Olga and Jan research not only the games and their developers, but most importantly, the gamers, focussing on how they understand the games they play and the history behind those games.  In this interview they consider if, and how the most popular historical digital games can change or re-enforce popular perceptions of history. And if they do, will this makes professional historians more or less relevant.  They also discuss how national governments might use historical digital games for political propaganda with an example of a game developed and marketed on behalf of the Russian state.  Finally Olga and Jan consider what might be better ways of using medieval, or any history, in digital games to ensure they are historically valid while still being entertaining and profitable for the developers.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Department of Historical Studies.

Photo image - Pentiment (2022), photo provided by the Obsidian Entertainment

Adinel breaks down how the endeavour was developed, how the several elements of the project function and how the partners are working together.  He also points out that the research is particularly interested in the local stories of good resource management, whether this is through primary education to build better human resources, or through re-use and re-purposing of physical resources for pragmatic and symbolic aims.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Department of Historical Studies.

The Restory project is funded by the European Research Executive Agency through the Research and Innovation Actions, Cluster 2 - Culture, Creativity, Inclusive Society, Pillar 2 of Horizon Europe (call HORIZON-CL2-2023-HERITAGE-01-04: Cultural heritage in transformation – facing change with confidence; Project nr. 101132781). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Nick looks at how he is tracing this fascinating, but largely forgotten migration route from Lotharingia to Hungary through a mixture of documents and histories, mostly from ecclesiastical archives, archaeology, place names and personal names.  This vast, complex and challenging research highlights the migration and it‘s multi-vectoral influence on the developing kingdom of Hungary.  Nick also discusses his research’s methodological foundations in Bruno LaTour’s ‘Actor Network Theory’ and the concept of Entangled History,  and how these tools help with the understanding of these routes of people and influence.  Nick explains how understanding medieval episcopal politics can help make sense of modern Europe. 

Nicholas Tayler was awarded the Bak Fellowship scholarship in 2023 -2024 to support his research.  For information about this scholarship please click here.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Department of Historical Studies.

Lena explains who the New Christians were, and why they moved between Apulia and Spalato. She shows how, and why this route of international trade was so important for Spalato and their colonial over-lords, the Venetians, and the types of goods moving in both directions.  This trade also highlights the importance of family connections within and between the communities of New Christians in both Apulia and Spalato.   And despite the New Christians having converted from the Jewish faith to Christianity several centuries earlier, Lena shows that the memory of their religious alterity could be weaponized by their opponents in moments of conflicts, underlining the persistence of Jewish ‘otherness’ despite decades of successful integration into the Dalmatian society.

Photo credit - Državni Arhiv u Zadru, 16: 59/66.7-IV, fol. 188r.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Department of Historical Studies.

Katalin notes that there are few traditional, archival sources of information for her research, and so uses the method of spatial analysis to understand the changing relationship between ecclesiastical , secular , and mercantile power.  These relationships become clear from the locations of, and physical and visual links between the cathedral, the stronghold and the marketplaces of a city. 

The research presented in this podcast was funded and hosted by the Religion and Urbanity: Reciprocal Formations research group of the Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies at the University of Erfurt (DFG – FOR 2779).

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Department of Historical Studies.

Gregor considers how pirates, and the concepts and semantics related to piracy emerged in the Baltic. He links the emergence of specific actors who engaged in armed violence at sea to the need for both merchants and nobility to protect their legitimate interests.  In addition, he notes how the frequent inter-state conflicts within the region gave rise to the use of sea-based privateers and mercenaries commissioned by the states engaged in conflict.  Gregor also describes the number of terms used to describe the actors involved, and these terms vary partly according to how the ‘pirates’ were paid or rewarded and by whom, and party according to the view point of the person using the terms.  However, there are no records of what terminology the ‘pirates’ used to describe themselves.

Finally Gregor explains how the semantics influenced the development of the rule-of-law and thus state building, and he notes how these developments were, effectively undertaken by merchants to protect their economic interests and trade within the Baltic region.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Department of Historical Studies.

Following King Stephen I dedicating the Hungarian kingdom to the Virgin, Karen notes how later kings venerated, and promoted the veneration of the Virgin Mary.  This public veneration, echoing and linking to King Stephen I, was particularly strong during times of dynastic transition when kingship and the right to rule was liable to be challenged.  Karen also notes how the nobility also promoted the cult of the Virgin Mary, potentially in order to gain favour with the king.

Karen also discusses the malleability of the image of the Virgin, enabling many different communities to venerate her, for example, royalty, nuns, mothers, newly converted pagans.  Finally, Karen considers why understanding the cult of the Virgin is relevant today, citing both on-going veneration to political propaganda.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies.

The image of the Virgin for this podcast is from Manfred Koller, “Das Schatzkammerbild in Mariazell. Untersuchung und Konservierung,” in Ungarn in Mariazell, Mariazell in Ungarn: Geschichte und Erinnerung, ed. Péter Farbaky and Szabolcs Serfőző (Budapest: Historisches Museum der Stadt Budapest, 2004), 301. 

Seshat: Global History Databank, founded in 2011, aims to bring together the most current and comprehensive body of knowledge about human history in one place by systematically collecting what is known about the social and political organization of human societies and the evolution of civilizations over time.

Cliopatria is a geospatial database of world-wide political entities from 3400BCE to 2024CE (then continuing with the existing description)  it builds on work originally done by Andrew Tollefson for a YouTube video. Seshat and Cliopatria are now linked, so that data related to a polity can be taken in relation to its physical location, its geo-spatial context, and over time. Jakob uses the Holy Roman Empire and Sigismund of Luxemburg as examples of the management of inter-locking relationships

Seshat and Cliopatria both actively welcome enhancements, additional data and suggestions from their users.   The web addresses are

Seshat: https://seshat-db.com/   and https://seshatdatabank.info/  (Note : in order to see all the data and suggest edits, an account is needed which has to be manually approved)

And Seshat database on github: https://github.com/Seshat-Global-History-Databank  

Cliopatria on github:  https://github.com/Seshat-Global-History-Databank/cliopatria  And on Zenodo: https://zenodo.org/records/13363121

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies.

The Niguliste Museum (branch of the Art Museum of Estonia) is based in the medieval St Nicholas ( Niguliste ) Church in central Tallinn.  One of the most important items in it’s collection is the massive and stunning beautiful altarpiece by Herman Rode of Lübeck.  Based on documents in the Tallinn City Archives, Merike describes how the unique altarpiece was commissioned for St Nicholas Church by the major guilds of the city; how funds for the work was collected from the wider congregation, and finally how the altarpiece was delivered in August 1481 and erected in place by workmen from Lübeck.  Merike extends the story of the Rode Altarpiece to the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, as the work and City Archives were evacuated and returned to Tallinn due to wars and peace. Today Tallinn clearly loves and is proud of its medieval history and art.

Workshop of the Lübeck master Hermen Rode. Retable of the High Altar of St Nicholas’ Church in Tallinn. 1478–1481

https://nigulistemuuseum.ekm.ee/en/the-retable-of-the-high-altar-of-st-nicholas-church/

Books:

https://pood.ekm.ee/en/et/rode-altar-tallinn-niguliste-church-main-altar-retable/ https://pood.ekm.ee/en/et/rode-altar-side-view/

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies. 

Jessica is considering St Martha’s window in its fullest context of the late 14th century.  Therefore this includes not only the images and surviving text surrounding the images, but also the story these images and texts told, and how these stories fitted with the stories told by adjacent windows, now lost, in St Martha’s.  In addition, she considers the people who saw the window and the ways in which they would have seen and experienced it, also the people who paid for the window and how they benefited from this donation and memorial.  Jessica concludes that, although today we see the apocalyptic images and windows as perhaps negative as the physical world burns and is destroyed, late medieval people would probably have seen them as positive, happy and an image of the salvation of their souls.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies.

Olga’s research focussed on Milíč of Kroměříž, a popular and radical preacher in Bohemia who wrote many lengthy sermons which were widely copied and disbursed in central and northern Europe.  Using Milíč’s sermons for Good Friday as a window into the preaching of the period, Olga explains why the Good Friday sermons were so important, how the sermons were used as a form of mass communication, and what the sermons were expected to achieve in connection to the church congregation.   Olga also shows why and how these sermons are still valuable and relevant for today’s academics and wider population.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Department of Historical Studies.

In addition, Natalia talks about her research into one specific noble lady, the Duchess Gremislava (in Polish, Grzymisława), a Rus princess married into the Polish nobility.  Through the detailed examination of a seal of Duchess Gremislava, Natalia reviews the power struggles and internal family competition of the nobility, as well as how these travelling brides built wider support and friendship networks throughout their married lives.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies.

 Karel’s research is based on a range of sources, including a book written for the nuns by their confessor, a monk from a near-by Benedictine Abbey of Ostrov, in the early 15th century. This book contains the rule of St Benedict, and the confessor's advice on various aspects of their life – how to manage their library, educate the young novice nuns, and how to conduct their daily life in accordance with their monastic vows. The book also contains reprimands which offer delightful insights into where and how the nuns were taking short-cuts in their religious life.

 This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies.

Focussing on the lesser known Mongol invasion of Hungary in the 1280s, and viewing this from the perspective of the Mongols, Jack’s research considers the likely reasons for the invasion.  His analysis shows that the Mongol motivations were closely linked to internal power struggles  and dynastic conflicts within the Golden Horde, and changing climatic conditions in their home steppe-land.  Jack’s analysis also implies that the invasion was not for conquest, but for loot and slaves, and to enhance the reputation a leading contender within their internal power struggles.  Jack also demonstrates how the Mongolian elite viewed the world and the place of themselves and their vast empire within it.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies.

The effect of the Samalas eruption was noted throughout the world, often, but not always, with a negative impact. As many of the changes wrought by the eruption and subsequent change of weather patterns were long term or permanent, Martin describes this as a truly global moment in the Middles Ages.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering Central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies.

In the interview the following recordings have been utilized. We thank the authors for enabling us to share medieval music in the podcast:

1) "Annua recolamus” from the album Sacer Nidus - Św. Wojciech, Bolesław I. Chrobry i Otton III. w muzyce średniowiecznej by Ensemble Peregrina, dir. Agnieszka Budzińska-Bennett, Raumklang 2011

 2) Exultet chant based on the Gradual of Bolesław II of Mazovia, MNK Czartoryski Museum in Kraków, Rr. 4922-4940 (olim: KrM MNK/XV/rys/2271-89), performed by Isabella Burns at the University of Notre Dame, 2015.

Scribal additions also offer a rare glimpse over the shoulder of the scribe and allows us to see the material and physical nature of the scribes’ work of copying text, including his tiredness, hunger, and relief at finishing the task.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies.

In this interview, Jason Snider (Ph.D Student) talks about his research into the defence of the Kingdom of Hungary by the Teutonic Knights.  He considers the defensive strategy from a military perspective and poses the question of why it failed.

This podcast is part of the ‘New Faces, New Ideas’ series in which Ph.D students in the Department of Medieval Studies talk about their current research and future ambitions. 

This podcast is part of the ‘New Faces, New Ideas’ series in which Ph.D students in the CEU Department of Medieval Studies talk about their current research and future ambitions. 

This podcast is part of the ‘New Faces, New Ideas’ series in which Ph.D students in the Department of Medieval Studies talk about their current research and future ambitions. 

This podcast is part of the ‘New Faces, New Ideas’ series in which Ph.D students in the Department of Medieval Studies talk about their current research and future ambitions. 

They discuss Maarten’s book Citizens without Nations: Urban Citizenship in Europe and the World c. 1000-1789. Maarten discusses how urban citizenship functioned in medieval and early modern Europe.  He argues that urban citizenship in the period was much deeper and wider than many people assume as it includes people who participated in all the activities related to being a citizen plus those with formal citizenship status. He also demonstrates how this definition of citizen impacts urban and national governance in the period before 1789.

This interview podcast is part of the series of podcasts for MECERN and the CEU Department of Medieval Studies.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies.

Dr. Fabian Kümmeler is the APART-GSK Fellow at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and Principal Investigator of a project on “Pastoral Communities in Southeast Europe, 1400–1600”.

This podcast is part of a series for the CEU Department of Medieval Studies and MECERN

In this interview, the joint editors of the book, Nada Zecevic and Daniel Ziemann, discuss the process of creating a Handbook that consists of twenty-four chapters written by over fifty different scholars spread throughout the world.  They discuss how the book’s style and content was created, how the boundaries of chronology and geography were defined and agreed upon, and how they managed the many challenges of such an extensive subject and ambitious project. Nada and Daniel also reflect on the final chapter of the Handbook and consider the use, and potential abuse, of medieval history and the role that historians should play in presenting medieval history.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the early and medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies.

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies.

Link to the video of the Lorenz Lechler drawing - https://vimeo.com/666276544

This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the early and medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies.