Research leader name
Prof. Dr. Attila Pál Bárány, DSc
Our research focuses on the military history and organization of Hungary from a Central European perspective between 1301 and 1526. The Déri Museum in Debrecen serves as our hosting institution. Our previous projects include the MTA “Lendület” Research Group (Hungary in Medieval Europe, 2014-19), as well as our OTKA project (Sources of the Medieval Hungarian Military Organization in Europe), our Thematic Excellence Program (Hungary’s State and Image in Medieval Europe, University of Debrecen), and the Memoria Hungariae Database.
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Beyond traditional event-based narratives, we examine the institution of war through new perspectives such as financing, logistics, and intelligence gathering. Our primary objective is to explore and publish Hungarian-related diplomatic and narrative sources from Italy, Poland, Silesia, and Dalmatia, accompanied by commentary and studies. We investigate Hungarian mercenaries in Italy (Vatican Apostolic Archive, Florence, Mantua). The project emphasizes critical editions of sources with commentary, bilingual and multilingual essay collections, and major monographs.
In 2026, the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Mohacs, an external collaborator from our research group will produce a monograph in a foreign language to make the latest research on this pivotal battle accessible to an international audience. Preparatory work for this endeavour is underway. Péter E. Kovács is working on a major monograph on Sigismund of Luxembourg’s war against Venice, its second volume (Venice and Hungary II: The Lion Leaped) was published in 2023. We examine Sigismund’s campaigns in Bosnia and Transylvania. László Pósán investigates attempts to settle the Teutonic Order and anti-Ottoman campaigns. We also delve into the crusading efforts of the Burgundians and the Valois, utilizing archival materials from Lille, Dijon, Brussels, narrative sources such as Jean de Wavrin and Bertrandon de la Broquière, Philippe de Commynes, as well as dispatches from Milan and Venice. The results will be compiled in a source publication in 2026, authored by Attila Bárány and Attila Györkös. Attila Bárány depicts Matthias Corvinus’s wars in Silesia with excerpts from Długosz and Eschenloer, alongside an examination of the Hussite Wars from the ‘bratřík’ to the mercenaries (1437-67), and the Italian policies of Louis the Great (supporting the papacy’s Italian crusading ventures), as well as Venice’s Hungarian and Central European relations.
We continue the military historical analysis of Hungarian charters (narratio), which are unique sources since in some cases, military campaigns can only be known through the military histories listed therein. Associated with this, under the coordination of Ádám Novák, we investigate military portraits, battles, and campaigns of the 15th century, conducting prosopography research. The workshop conference for the year 2024 is also organized on this theme. In collaboration with Márton Szovák, we are currently translating descriptions of the Kingdom of Hungary from the Venetian Marin Sanudo’s Diaries, for which a digital platform has been developed: https://sanudologia.weebly.com/database.html. Ágnes Maléth, as an external researcher, examines Hungarian mercenaries contracted by the Holy See. Zoltán Véber reviews lesser-known enterprises of John Hunyadi (1448-56: Kruševac, Kilia) based on Hungarian, Milanese, Ragusan, and Venetian sources. Renáta Visegrádi and Ágnes Virágh are compiling a source collection with introductory studies and critical notes on Hungarian mercenaries hired in Florence, similar to Miklós Toldi, supplemented by introductory studies and critical notes.
Processed documents are made accessible through our “Monumenta Militaria Hungariae” online database (https://monumenta.militaria-hungaria.hu/monumenta-web/). In 2022, we organized an international conference on crusaders and mercenaries, and in 2023, the conference proceedings were published in a multilingual essay collection titled “Mercenaries and Crusaders”, In 2023, a conference focusing on Italian mercenaries was held, and 500 records were published in the “Monumenta Militaria Hungariae” database. Our foreign partners include CY Cergy Paris Université, Internationale Historische Kommission zur Erforschung des Deutschen Ordens (Bonn); Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika (Toruń); MECERN, DiDip (Universität Graz); D.E.E.D.S. (University of Toronto); IMM Lleida; and Olomouc (Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci).
As a conclusion to the project, in 2027, we will publish an edited volume titled “Hungary in Medieval European Military History”. The research group also serves as a platform for scientific talent development, resulting in a military history dissertation as part of the project. Within the framework of the “Medieval Military History Lecture Series”, foreign guest lecturers present, including Roman Czaja (Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika); Helmut Flachenecker (Julius-Maximilians-Universität); and Renger de Bruin (Universiteit Utrecht).
Numerous presentations have been given at international conferences in English, German, and French (New York, Leeds, Bratislava, Lisbon, Visegrád). We have published in journals and essay collections in English, German, and Italian (England, Germany, Italy, Spain, Romania, Slovenia).
