Astronomers, Theologians and Vagabonds – The Cultural Circle of Bishop John Vitez, a 15th Century Central European Humanist
Royce 236In most of the older studies of the Renaissance, Eastern Central Europe was a “dark area” about which very little was said. We have since come a long way in understanding 15th-century culture in Hungary, Slavonia and Croatia. A thriving Renaissance movement was spreading, and its focal point was Bishop John Vitez, a generous patron of the arts and a scholar himself. This native of Slavonia and son of Croatian-speaking petty nobles brought together an international circle of artists and scholars, who would meet at his court in Oradea in today’s Romania and, later, in Esztergom in today’s Hungary. His...