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clude the possibility that the rulers had a certain freedom in taking decisions, eventually something amounting to a political program. The extremely thoroughly researched work concludes with the usual chapters: Reference, List of abbreviations, Illustrations. The profuse list of reference attests the authors professional familiarity with the subject. Phonetic transcription of Cyrillic titles into the Latin alphabet could have been a happy choice as the author does with her own reference works; similarly, the translation of Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, and Polish titles could have helped the readers. The volume concludes with the 15 high-quality colour plates (maps, tables); one also has to mention the high number of graphics embedded in the body of the text. Although the book is aimed at a Hungarian professional readership first and foremost, it would have been advisable to include a foreign-language summary or even a translation of the Conclusions into Czech, Polish, Ukrainian. In conclusion, here we truly have an indispensable work (an adjective that is, maybe, used with far too great indulgence in reviews), one that truly deserves the attribute. Such a work is hardly met in the historiographies of Inter-Europa; it is maybe not too far from the truth to attribute this fact to linguistic limitations. There are but very few historians who have a thorough and deep knowledge, not only of the history of the regions countries, but of their written source material and historical reference works as well. Mrta Font possesses not only an enviable scholarship, but also a singular set of linguistic tools, allowing for such comparative research. Besides, Fonts present work can easily be regarded as a methodological warning. Her factual analyses provide more than enough arguments against the general, undefined use of the Central European model. They throw light on the methodological fallacy of automatically adapting, or applying, a phenomenon observed in one territory to another where there are no available sources (an error all too frequently made in present-day history). One cannot disregard, nevertheless, that although the methodological bases of a comparative approach have been laid over the past few years, this development begins and remains centred, not on medieval studies but on the research of modern societies. 4 The apparition of Mrta Fonts book turns the scales in favour of medieval studies. Mria LUPESCU MAK
1

Marc Bloch, A trtnsz mestersge [The historians proffesion] (Budapest: Osiris, 1996), pp. 172, 185. Here I refer, first and foremost, to D. H. Green, Medieval Listening and Reading. The Primary Reception of German Literature 800-1300 (Cambridge: C.U.P., 1994); Michael Richter, The Oral Tradition in the Early Middle Ages (Turnhout: 1994) and Elisabeth van Houts, Memory and Gender in Medieval Europe 900-1200 (London: 1999). Christian Lbke, Ethnische Gemeinschaften und ihr Platz in der Topographie mittelalter licher Stdte des stlichen Europas, Mittelalterliche Huser und Strassen in Mitteleuropa. Varia Archeologica Hungarica IX. Mrta Font, Mria Sndor (eds.) (Pcs: 2000), pp. 25-41. It is sufficient if we are thinking at the works appeared in the second half of the nineties: Frank Hadler, Mitteleuropa Zwischeneuropa Ostmitteleuropa. Reflexionen ber eine europische Geschichtsregion im 19. und 20. Jh., GWZO Berichte und Beitrge, 1996, pp. 34-63; A. T riebel (ed.), Pragmatik der Gesellschaftsvergleich (Leipzig: 1997); Werner Daum, Gnter Riederer, Har m von Segger n, Fallobst und Steinschlag. Einleitende berlegungen zum historischen Vergleich, Vergleichende Perspektiven, Perspektiven des Vergleiches. Helga Schnabel-Schle (ed.) (Mainz: 1998), pp. 1-21.

Sigismundus Rex et Imperator. Kunst und Kultur Sigismunds von Luxemburg, 1387-1437: Ausstellungskatalog. Imre Takcs (ed.) (Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 2006). 733 pages, ISBN: ISBN-10: 3-80533626-8, ISBN-13: 978-3-8053-3626-0, ISBN-10: 3-8053-3640-3, ISBN-13: 978-3-8053-3640-6).

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t has been said that nowadays, in order for a cultural project to succeed, it has to be big. Well, this is surely the case with the

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Book Reviews
Sigismundus project. The Sigismundus. Art and Culture in the Time of Sigismund of Luxemburg (1387-1437) took around ten years to be achieved. The entire effort was supported by the Hungarian and Luxembourg heads of states, it received funds from the respective governments and had the blessing of high church officials. The projectmainly consisted of an international conference (Luxembourg, June 2005), an extensive international exhibition displayed both in Budapest (Museum of Fine Arts, MarchJune 2006) and Luxembourg (National Art History Museum, July-October 2006) and of a series of publications in a number of languages. But it also involved several restoration works (like the bust reliquary of St. Ladislas or several sculptures from the Brukenthal Museum in Sibiu), loans from Museums in twenty countries and the creation of a website containing all the details and an index of the items in the exhibition, with good quality images (see: www.sigismundus.hu). The publications related to this project display the same luxurious characteristics. The first is the Sigismundus Rex et Imperator. Kunst und Kultur Sigismunds von Luxemburg, 1387-1437, edited by Imre Takcs and published at Mainz (Philipp von Zabern, 2006). This is an exhibition catalogue, comprising over 700 pages and 1000 high quality reproductions. It is available in German, Hungarian and French editions. Another publication related to the project is the collection of papers presented at the conference in Luxembourg: Sigismund von Luxemburg: Ein Kaiser in Europa edited by Michel Pauly, Franois Reinert(Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 2006). The articles are in German, English and French, occupying nearly 400 pages, accompanied by the same exquisite illustrations. There is also a just 100-page long exhibition guide published in Hungarian, English, German, French and Slovak versions: Sigismund of Luxemburg: Art and Culture 1387-1437 edited by gnes Krber (Budapest: Szpmvszeti Mzeum, 2006). The most extensive is the exhibition catalogue. This follows the structure of the exhibition itself, being therefore divided into seven thematic sections. The opening extracategory is a prologue referring to the general historical background, including chronologies, genealogies and maps, with documentary sources as part of the catalogue. The first theme refers to the Angevin inheritance, that is the artistic peak accomplishments in late Angevin Hungary, the catalogue section including art and architectural entries. The second theme concentrates on the figure of Sigismund, presenting, both in the articles and in the catalogue entries, items depicting the emperor. Equally specific is the third theme that groups numismatic and sigillographic evidence. A more general and extensive overview is grouped under the fourth title: The World of the Knights of the Dragon. This presents Sigismund as patron of the arts, describing his residences in Buda and Pressburg (Pozsony, Bratislava), churches he had built, the arts (sculpture, wall painting, manuscript illumination, stove tiles, applied arts especially metalwork) and items related to the Order of the Dragon. The fifth theme touches more on the international events and connections, concentrating on Sigismund as political leader. Referring to the historical period just after the death of the emperor, the sixth part presents the cathedral of Vrad (Oradea), his burrialplace, and the later effigies of his sucessors. The seventh and final unit of the catalogue is dedicated to the international gothic style of the era, illustrated through notorious examples from all kinds of artistic fields. The book closes with an extensive bibliography common to all articles and items, and an index of names and places. As one can easily see, the entire volume is unballanced towards Sigismund as Hungarian king rather than Sigismund as Holy Roman emperor. In this sense, it is visible that the initiative belonged to a group of Hungarian scholars who tried to make better known the artistic and historical herritage of East-Central Europe. Which is, in a sense good, considering the ongoing general des-equilibrium in the availability of information in the international scholarly world, clearly leaning more towards the western part of Europe. On the other hand the overall image does not fully correspond to the title, that, for the sake of exactness, should have been: Sigismundus Rex Hungariae (et imperator). But the cultural integration of the new or future members of the European Union, was clearly an important political element in the success of the project. It is also good to see that among the authors one

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can find not only the big names, such as Imre Takcs, Pl Lvei and Ern Marosi, but also young scholars, such as Zsuzsanna Kisry and others. But as a natural consequence of such a large project, the volume somehow lacks unity. It is not always clear why certain themes are illustrated by certain catalogue entries, or why the themes themselves are chosen and entitled the way they are. Some concentrate on a specific type of source material, others are so general that they could easily be expanded in other 700 pages long volumes. Then, some articles are merely one page long notes while others consist of more lengthly presentations. What they do have in common is that they do not present new material and that they concentrate on precious and prestigious items, ofering a glittering and seductive image. All in all, the catalogue of the Sigismundus exhibition is a pleasure to the eye. It does not bring great novelties but it is a sucessful and diversified ensemble of artworks and general presentations meant to recreate the atmosphere and the looks of an era. Ana Maria GRUIA other, confraternities have had, as a function among others, to negotiate the ideals of the two entities, to mediate their interaction. That is why, the inquiries having medieval confraternities as an object are equally enlightening for religious life, the ecclesiastical institution, devotional ideals and their appropriation by the most dynamic category of secular society the inhabitants of towns. One could note that one is not dealing with a unilateral imposition of models and values, from the ecclesiastical institution towards a receptive society, but rather with a veritable exchange, through which the laity, in their turn were able to model the church in its most intimate aspects. Confraternities have existed and acted at these critical junctions of medieval society. Lidia Gross book, as the title indicates represents an investigation concerning the confraternal phenomenon in Transylvania, a frontier zone both for urban civilisation of a western type and the geography of Catholicism. The choice of subject has been, as the author indicates, purely subjective (Argument, p. 7), invoking the fascination of the living image of the medieval town and the need for more refined knowledge of medieval spiritual life, a less investigated field in Romanian historiography. The presumption that Transylvania has known a confraternal history and that this has remained largely unknown represents sufficient arguments for such an investigation. Geographically speaking, this endeavour refers to the voievodate (and leither principality) of Transylvania, while the chronological limits (the fourteenth-sixteenth centuries) are linked to the beginning of urban development and the major changes brought by the Reformation. Moreover, the same period defines the peak of the confraternal movement throughout Europe. The author chooses as a methodological approach the tracing of the characteristic traits of the confraternities in conjunction with the environment where they made their mark, the religious and charitable activities they appropriated, the devotion they practiced, their impact at the level of the population, in a permanent parallel with the development of the process in other geographical areas, especially the German lands. We are also warned that, although a component of the general European phenomenon, the medieval confraternity in the Transylvanian area presents some pe-

Lidia Gross, Confreriile medievale n Transilvania (secolele XIV-XVI) [Medieval Confraternities in Transylvania (14th -16th centuries)] (Cluj-Napoca: Presa Universitar Clujean, Ed. Grinta, 2004), 331 pages, ISBN 973-7924-26-6; 973-610-263-7.*

edieval associations with a charitable purpose, generically known as confraternities represent a fascinating research field for many reasons. Because of their location within the articulations of the medieval social body, that is, within the contact points between the great institution of the Church and the clerical order on the one hand, and the City and the burghers on the

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* This text was translated by Maria Crciun

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