Urbs - Magyar várostörténeti évkönyv 7. (Budapest, 2012)
Recenziók
Abstracts KATALIN SZENDE Urban Research and Residence Research. European Overview and Hungarian Results The study constitutes a review of the emergence of residence research (Residenzenforschung) as both an independent scholarly trend and a subject connected to urban research. From the middle of the 1980s, this trend (situated at the intersection of political history, history of settlements and social history) invigorated historiography by raising new questions, and was accepted early on by Hungarian historians, archaeologists and cultural historians. Moreover, it could be said that residence research was represented in Hungary already between the 1950s and the 1980s, even before the emergence of its terminology and organization by numerous researchers, through the “Buda debate” where the relationship between the capital and the royal centre was examined from various points of view. Prominent scholars in these discussions include Erik Fiigedi, László Gerevich, András Kubinyi and László Zolnay. As defined by the Residence Commission (Residenzen-Kommission) operating under the auspices of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities (Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen), residence research is mainly concerned with royal and baronial seats situated in the territory of the Holy Roman Empire as well as the buildings belonging to them and any courts residing there. Furthermore, residence research focuses on court culture in the period from 1200 to 1400. The fact that the Empire was fragmented into numerous ecclesiastical and secular principalities makes this a justifiable and exciting issue. Among Anglo-Saxon researchers, the presence and the spatial manifestation of power attracted the attention of historians and archaeologists alike. Research on the principal residences and courtly society was necessarily related to the examination of those places enhanced by the presence of courts. This importance of this issue is emphasized in the Residence Commission’s new research program published in 2011. One important set of questions regards the morphological or topographical analysis of the social groups serving at court or attempting to remain in its vicinity; another is the exploration of the conflicts between the principality and local autonomy. In both cases the implication of the tools and methodologies of Residenzenforschung made it possible to approach various important issues for urban historical research in new ways. All of the above arguments are useful and thought-provoking for Hungarian scholars too, and many new results have been published in Hungary over the last few decades. In addition to the exploration of the topography and political role of Arpadian royal centres (for instance; Esztergom, Fehérvár, Óbuda), research into the Anjou centres such as Temesvár, Visegrád or Buda from the point of view of the function and role of the URBS. MAGYAR VÁROSTÖRTÉNETI ÉVKÖNYV Vil. 2012. 581-601. p.
