Katalin Prajda

My proposed book project is a history of the multiple networks which existed between the Florentine Republic and the Kingdom of Hungary during the reign of Sigismund of Luxemburg (1387-1437). This period in the Florentine history corresponds to the epoch of the oligarchic regime, dated between the woolworkers (ciompi) revolt (1378) and the return of Cosimo de'Medici (1434) to Florence, and marked by three major Florentine censuses (1378, 1427, 1433). I argue that in republican Florence social networks of kin, neighbors and friends provided a solid base for human interactions at various levels, including diplomacy, social mobility, merchant networks and cultural exchanges. The project - which has a strong interdisciplinary character and combines elements of quantitative research with qualitative analysis - may challenge our vision of complex social networks in medieval societies and that of the importance of connections between the Western and the Eastern parts of medieval Europe.