Between christianitas and Europe: Giovanni of Capestrano as an historical issue

Giovanni of Capestrano, who is largely ignored by non-specialists in religious history, is very well-known (although with ambivalent fame and assessments) to scholars from the countries which he crossed (presentday Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Croatia) during his turbulent mission of only six years (1451-1456) between Wiener Neustadt and Ilok. However, the fragmentation of research in national historiographies remains very considerable, even though Giovanni’s Great Mission seems to constitute, ex natura we could say, a point of convergence among them. The repeated (but unsuccessful) efforts made during the past century to collect and publish his correspondence (still little exploited), and (in recent years) an increasing series of international workshops and scholarly enterprises aimed at this goal, could make of that document-dossier a common and undivided heritage of European scholars.1