borito Vilagtortenet 2014 2The second issue of World History (Világtörténet) for 2014 is a thematic issue dedicated to the Holy Roman Empire has been published. The contents of the issue can be read here.

The Holy Roman Empire and Hungary had had close relations to each other since the foundation of the Kingdom of Hungary, but Hungarian readers concerned with history had access only to a limited amount of secondary literature on the Empire and its political mechanisms. Since the political transformations at the end of the 20th century, however, professional connections between the German and Hungarian historians have become livelier. As a consequence, the research results of the experts of the Holy Roman Empire’s history are more and more widely known in Hungary. The authors of the papers of the issue also contribute to this process, dealing with a wide range of topics related to the Empire: how did the political practice of the protestant estates change in the Holy Roman Empire under the influence of the developing imperial state law elaborated mostly by Protestant legal experts; what results had the explosion of information in the 17th century and how the media-system was formed in the German-Roman Empire. An essay summarizes the debate on the usage and understanding of the term Catholic Enlightenment in German historical writing from the end of the 19th century to post World War II period; another essay offers a brief comparison of the coronations in early modern Germany and Hungary by examining the German and Hungarian coronation of Emperor/King Leopold II in 1790. We can read about the antecedents and the history of the Schmalkaldic War (1546-47), and about French political and territorial aspirations in the 17th century related to the Holy Roman Empire. The thematic issue also contains reviews on literature on the Holy Roman Empire and a description about an important exhibition on the patron saint of the Holy Roman Empire in the Louvre, Paris.

The journal World History is published by the Institute of History of the Research Centre for the Humanities of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The four volumes of World History contain essays by Hungarian and foreign scholars on various topics pertaining to world history, as well as reviews on the secondary literature published in Hungary and abroad. The language of the journal is Hungarian, but each article includes an abstract in English.
Subscriptions can be made at any Hungarian post office, but issues of the journal (including older issues) can be bought or ordered from the Institute as well (postal address: MTA BTK Történettudományi Intézet, 1014 Budapest, Úri u. 53.; telephone: 36/1/224-6700/624; e-mail address: .)