Berecz Mátyás - Bujdosné Pap Györgyi - Petercsák Tivadar (szerk.): Végvár és mentalitás a kora újkori Európában - Studia Agriensia 31. (Eger, 2015)
G. ETÉNYI NÓRA: Tradíció és aktualitás a 17. század végi várostromok nyilvánosságában
Nóra G. Etényi TRADITION AND TOPICALITY IN THE REPORTING OF TOWN SIEGES AT THE END OF THE 17th CENTURY During the reoccupation period of the war (1683-1699) those reporting on the events in print, whether in newssheets or bulletins, not only supplied up- to-date information about the town siege, but reminded people of the previous importance of the castle or town and how it fell into Turkish hands. This propaganda technique served to increase the significance of the successes achieved, and draw attention to the political and economic importance of the territories the Kingdom of Hungary had reoccupied, while reliving the events of the conflicts that had taken place at the border castles. It was also in the interests of those relying on the “black arts” of the printing press to recycle what they knew while accumulating as much information as they could. Tradition, which also meant legitimacy in the propaganda of the Turkish wars, was kept alive using many different media: illustrated handbills in which prints supplied background information, almanacs, chronicles, geographical descriptions and historical works. In the handbills one finds the ground plans, and views of significant castles taking a standard stylized form, while the importance of the siege in question also supplies characteristic information. In the German, English and Dutch handbills, pamphlets and other printed material about the sieges and the raising of the sieges at Esztergom, Visegrád, Buda, Eger and Székesfehérvár one reads not only about topical events, but about what it was possible to salvage during the course of a long struggle. Many different versions of one particular military event saw the light of day: professional military diaries were published in several parts, as were lists of booty. Inventories were published at the castles of Székesfehérvár, Eger, Kanizsa as well as those castles that had already fallen into the hands of Imre Thököly, as in the case of Munkács, and towns (Eperjes, Kassa) which give us an idea of their military strength and the state of provisions. The handwritten and printed information arriving at the Imperial Diet of Regensburg prove the extent of the desire for news from the Hungarian theatre of war. A catalogue printed for the 1685 Frankfurt book fair also 126
