The Grand Tour of John of Capistrano in Central and Eastern Europe (1451-1456). Transfer of Ideas and Strategies of Communication in the Late Middle Ages

The structure of this volume represents the multilayered naturę of Capistrano s letters, and of his career. In these sources we see a figurę whose correspojidence and activity arę constantly at work both a European scalę, and also locally or regionally Accordingly, the first part of the volume concerns Capistrano s correspondence as it reflects themes that arę of broad importance, in varying ways, across .the fuli rangę of European religión, politics, and culture. The second section then shows many of those same dynamics morę regionally and locally, in the many particulars of the Polish-Silesian regional context, often with careful attention to the many technical details surrounding the tangled textual and archival histories of the letters themsełves. Of course, each of the essays concerning the broader themes arę themselves grounded in the details of the epistolary And the detailed studies of the letters themselves, conversely, also capture regional or local inflections of a rangę of tensions and dynamics - from religious affiliation through confraternity letters to papai and episcopal politics to the persecution of the Jews - that were European in scope and resonance, The Yolume thus inyites and reminds scholars always to hołd in view this twofold tension between the local and the universal, the generał and the particular, as key to the broader interpretive appeal of Capistrano s mission and his correspondence.

James D. Mixson, Introduction