Faces of Community in Central European Towns: Images, Symbols, and Performances, 1400–1700

Concepts of visual communication form an explanatory framework for discussing the visual expressions of urban symbolic communication in urban life in towns in the center of Europe in the late medieval and early modern period, including the dramatic times of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. This book examines the role of images and visual representation by concentrating on the varieties of symbolic communication in towns that made a range of relationships visual: the status and role of urban civic, professional, and religious communities and the relations between the town and its lord or powerful families and individuals. The geographical framework of this book is the region in the former Habsburg countries north of the Danube River embracing the region between western Bohemia and what is today eastern Slovakia, including the borderland towns of northern Austria. Two studies focus on specific local and occupational communities in the Prague towns, but most of the texts in this book focus on small towns by contemporary European standards in which many forms of urban topography, buildings, objects, and monuments survive, even though few written sources have been preserved. Accessing a wide range of literature in regional languages and German for English speakers, this collection describes typical urban landscapes in early modern Central Europe outside the well-known Central European urban centers and traditional areas of study. The book is a relevant new contribution to medieval and early modern studies, not only covering an underappreciated geographical area but also addressing general questions about the history of rituals and performance as well as visual culture, communication, and identity discourses in late medieval and early modern urban space.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: To Be Seen: The Visual Aspect in Urban Symbolic Communication, Katerina Hornícková List of Abbreviations Chapter 1: Towns in Neighboring Regions, 1400–1700: Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, and the Carpathian Basin, Elisabeth Gruber Chapter 2: The Bohemian Town as a Space for Symbolic Communication (1400–1600), Robert Šimunek Chapter 3: Representing bonum commune in Austrian Border-Region Towns: Seals, Fortifications, and Hospitals, Elisabeth Gruber Chapter 4: The Topography of Justice: Symbols, Rituals, and the Representation of Urban Justice in Early Modern Northern Hungary, Blanka Szeghyová Chapter 5: Urban Commemorative Festivities as Representations and Visualizations of Town Order, Tomáš Borovský Chapter 6: Insiders’ Visions: Memory and Self-Representation in Bohemian Utraquist Towns, Katerina Hornícková Chapter 7: The Representation Practices of the Prague Painters’ Guild in the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period, Michal Šronek Chapter 8: The Self-Presentation of Burghers in Moravian Seigniorial Towns: Telc and Slavonice in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century, Zdenka Míchalová Chapter 9: Public Expressions of Religious Transformation in Moravian Towns (1550–1618), Josef Hrdlicka Chapter 10: Reading the Prague Lesser Town Square: Topography of Change in a Residential City, Jana Doktorová Chapter 11: Epitaphs in the Moravian Royal Cities Around 1600 and their Confessional Imagination, Ondrej Jakubec Chapter 12: The Jesuits and their Urban Visual Presence in the Bohemian Lands, Michal Šronek Chapter 13: Rewriting Memory: Remodelling Churches in Seventeenth-Century Freistadt, Katerina Pražáková Chapter 14: Post-Face(s): On the Relationship of Visual Culture and Urbanity in Late Medieval and Early Modern Central Europe, Katalin Szende

About the Author :
Katerina Hornícková is researcher at the University of Vienna.

Review :
This is a work of real significance. By bringing together an international team of historians, this impressive study succeeds thanks to innovative and previously unapplied approaches. Using comparative methods, this volume challenges traditional views of medieval and early modern urban communities in the broader territory of Central Europe, and constitutes a great example of what scholars can achieve through international cooperation. This book will definitely serve not only as a benchmark for future research, but I also expect to find it on the reading lists for university courses on premodern urban life and culture in general. This is a highly original approach to the rich history and culture of the towns of Central Europe and a welcome reminder that its urban landscape extended well beyond Prague, Vienna, and Buda. This collection by Katerina Hornícková and her colleagues is a marvelous example of how a close reading of material culture can deepen our understanding of this critical region. The volume, edited by Katerina Hornícková, represents a new and innovative approach to the visual aspects of Central European towns in a transitory period of the later Middle Ages and the early modern area. The contributors are representatives of a new generation of Central European historians who take a fresh look on the role of images, symbolic communication, and visual representations on the urban centers of the region. This innovative collection of essays, based on strong theoretical background, will have a secure place on university reading lists and on the bookshelves of many interested students and professors. This fascinating collection of essays provides a rich account of the changing character of Central European towns during the late medieval and early modern periods. Detailed exploration in each chapter of the visual culture of different towns across Bohemia and Moravia illuminates broader themes about the history of religious, social, and cultural life. The essays analyze how the identities of urban communities adapted in the face of turbulent political and religious changes. Peeling back the layers of Baroque embellishment, the contributors reveal evidence about the vibrant influence in Bohemian and Moravian towns of the Hussite, Lutheran, and Catholic churches, each leaving its own distinctive mark on the changing face of the region.