The Hospitallers in the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary, c. 1150-1387

The Order of Saint John had its headquarters in the East but its activities there depended for men, money and political support on its Western preceptories and priories. Most of them relied on local materials without utilizing the Order's central archives, the remains of which are now on Malta. There have, more recently, been books on priories which partly made use of the Malta documents. The work of Zsolt Hunyadi is a further addition both to the study of particular Hospitaller priories and to the history of the order as a whole. A major problem faced by the author was the dramatic loss of archives and documents in Hungary, a difficulty which he laboured admirably to counter in Malta and elsewhere. In one way, it is precisely because developments in the Hungarian priory were so different from those elsewhere that Hunyadi's work is of such interest. The appearance of this thesis marks a major turning point in a 'subject which has hitherto been largely misunderstood. It is an excellent and much needed addition to Hospitaller history. Zsolt Hunyadi was born on 1 September 1970 in Eastern Hungary. He studied Hungarian linguistics and literature, philosophy and medieval history at the Jozsef Attila University (Szeged, Hungary) from 1991 to 1996. He also earned an MA in Medieval Studies at Central European University (CEU, Budapest) in 1996. He then began to conduct his doctoral studies both at the University of Szeged and at the Medieval Studies Department at CEU. He concluded his studies in the year 2000 and successfully defended his doctoral dissertation in 2004. Parallel to postgraduate studies he began to teach at the Department of Medieval and Early Modern Hungarian History at the University of Szeged, first as assistant lecturer, later as assistant and adjunct professor. He was tenured in 2009. His main research interests are medieval military-religious orders, the Crusades, rite history of pragmatic literacy, and the nobility of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary and in East Central Europe generally. His scholarly activity involves active participation in different scholarly societies, such as the Capitulum research group for medical church history, serving on the editorial board of the Decreta Regni Medievalis Hungariae (DRMH) and as a member of the Committee of the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East (SSCLE). His scholarly achievements have been promoted or honored by several scholarships and research grants; most notably he conducted some of his research as A.A. Heckman Scholar (1998) in the United States and as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow (2006-2007) in Germany. Presently he is an Honorary Research Associate at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) at University College London (UK). His scholarly achievements have been promoted or honored by several scholarships and research grants; most notably he conducted some of his research as A.A. Heckman Scholar (1998) in the United States and as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow (2006-2007) in Germany. Presently he is an Honorary Research Associate at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) at University College London (UK). --Book Jacket The Order of Saint John - the Knights Hospitallers - is one of the oldest surviving religious orders. The work of Zsolt Hunyadi is a further addition both to the study of particular Hospitaller priories and to the history of the order as a whole.