Institute of History

Dionýz Lénard was a young Slovak Jew from the town of Žilina. He was deported in one of the first transports of Jews from Slovakia in March 1942. The Nazis directed this transport straight to Lublin and imprisoned Lénard in the Majdanek concentration camp. Lénard spent several weeks in Majdanek. He witnessed and suffered from terrible crimes. His (partially preserved) testimony became one of the most comprehensive and most important testimonies of its kind. Even though it was previously published in Hebrew, German and Polish, it has never been published in Slovak.
Even though this particular book is focused on one goal, which is to provide the Slovak reader the opportunity to read Lenard's testimony, it also goes beyond this.
The first chapter is actually the first attempt at a complete biographical profile of Lénard. It aims to answer questions about who he was and what happened to him after his return to Slovakia. Historians believed Lénard later escaped to Hungary from Slovakia and then vanished without a trace. Some believed he died together with Hungarian Jews in 1944. This book presents previously unknown facts about Dionýz Lénard's fate after his escape from Majdanek and documents it until the end of the World War II.

Szeghyová, Blanka. Punishment in Sixteenth-Century Hungarian Towns. In Friars, Nobles and Burghers - Sermons, Images and Prints : Studies of Culture and Society in Early- Modern Europe. Edited by Jaroslav Miller and László Kontler. Budapest - New York : Central European University Press, 2010, p. 361- 376. ISBN 978-963-9776-67-8.

Szeghyová, Blanka. Coexistence of Diversities: Social, Ethnic and Religious Frontiers and Identities in Early Modern Hungarian Towns. In Frontiers and Identities. III. Thematic work group 5. Cities in Regions and Nations.  [Ed.]: Klusáková, Luďa - Teulières, Laure. Pisa : Edizioni Plus Pisa University Press, 2008, p.121-135. ISBN 978-88-8492-556-5.

The book is a very diverse collection of papers, in which alongside authors who are recognized experts in the topic and have published several books on the subject of magic are young scholars who have only recently joined the community of “magical” scholarship. Nevertheless, the majority of authors have their primary research interests elsewhere, but were still able to find enough relevant material to present and contribute to the scholarly discussion on the role of magic in the past. The book is rich in multiple approaches that can be taken when studying magical practices, beliefs and perceptions. Not only history and ethnology in general, but also historical anthropology, social history, history of science, art history, social psychology, psychology and history of religion, theology, philosophy, linguistics and literary studies can all with their specific approaches and methodology contribute to our better understanding of the magic phenomenon.

Officials and Employees in the System of Judicial Self-Government in
the Pentapolitana Towns in the 16th Century. Historické štúdie, 2013, roč. 47, pp. 73 – 88.
This paper deals with the municipal self government of the Upper Hungarian towns of
Bardejov, Košice, Levoča, Prešov, and Sabinov in the 16th century, with special attention
to officials and employees involved in the judicial system. Judicial power was an integral
part of their municipal self-governmental rights. The five towns belonged in the highest
category of free royal towns and from the 1380´s were grouped in a regional association
called Pentapolitana.
History. Hungary/Slovakia. Urban History. 16th Century.

Blanka Szeghyová: Corruption in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period

Perspectives of what is corruption have been changing with the development of the society and according to the shifts of its values. The study examines not only activities that were considered morally wrong and corrupted in the middle ages and early modern period, but also those forms of behaviour that started to be generally considered corrupted only later. Anachronistic as this approach might seem, it gives us better insight into the slow process of changing attitudes towards some forms of corruption.
The study concentrates on three main areas in which corruption could be studied: church, government (both central and local) and last, but not least on judiciary. Church was criticised for widespread practice of simony and nepotism of the popes. The earliest criticism of corruption in politics and government can be found in the mirrors for princes (specula principum), a kind of political writings instructing rulers on good government and appropriate behaviour. Typically, a phenomenon started to be questioned firstly as corrupted by some intellectuals only. Their views, however, had for long none or only little influence on general perceptions, let alone on changes in legislation. Judiciary was the only sphere in which general public had ever strong negative and very sensitive attitudes against corruption and the fact was reflected in several works of art depicting cruel punishments for corrupted judges.
Given the limited time space for research and with only few case studies on corruption available in the periods of question, the paper is just a concise survey or introduction to the topic rather than a thorough analysis. Due to the lack of relevant research on corruption in the historic territory of the Hungarian kingdom, the paper follows general European development, adding Hungarian examples where local sources are available and known.

Topography of the justice system: places, objects, artefacts and symbols of urban justice in the early modern Hungarian kingdom
This paper is an introduction to the research project on „Topography of the justice system“ which seeks to visualize the urban justice system in the early modern era in the Kingdom of Hungary. The author examines places, objects, artefacts, symbols and rituals connected to the administration of justice in towns, which include 1) town halls with their interior and exterior decoration which represents the power and the autonomy the town 2) pillories, stocks and cages of shame; 3) prisons and torture chambers; and 4) executions sites. Judicial rituals, the omnipresent visual symbolism as the primary means of public communication and the selection of specific motifs to represent justice, all of this reflect the contemporary values and ideals as well as ideas on appropriate punishment.
Key words: justice system, topography, town hall, pillory, execution site

Mgr. Blanka Szeghyová, PhD., je vedecká pra-covníčka Oddelenia raného novoveku Historic-kého ústavu SAV. Venuje sa mestským dejinám a topografii, ako aj sociálnym a intelektuálnym témam, najmä histórii súdnej praxe a dobovému vnímaniu zločinu a trestu. Je autorkou i spolu-autorkou viacerých odborných štúdií a publiká-cií vydaných doma i v zahraničí a editorkou publikácie v angličtine The Role of Magic in the Past. Learned and Popular Magic, Popular Beliefs and Diversity of Attitudes (2005). Súdnictvo a súdna prax patria na Slovensku k málo prebádaným oblastiam histórie. Monografia je postavená na archívnom výsku-me v piatich východoslovenských, kedysi hornouhorských mestách v období 16. storočia. Išlo o mestá združené do regionálneho spo-ločenstva známeho pod menom Pentapolitana, medzi ktoré patrili Košice, Levoča, Bardejov, Prešov a Sabinov. Autorka skúma charak-ter mestského súdnictva a jeho fungovanie v praxi a na konkrétnych prípadoch rozoberá typické delikty i udelené tresty. Záverečná kapi-tola poukazuje na vplyv reformácie pri posudzovaní mravnostných deliktov a načrtáva dobovú mentalitu mešťana, jeho chápanie cti, spravodlivosti a trestu.