On 11 February 2026, the Fraknói Research Group, in cooperation with the Medieval Evenings lecture series, presented two newly published volumes by its members at its central research venue, the Faculty of Humanities of Pázmány Péter Catholic University. The books appeared in the Collectanea Vaticana Hungariae and Collectanea Studiorum et Textuum series.
The large audience was welcomed by Kornél Szovák, Director of the Cph, after which Tamás Fedeles’s volume Do All Roads Lead to Rome? The Ordination of Hungarian Clerics in the Roman Curia (1426–1523) was introduced. The speaker emphasized that the work, originally submitted as a doctoral dissertation for the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, is remarkably readable and of particular importance for its comprehensive and multifaceted use of an entire Roman source corpus. Its scholarly value is further enhanced by its appendices and its carefully designed cover. The book was also situated within both international and Hungarian scholarship and compared with Slovak research. While the latter preceded Hungarian historiography in examining this important archival fund, its results are uneven in quality and selectively interpret sources to support the present status quo, extracting them from their authentic historical and ecclesiastical-administrative context. With CVH I/25, and earlier with the related source edition (CVH I/18), the Fraknói Research Group has fulfilled a task of national strategic importance: the Vatican sources of Hungarian history have been explored, published, and interpreted as genuine sources of Hungarian history. The next step will be the Italian edition of the monograph, to be published by Edizioni Sette Città in Viterbo (Storia d’Ungheria, vol. 4).
This was followed by an appraisal from Academician László Solymosi of the medieval account book of the Győr cathedral chapter, edited for publication by Gábor Nemes. He placed the volume within the recent series of medieval source publications, noting that it offers not only ecclesiastical-historical data but also valuable material for economic, social, political, military, and everyday-life history. He also addressed the historiography of the edition, including the discovery of the source and the turbulent life of Jenő Házi, who began preparing it for publication, before congratulating the editor on this significant — and physically weighty — work.
Finally, Péter Tusor situated the Group’s scholarly series and the importance of the volumes within a broader context. The well-attended double book launch was closed by Kornél Szovák, after which participants had the opportunity to purchase the publications.
The CVH and CST volumes presented on this occasion are listed below:
Fedeles Tamás: Minden út Rómába vezet? Magyarországi klerikusok felszentelése a római Kúriában (1426–1523) (Collectanea Vaticana Hungariae I/25), Budapest–Róma 2025.
† Házi Jenő–Nemes Gábor: A győri székeskáptalan középkori számadáskönyve (1495–1528) (Collectanea Studiorum et Textuum I/8), Győr–Budapest 2025. (Egyelőre nem a teljes e-kötet, annak közlése egy év múlva.)
Invitation and poster
