Research professor Géza Pálffy, the leader of our Institute’s Early Modern History Research Team led the OTKA (Hungarian Scientific Research Fund) research K 60618 (Hungarian Nobility in the Courts of Vienna and Prague in the 16th Century) from 2006 to 2011, which had the honour of being present in the yearly governmental report on the activities of the OTKA in 2011.

The volume summarizes the most significant results, at the same time the academic doctoral thesis of our fellow scholar was published by the institute in 2010 (The Hungarian Kingdom and the Habsburg Monarchy in the 16th Century. Bp., História–MTA Történettudományi Intézet, 2010. História könyvtár: Monográfiák, 27., 564., Unamended reprint. Bp., 2011.). It is worth mentioning that on the cover of the HSRF report there is a previously unknown portrayal of the Hero of Szigetvár, Miklós Zrínyi (1508–1566), a portrait that was discovered during the research, on which the Hungarian–Croatian lord is carrying the copy of the Hungarian state’s symbol, the Holy Crown in Vienna at the funeral ceremony of Ferdinand of Habsburg (1526–1564, founder of the Central European Habsburg Monarchy) in summer, 1565. This portrayal is one of the recently discovered treasures of our national cultural heritage.