Student Congress "In fonte veritas"

On Monday, April 28, 2025, in the hall "Bl. Alojzije kard. Stepinac", a student scientific conference "In fonte veritas" was held, organized by the History Student Club of the Croatian Catholic University Homo volans. The goal of the conference was to encourage students to work directly with historiographic sources, thereby deepening their understanding of historical topics and encouraging the development of research skills.

The opening of the conference was addressed by Assoc. Prof. Mario Kevo, Head of the University Department of History, and student Iva Mihekovec, Vice-President of the Homo volans Club.
 

Professor Kevo expressed his satisfaction with the student initiative and the organization of the conference, which he hopes will continue to bring together young historians in the future to exchange knowledge and ideas, and encouraged his colleagues to continue working at conferences and associations, as well as working with historiographic sources.
 

During the day, 14 history students from the Catholic University of Croatia and the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb presented the results of their research in four sessions, covering periods from ancient times to modern history.

In the first session, Ivan Vranić presented the perception of the rule of Sargon, the founder of the Akkadian state, through written sources and modern interpretation; Dominik Bučar discussed the speech of Pope Urban II in which he called Christians to the Crusades in 1095; Adrijana Kikić spoke about Franciscan sources, more precisely, about the perception of Saint Francis from the writings of Thomas the Archdeacon, while Leonarda Jurčec presented the manuscript of Joachim Meyer as a reflection of the culture of his time.

The second session began with a presentation by Ivan Pirić on the historical records of women merchants in the 15th century, which revealed the important function of women in that period as mistresses of the home and guardians of wealth; Hrvoje Crnogaj spoke about the historical development of (proto)football as a sport; Stipe Markota presented the social significance of brotherhoods from the analysis of selected matricularies (birth and death registers, registers of that time) in the eastern Adriatic region, while Luka Mihanović presented notarial documents as witnesses of the 15th century.

In the third session, Nikola Budor analyzed selected records from the diary of Bishop Maksimilijan Vrhovac and showed how they can be used as a source; Marija Kanižaj spoke about Stenjevac, a district of Zagreb, through the source of Ljudevit Ivančan; Kristina Martinelli presented on the social life of women at the end of the 19th century through fashion shows, and Iva Mihekovec spoke about historical painting as a historical source on the topic of memories of the Battle of Siget.

The fourth session brought two lectures - Marija Ištvanić's lecture on the history of Mexico and Latin American countries and Martina Špilek's lecture on the coverage of the fall of the city of Vukovar in the French daily "Le Monde".