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A hunok es nagykirdlyaik [The Huns and their Great Kings]. By Istvin Bona. Budapest: Corvina, 1993. Pp. 274) and Az Arpddok korai vdrairol [Hungarian Forts of the Early Arpadian Age]. By Istvan Bona. Debrecen: Ethnica, 1995. Pp. 136.
The author of these works needs no introduction. His numerous publications, as, for example, his study of the early 960's, "Cunpald fecit: The Chalice of Petohdz, and the Beginnings of Frankish Missionary Policy in Transdanubia," Soproni Szemle, 18 (1964), 127 ff., and 218 ff.; and his impressive Der Anbruch des Mittelalters: Gepiden und Longobarden im Karpathenbecken (Budapest: Corvina, 1976); or his dissertation on archaeological data in the mid-Danubian region from the late third to the late ninth centuries, in Bela Kopeczi, ed., Erdely tortenete [History of Transylvania], 3 vols. (Budapest: Akademia, 1986), I, pp. 107-234, firmly establish his scholarly reputation. His writings are characterized by monumental knowledge of the subject, with no detail escaping his attention; non-archaeologist historians can rely upon his work, read it with intellectual pleasure, and learn from it. Bona is able to unite archaeological evidence with written historical information; he only discusses data that can be supported by available archaeological evidence. He has, in A hunok es nagykirdlyaik, summarized and surveyed anew information about the Huns and their history....