Keywords: social movements, national programmes, modernisation, Székely societies, “Székely action”

The term “Székely (Transylvanian) action” is applied for all social and governmental activities aimed at increasing the level of the economic, cultural and social status of the Székely people from the end of the 19th century. The launch of the national programme has been preceded by a social movement starting in the 1870s and flourishing around the turn of the century. Székely societies were organized as the result of local social movements coordinated by the Organization of the Székely societies from 1904. Despite financial problems and ignorance by the authorities, the societies carried out mostly cultural and, in smaller proportion, economic work not only locally, but also by organizing Székely congresses and working out proposals through which they drew attention to local social problems, contributing to the development of the Székely Land.

 

 

Keywords: China, Soviet Union, Communism, Hundred Flowers Campaign, Mao Zedong, Maoism

The notorious slogan „let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend” dates from a special era of Chinese political history, the period after the 20^th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, on which Nikita Khrushchev denounced the “personality cult” of the all-time party president. Khrushchev’s “secret speech” inadvertently put MaoZedong in a delicate position, who responded with this new motto meant at identifying the country’s problems and mobilizing the intellectuals, while also signalling a more critical stance towards the Soviet Union. Subsequently, Mao’s flowers have become an indicator of the Chinese society’s state: as party pressure eased, they could start to blossom, but, as times grew harder, they withered away.

 

 

Keywords: garden culture, late Renaissance, Transylvania, national freedom, politics

The late Renaissance/early modern gardens of Transylvania represented an idealized medium of post-mediaeval life. They were also a symbol of national freedom as a space where harmony between historical reality and future ideals of independence could be achieved. The garden acts as a mirror of its owner, the Transylvanian noble lady and, more generally, of the politics of this region situated on a frontier between East and West, aimed at achieving balance. It stands as a testimony for the innovative spirit, reticent towards Habsburg rule, yet already turning against obsolete traditions.

Keywords: roses, garden treatises, János Lippay, late Renaissance, Basilius Besler,Pliny, Pozsony

An authoritative monographer of the rose motif in universal cultural history, the author analyses the first garden treatise in Hungarian written by János Lippay about his brother’s, Archbishop György Lippay’s late Renaissance garden from Pozsony (Bratislava). Focusing on roses, he reviews the nutritional, medicinal and sacral reasons for their cultivation, and reveals the link between Antiquity and the Renaissance in the various uses of this flower. Lippay’s main sources are identified in Pliny and, indirectly, in ”the father of botany”, Theophrastus. A contemporary reference point is also identified in the work of Basilius Besler (Hortus Eystettensis), also interpreted with special regard to roses in the frame-work of a comparative approach.