Ritual and Symbolic Communication in Medieval Hungary under the Árpád Dynasty (1000 - 1301): (39 East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450)

In Rituals and Symbolic Communication in Medieval Hungary under the Árpád Dynasty (1000 - 1301) Dušan Zupka examines rituals as means of political and symbolic communication in medieval Central Europe, with a special emphasis on the rulers of the Árpád dynasty in the Kingdom of Hungary. Particular attention is paid to symbolic acts such as festive coronations, liturgical praises, welcoming of rulers (adventus regis), ritualised settlement of disputes, and symbolic rites during encounters between rulers. The power and meaning of rituals were understandable to contemporary protagonists and to their chroniclers. These rituals therefore played an essential role in medieval political culture. The book concludes with an outline of ritual communication as a coherent system.

Table of Contents:
Contents Acknowledgements vii List of Illustrations VIII Abbreviations IX Introduction 1 1 Rituals and Symbolic Communication: Theory, Terminology and Methodology 15 1 Ritual—Definition of the Term 15 2 The Study of Rituals in the Humanities 19 3 Rituals and Symbolic Communication in Medieval Studies 22 3.1 Rituals in Medieval Studies—Overview of Previous Research 22 3.2 Rituals in Medieval Studies—The Current State of Research 25 3.3 Rituals and Symbolic Communication in the Middle Ages 32 2 Rituals of Power and Symbols of Monarchy 35 1 Three Types of Coronation 36 2 Laudes regiae 45 3 Cingulum militiae 49 4 Court Festivities and Royal Majesty 55 5 The Symbols and Rituals of the Hungarian Monarchs 61 6 Summary 68 3 The Settling of Disputes and Submission—Rituals of Reconciliation 70 1 Reconciliation Rituals in Internal Political Struggles and in the Settling of Disputes with Foreign Monarchs (11th Century) 72 1.1 Reconciliation Rituals in the Struggles for the Hungarian Throne in the Second Half of the 11th Century 72 1.2 Conciliatory Settlement of Disputes between Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire 86 2 The Evolution and Transformation of the Ritual of Reconciliation in the 12th Century 94 2.1 Coloman and Álmos 94 2.2 Coloman and Foreign Rulers 97 2.3 Hungary and Byzantium 101 vi contents 3 Symbolic Gestures of Humility—Submission and Supplication 107 4 Summary and Conclusions 115 4 Adventus regis in Medieval Hungary 117 1 Adventus regis 117 2 Adventus regis in Political Communication in Hungary under the Árpád Dynasty 121 3 Good and Bad adventus 130 4 Conclusion 137 5 Encounters between Royalty—Greeting Rituals 139 1 Symbolic Communication during Meetings between Royalty 139 2 Osculum pacis 144 3 Research Issues 147 4 Symbolic Communication between Members of the Árpád and Piast Dynasties 147 4.1 Stephen I and Bolesław I 148 4.2 Ladislas I and Bolesław II 152 4.3 Coloman I and Bolesław III 156 5 Symbols and Rituals in the Hungarian Kings’ Encounters with the Crusaders 162 5.1 The First Crusade (1096) 163 5.2 The Second Crusade (1147) 167 5.3 The Third Crusade (1189) 170 6 The Role and Significance of Royal Encounters in the Middle Ages 172 7 Conclusion 177 6 Concluding Reflections: Ritual Communication as a Coherent System 179 1 The Role of Ritual 180 2 The Acquisition of Ritualized Communication—Lernprozess 182 3 An Outline of Developments in the Later Middle Ages: Urban Rituals and Written Culture 185 4 Monarchic Power and Its Representation 189 5 Quality, Role, and Ritual: Towards a Conceptual Framework 194 Bibliography 197 Index 222

About the Author :
Dušan Zupka, PhD. (1981), is a researcher at the University of Oxford and a lecturer at Comenius University in Bratislava. He is the author of a monograph and several articles on power, rulership and communication in medieval Central Europe.

Review :
''Zupka hat mit seiner Arbeit jedoch den eigenen Anspruch, gleichsam eine Teststudie für die Ritualforschung in Mitteleuropa vorzulegen, erfolgreich eingelöst: Seine Studie zeigt, wie weiterführend das erneute Durchdenken bekannter Theorien und deren Anwendung auf neue Fallbeispiele ist. Besonders überzeugend ist, dass Zupka sich nicht ausschließlich auf das Königreich Ungarn bezieht, sondern den Interferenzen mit benachbarten Reichen und ihrer Spiegelung in den Quellen besondere Aufmerksamkeit schenkt. Damit hat er eine gute Ausgangslage und zahlreiche Anregungen für weitere komparative Arbeiten zur Geschichte der politischen Gefüge in Mitteleuropa geschaffen''. - Julia Burkhardt, in: Sehepunkte 11 (2019) ''Man kommt angesichts der Überzeugungskraft der vorgetragenen Beobachtungen nicht umhin, ihm beizupflichten, und das umfangreiche Verzeichnis der zitierten Quellen und Literatur bestätigt nur, dass dem interessierten Leser hier ein sachkundiger Führer durch die Welt der ungarischen Árpáden in die Hand gelegt wird''. - Martin Wihoda, in: Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters 2018 (1) ''Mein Fazit nach der Lektüre des Buches ist, dass ihm ein gutes Konzept zugrunde liegt. Zudem basiert es auf einem fundierten globalgeschichtlichen Hintergrund, der für die Bearbeitung des Themas geeignet ist''. - Márta Font, in: Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 2019 (2)