közé. Jelen tanulmány célja, hogy bemutassa és értelmezze Kónstantinos Akropolités kétszáz évvel később keletkezett rövid levelét, melyben a szerző éles kritika tárgyává teszi a Timariónt, anélkül hogy kifogásait pontosan kifejtené.
A Ceres istennőhöz kapcsolódó egyik legfontosabb átmeneti rítus a mundus megnyitása. A mundus olyan objektum Rómában, aminek megnyitása különleges alkalmakkor tartott állami rituálé volt. Amíg a mundus nyitva volt, a holtak szellemei járták keresztül a világot, így minden akkor folytatott tevékenységet rossz előjelek fenyegettek. Sok vita övezi a mundus kérdéskörét, mert nem ismerjük a megjelenésének formáját, pontos elhelyezkedését, és a szokás eredetét is homály fedi. Tanulmányunkban arra keressük a választ, hogyan kapcsolódott Ceres mint agráristenség az élet és a halál kettősségéhez, miért kapcsolják alakjához a mundust, és ez miként jelenik meg a római szerzők munkáiban. Kitérünk arra is, hogy a mundus Cereris hogyan jöhetett létre Róma alapításakor, mi volt a célja, és mit jelenthetett a korabeli rómaiaknak.
Abstract
This paper argues that the indefinite, definite, and kind interpretations belonging to nouns and noun phrases are independent universal semantic features realized by different linguistic means across and within languages. The investigations presented here take the viewpoint of the speaker: first the semantic content of the three features is characterized, then the linguistic expressions these interpretations belong to and arise from are examined. Cross-linguistic data support the conclusions that none of these features is derived from the other(s), their primary source is the intrasentential context, and they express “instructions” to the hearer to find more or less identifiable or more or less representative referents that pertain to the denotation of the noun (phrase).
Narrowing or in Kálmán's writings
Investigating the usage of vagy ‘or’ in Hungarian
Abstract
The paper investigates the usage of the Hungarian connective vagy ‘or’. Our starting point is Ariel & Mauri's (2018, 2019) and Ariel's (2020) papers about the use of or, where they argue that its core meaning is ‘alternativity’. Our goal is to describe Hungarian vagy ‘or’ by analyzing various corpus data, and compare the results. We examined the personal subcorpus of the Hungarian National Corpus (MNSZ2), and the Hungarian Spontaneous Speech Database (BEA). In this paper, as a tribute to the memory of László Kálmán, we investigated a third corpus that is constructed from Kálmán's very popular informative texts on Qubit.
Ethnicity and Representation
Material Folk Art at the Intersection of Local Identity, Minority Policy Goals, and Ethnographers' Aspirations in the 1970s and 1980s in Hungary
Abstract
Those Germans who remained in Hungary after the Second World War faced complex political, economic, and social difficulties. In cultural terms, the diverse self-definitions of the Germans living in Hungary at that time precluded national cohesion, despite the use by the authorities of the unifying definition “German.” This national minority was bound together primarily by shared trauma. Individuals and communities alike were searching for their place amidst the changed circumstances, and it was the umbrella organization known as the Democratic Association of Germans in Hungary (Magyarországi Németek Demokratikus Szövetsége) that sought to bring them together. It was not until the 1970s that the association began to professionalize its activities and to conduct ethnographic research in cooperation with qualified specialists. During this process, the village of Harta, which was already famous for its folk art, came to their attention. It was specifically the economic potential of this settlement in Bács-Kiskun County, and its character as an ethnic and confessional enclave, that laid the foundations for the uniform objects and motifs of this local center of furniture painting. After the Second World War, the county administration's cultural policy was relatively accepting of the furniture-making tradition here, and the local intelligentsia showed a supportive attitude towards the settlement's German heritage. In the 1970s, there was still a furniture painter living in Harta, who won the most prestigious folk-art award, regularly participated in exhibitions and gala events, and even produced painted furniture in the cooperative's subsidiary branch at the initiative of the local council president. This ensured that painted furniture from Harta came to represent not only the traditionalist aspirations of the German Association, but also national cultural policy. Harta furniture emerged as the most iconic style of minority painted furniture and as the shared heritage of the German community in Hungary.
Abstract
The decorated artifacts of rural craft industries were the forerunners of the products which, from the late 19th century, were made for the organized trade that entered the global market and met the needs of the Hungarian market. The production was managed by the increasingly numerous cottage industry associations, later cottage industry cooperatives and independent companies. Until World War II, craft and folk art products were marketed by centrally managed organizations, as well as by individual entrepreneurs, commercial travelers, trading companies, and cottage industry cooperatives. From 1948 onwards, the marketing of the products of cottage industry cooperatives was exclusively in the hands of state-controlled domestic trading and export companies. After the political regime change in Hungary in 1989, the applied folk arts cooperatives continued to operate for some time, but the centrally managed trading companies ceased to exist. The cooperatives carried out commercial activities by building on their previous relationships. By the 1990s, however, the global market for folk art products and the economic conditions for their production in Hungary had changed, and the folk art products of the cottage industry cooperatives have been phased out. This paper focuses on the history of centrally managed institutions of commerce from the 1870s to 1989 and their aftermath up to the 1990s.
Abstract
The study focuses on the examination of today's ethnographical approaches and theoretical-methodological paradigms of cultural heritage, as well as everyday social practices related to heritagization (preparing lists of local values and Hungarikums, monumentalization, festivalization, musealization, etc.). In the first part of the paper, the author briefly describes the most common ethnographic approaches to the concept of cultural heritage, as well as the most important related analytical models. He argues for approaching heritage phenomena and their various manifestations (objects, places, and practices) through a kind of ontological framework. Through an empirical example — the analysis of the collection/preservation of values that started after 2010 among the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia — the study presents the local/regional practices and ritual and symbolic patterns of heritage making in the Western Ukrainian region. Examining the activities of minority political–cultural elites, the author analyzes the transformations of meanings through which the individual local cultural assets or certain accentuated elements become global social realities, for example national/translocal heritage objects.
Abstract
In this paper, a quantitative and qualitative analysis is conducted on the <b>/<v> alternations found in the epigraphic texts from three representative subsets of Roman African inscriptions from both urban centres and more peripheral areas (1st century BCE – 7th century CE). The distribution of the confusion has been related to the dating and provenance place of the inscriptions and the level of literacy of those involved in their crafting. The results show a difference in the distribution of <b>/<v> confusions in the three areas examined, with a higher incidence in later inscriptions from Sabratha. Thus, it is discussed whether the different distribution of the <b>/<v> confusions observed in the different regions might be a cue for internal diatopic variation.
Концептуализация транспозиции в семиотике литературы Ю. М. Лотмана
Тhe Conceptualisation of Transposition in Juri Lotman’s Semiotics of Literature
В статье изучается семиотическое явление транспозиции, предпринимается попытка разработать его понятийное определение и описаниe в общих рамках семиотики культуры и, в частности, в се-миотике литературы Юрия Лотмана.
Если понятие транспозиции в семиотике культуры входит в такие области научного исследования как трансмедийность, переводоведение, интертекстуальность, интердискурсивность, интерсемио-тика, то в семиотике литературы Лотмана транспозиция концептуализирована – непосредственно или через опосредование без превращения самого термина «транспозиция» в ключевой – в окру-жении и свете таких понятий как граница; контекст – в вариантах: «контекстные структуры», «кон-структивные контексты», «семантические структуры»; семантическая «упорядоченность» (в том числe и «частичная» и «дополнительная»); условность; бинарность и плюральность; множество и «подмножество» / «субсемиосфера»; семиосфера и т. д.
Перечень составляющих понятийного фона для изучения транспозиции в литературно-семио-тическом понимании Лотмана сам по себе свидетельствует о том, что исследование в данном на-правлении приводит к выяснению экстенсивного терминологического поля и органических вза-имосвязей элементов внутри него. С другой стороны, прослеживание данных понятий на основе многочисленных текстов (oт работы «О разграничении лингвистического и литературоведческого понятия структуры», через «Структуру художественного текста», до работ 90-х годов), возникаю-щих по ходу эволюции научного достижения ученого, позволяет подчеркнуть когерентность теоре-тической работы, относящейся к так называемым «структуралистскому» и «постструктуралистко-му» периодам его мышления.
Толкование в статье согласованности понятий Лотмана в разнообразных его подходах к лите-ратурному тексту, ориентированных на понимание внутри- и внетекстовых форм культурного общения, в котором литература участвует в разных измерениях, позволяет видеть транспозицию в понимании ученого как гарантий текстовой динамики. Текстовая динамика в смысле порождения нового смысла толкуется в статье в свете операций дифференциации в ракурсах принципов реля-ционности и взаимопроекций определенных микро- / макроэлементов и -контекстов, а также смен их упорядоченностей. Эти смены воплощают транспозиции, несущие смысловые трансформации и приводящие к возникновению новых семиотических условностей.
Транспозиция в итоге осмысляется как семантический генератор, касающийся в семиотике ли-тературы Лотмана толкования события в качестве «перемещения персонажа через границу семан-тического поля»; оформления семантического сюжета; умножения бинарностей, превращающихся в составляющие плюральных формаций; развития семиотических условностей в поэтике литера-турного текста и метадискурсивности литературы.
Abstract
The paper aims to present the current state, problems, challenges and opportunities of Hungarian native language education. It does so as a tribute to the memory and oeuvre of László Kálmán, who passed away in 2021, and as a way of preserving his approach characterized by a critical approach, but also by a focus on possible solutions. On the one hand, the study outlines the goals and tasks of native language education, including language teaching, drawing heavily on the concept of communicative competence as defined and represented by László Kálmán (see e.g. Kálmán 2010; Kálmán & Molnár 2009). On the other hand, the current state of native language education is described in the light of this framework. In addition to the current regulation of the content of native language education, the study will also describe the current situation with regard to the available teaching aids and textbooks. In this context, and partly independently of it, the paper will examine the question of what major areas of native language education need to be changed and what opportunities are available in this respect.
