The influence of Jan Hus and Hussitism in the Hungarian culture

The interaction between Central-European cultures makes itself visible in all the turning points of our history, as the region is covered by a dense web of cultural history relations. The present volume in commemoration of the 600^th anniversary of Jan Hus’s death at the stake is a collection of essays on the aspects of the Czech religion reformer and Hussitism itself that imprinted the memory of the 15^th century religious reform in the Hungarian culture.

The papers dedicated to the Hungarian aspects of Hussitism from the beginning to the mid-20th century were presented on the conference organized in the autumn of 2015 jointly by the Saint Adalbert Foundation for Central and Eastern European Research, the ELTE Faculty of Humanities Culture History Department-Centre of Religion Studies and National Széchényi Library. The authors look for answers to questions like the origin of the “Hussite Bible” (Klára Korompay), the role Hungarian students in Prague played in the propagation of Hussitism – whether it was as important as previous literature assumed (Péter Haraszti Szabó), how the Czech Hussites reacted to the increasing danger of Ottoman invasion after the lost battle of Mohács (Eszter Kovács), the Czech relations of the Hungarian Protestant Reformation (Andor Mészáros), and the figure and importance of Jan Hus in the works of great Hungarian writers like Mór Jókai (Zsolt Vesztróczy) and László Németh (Csaba Kiss Gy.). Important Hussite-type sources in Hungarian collections are also discussed, including the Antiphon of Esztergom (Judit Lauf), and two incunabulum editions of Jan Hus’s Postilla at National Széchényi Library (Jan Pišna).

In addition to the Hungarian aspects of Hussitism, we considered important to give room to essays elaborating on its Czech relations (Tamás Berkes, Sixtus Bolom-Kotari, Hana Vlhová-Wörner). This is a lesser known area for Hungarian scholars, although very important for research due to the strong influence Hussitism made on the Hungarian culture. Apart from literary and cultural history, the volume also includes interesting details on book history (Attila Verók) and local history (Péter Rokay and Melina Rokay).