THE EXTERNAL CONDITIONS OF LITERATURE
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CONTENTS OF LITERATURE
THE AUTHORS
THE WORKS

THE EXTERNAL CONDITIONS OF LITERATURE

In the age of the Árpád dynasty the Carpathian Basin was bordered by significant cultures. Consequently the country of the Hungarians was a multilingual cultural unit. Only a very few written relics survived, which would refer to the birth of literature. Muslim communities living in Hungary had the literacy necessary for practising their religion, which explains how an Arabic codex could get to the Benedictine abbey of Korvey from Hungary during the 12th century, or how Tádé from Hungary - a translator of Aristotle - could reach the Spanish Toledo in the 1170s. It is also possible that the Muslims, who pursued a very active commercial activity, had practical literacy as well. Greek Catholic church institutions - the blooming of which could be traced until the beginning of the 13th century - also possessed appropriate liturgic books.

Besides these, as the Greek letter of foundation of the Veszprémvölgy monastery shows, in the age of Saint Stephen there was an experiment to introduce Greek as the language of official matters. It was a significant fact that in the first half of the 12th century it was Hungary that received one of the most outstanding Byzantine theologians: Cerbanus, the Venetian clergyman found Maximos Homologetes (= Confessor)'s work entitled "Peri Agapes" (= About Love) and also some paragraphs from Ioannes Damaskenos's "Ekdosis" (= Edition) in the monastery of Pásztó and he translated them from Greek to Latin.

Anonymus's work from the turn of the 12-13th centuries preserved a tiny fragment of the every day literature living on the lips of the Hungarian people; although only in Latin translation. Experts consider the quotation from the 25th paragraph a fragment of a minstrel's song: "Since Tétény wanted to obtain fame and land with his honesty, as the minstrels say: »They all gained place for themselves and in addition they acquired a good fame.«" Besides this there were a few pieces of work in the Hungarian language in the last century of the age of the Árpád dynasty. Concerning genres, the first unbroken literary relic of the Hungarians, the "Funeral Oration and Prayer", is a church speech, the "Old Hungarian Lament of Mary" is an example of liturgic poetry, and the "Königsberg fragments" and the "Gyulafehérvár lines" - although they are from a later age, they reflect the 13th century stage of the language - are a sermon and a theological essay.

Starting from the general use of names of heroes from antique and medieval epic (Tristan, hector, Helena, Ehellős [Achilles], Roland-Loránt, Elefánt [Olivant]) and certain linguistic peculiarities of the South-Slav Troyan novel, some experts suspect that there were Hungarian translations of the works of Western court epic (The Troy-novel, Alexander the Great novel, Roland-Song) appearing at the beginning of the 13th century, but the existence of these is not properly proved today. On the basis of the first unbroken literary relics of the Hungarians we can differentiate Hungarian and Latin literature in the age of the Árpád dynasty.

The language of the literature from the Árpád age which survived in quite a large quantity was predominantly Latin, more precisely a version of it used in the Carolingian age, called Middle-Latin. The reason that the Latin language was so dominant in the age is firstly that early medieval literature was basically church literature with settled genres. Secondly because of the way of thinking in the Middle Ages, which strived for universality, but we must also remember the fact that the alphabet in use was most suitable for voicing the Latin sound system. Change in the predominant role of the Latin language came only at the end of the 15th century in Hungary, but only a very few Hungarian literary works were written then. The Latin language preserved its dominant role in the West all through the Middle Ages, in spite of the fact that starting from the 12th century the German language became quite significant with respect to Latin in literature and literacy to the end of the Middle Ages.

Though learnt in schools, Latin was not a dead language in the Middle Ages in the modern sense of the word. It served as a kind of international mother tongue among educated people speaking different languages to get in touch with one another in several territories including diplomacy and literature. In his legend St Stephen was said to be skilled in grammatics, and this is not far from truth, since he might have spoken Latin, as well as his son, Prince Emeric, legal heir to the throne, who died in 1031. A Polish source mentions King Coloman - who deserved the epiteth "the Bookworm", and who was educated from his early youth to be a bishop; he might have been consecrated bishop of Várad - as the most intelligent ruler in the world. The first secular person to be able to read and write - who was known by name - was guest Fulco, who arrived in Hungary at the turn of the 11-12th centuries from abroad, where he earned his living by his skill in reading and writing.

Lord Adalbert, who was sent to Sicily as a minister by King Géza II, might have been of Italian origin: he left a book to the monastery of Pannonhalma in his will. As a minister and in the possession of the book he might have spoken Latin, perhaps he could also read. Miklós from the Csák clan (1212-1239), who lived in the first half of the 13th century and was educated by his brother, Ugrin from the Csák clan, bishop of Győr, later the archbishop of Esztergom, is also noteworthy. From among his three wills, the one from 1231 might have been composed by himself, at least its personal tone and complexity suggest this. According to this a small group of secular landowners (presumably in small numbers) knew and used the Latin language. In the first half of the Middle Ages the most popular style was the rhymed prose, which was followed by rhythmic prose at the turn of the 12-13th centuries.

Education

The basic means of literary creation, the Latin language, was taught to medieval learners in elementary education. Concerning the age of St Stephen, there is a datum, according to which a school was functioning in the monastery of Pannonhalma already in the 1010s, that is a decade after its foundation. Its first pupil who was known by name was Mór, later monk and abbot at Pannonhalma, finally bishop of Pécs from 1036, who mentioned in his work, written around 1064, that in his childhood he had been a pupil (puer scolasticus) at Pannonhalma. According to the legend of Gerald (Gellért) around 1030 this school sent four monks - who could preach in Hungarian - as consecrated priests to help Gerald, bishop of Csanád, in his converting work.

In the second half of the 11th century the chapters were founded with the priests of cathedrals. In the schools functioning next to them elementary education also started. From the turn of the 12-13th centuries in the monastery and chapter schools the head of the school was the reading monk or canon (= lector), the instructor of liturgic music was the singing monk or canon (= cantor); but during the 13th century in chapter schools both the lecor and the cantor passed their jobs to substitutes (sublector, subcantor). For three years the curriculum was to read and learn the psalm-book by heart. Besides education in schools the acquisition of the Latin language was promoted by performing the daily service: the Latin texts recited day by day were easily memorised, and their meanings were understood through education.

The curriculum of medieval education was included in the seven free arts (septem artes liberales). At the lower level, in the so-called "trivium" grammatics, rethorics and logic (the technique of reasoning) were regularly taught. In the ideal case, this was followed by the curriculum of "quadrivium", the upper level education: music, aritmethics, geometry and astrology. The school-book of the Latin language was Donatus's grammatics, but in the age of St Stephen it seemed necessary to get the higher-level Priscianus-grammatics: Bonipert, bishop of Pécs, asked Fulbert, bishop of Chartres, to send it to him; Bishop Hartvic was very modest and said that in his youth he knew this work very well, but by his declining years everything sank into oblivion.

The first Hungarian teacher, who was mentioned by name, was master Gerald in the Guden diploma in 1079, but the place of his activity is not known. The school of Veszprém had become very famous by the second half of the 13th century, which provided priests, and which was destroyed in 1276 by the troops of palatine Peter of the Csák clan. The further functioning of the school was guaranteed by King Ladislaus IV by his gift, and in his deed of gift, the school of Veszprém - which taught the seven free arts - was compared to education in Paris with a little exaggeration. It was also mentioned that the legal education there was to serve the defence of the rights of the country. The priests educated in Hungarian schools also learnt to write besides reading. From the beginning of the 13th century a prelate was required to be able to read Latin texts and he had to have the skills in church legislature and rethorics, so the Hungarian schools must have satisfied the local needs.

The Dominican order, appearing at the beginning of the 13th century, required theological studies from the members because of missionary work. In each convent which had more than 10 members the lector held lectures. However, the organisation of independent higher education, the Dominican "studium generale" (= college) in Buda, took place only at the end of the 13th century. Till the second half of the 13th century the Hungarian Dominican monks usually received their qualifications abroad.

Those who wanted to receive higher education in Hungary had to go abroad. From the middle of the 12th century they had to go to Paris, then from the end of the 12th century to Bologne. In French schools theology and the "artes" were taught (Paris, Orleans). In the modern sense these were departments of humanities, in the Northern-Italian Bologne Roman and canon laws (later medicine and humanities) were taught. At the universities students learnt the most modern forms of practical (diploma) writing. (So these appeared in Hungary too, as soon as they were introduced, and there the "scriptors" passed the knowledge to one another in the writing workshops.)

From the school-books of "ars dictaminis" the theoretical and practical rules of literary creation were learnt. From Paris the students came home with the title of "artium magister", from Bologe with the title of "doctor decretorum". These students were usually sponsored by their royal or prelate-relatives. The first Hungarian student who received his juristic education in Paris was Lukas, later bishop of Eger, then archbishop of Esztergom in the middle of the 12th century. His skills in prelate sciences were greatly appreciated by Pope Alexander III. Partly by his suggestion King Béla III realised that he must regularly send young men to Parisian schools in his own interest to organise his chancellery.

In all probability Béla II's anonymous clerk belonged to this group of youth who wanted to learn, and in the preface of his "Gesta" he mentioned that he pursued studies of higher education, he might have learnt in a school in Paris or Orleans, and he returned as a "magister". Miklós, the Hungarian clergyman was the first Hungarian student at Oxford, who was known by name. The Hungarian Paul (Pál) went to Bologne at the turn of the 12-13th centuries and later, in the 1210s he became a lecturer of canon law at the university there. He then returned to Hungary as a Dominican monk. In the 13th century more and more Hungarians received their qualifications as doctors of law in this Northern-Italian town, until finally in 1265 they founded a Hungarian section (natio), where all the Hungarian students could unite. The king supported his loyal clergymen in their studies, since when they returned they became the defenders of the law in the country, office-holders in the chancellery or prelates.

Books and Libraries

Dealing with reading and writing required books. In his "Second Act" King St Stephen ordered that the local bishop be responsible for supplying the church - built by ten villages - with the necessary liturgical books. A great majority of these service books were brought by missionaries from abroad. But part of them must have been written in Hungary: at the foundation of the bishopric of Zagreb around 1090 service books were brought from Esztergom and Győr to the new church. The oldest codex written in Hungary may be the sacramentarium of the monastery of Garamszentbenedek from the 11th century. Only one page of it survived.

The place where books were copied in the monasteries and cathedrals was the writing workshop, called scriptorium. The Admont-codex, which contains the text of St Stephen's laws incompletely, the Ernst-codex, which contains the St Stephen legends, the Pray-codex, which preserved lithurgic texts and historical records were made in the scriptorium of a Benedictine monastery at the end of the 12th century. The Liber ruber, the book which contains the copy of the charter of the monastery of Pannonhalma was also made here in the 13th century. The book of gospels from Nyitra and the book of antiphonies from Graz were copied in the scriptorium of cathedrals, and it is also possible that the only copy of Anonymus's work which survived from the beginning of the 13th century was copied in the scriptorium of the royal court.

The oldest authentic Hungarian list of books survived from around 1090 in a charter containing the land possessions and movable property of the monastery of Pannonhalma. The list mentions eighty codices by their titles, and since they each might have contained more than one, the total of 200 independent works can be identified. The books served for the daily services and the Benedictine way of life, but among the titles we can find some antique authors, Donatus's Latin Grammatics, the biography of St Martin, the patron saint of the monastery, and the works of Pope Great Saint Gregory, St Augustine and Isidor from Sevilla. The other significant list of books originates from 1277, when Master Ladislaus, the prepost of Esztergom, made his will concerning his estates and movable properties. The testament enlists 18 books altogether, which could be considered quite a big private library at the time. The books in the possession of a secular man were first mentioned in Lord Adalbert's will, which were left to the Benedictine monastery of Pannonhalma by the owner. A typical case of the fate of Hungarian books, and at the same time the proof that they are treasures is the case of the Bible from Csatár.

The Audience: the Places of Creation

Concerning the place of creation, Hungarian literature in the Latin language in the age of the Árpád dynasty can be divided into two categories. Part of them are monastery type. Unfortunately, the authors of these works are not known. The primary goal of these books was that they should be read during services. They reflected the Roman age in their view: their main element was the preparation for the final Judgement and eliciting fear of it.

The audience for monk-authors were the monk-communities and the secular priests, who then transmitted the content to the people in their preachings in Hungarian. For this reason their role in the development of Hungarian literary thinking is very important: they were the audience and transmitters at the same time. St Stephen's larger, St Emeric's and St Gerald's smaller legend and the legend written by bishop Mór belong to this category.

The other category consists of books written in the court, in the king's environment. Their authors either gave their names or their personality could have been guessed from the writer's self-consciousness in the prefaces. Their audience was the more or less educated secular, and from the 12th century the highly educated ecclesiastical layer of the royal court. The prosaic stylistic art of these books often crossed the border of poetry, their rhymed composition sometimes became poems (for example, Anonymus's last lines about the story of Tonuzoba, and the hymn in the St Ladislaus legend about Ladislaus's virtues.) The Exhortations, St Stephen's smallest legend, Bishop Hartvic's work, Alberic's law-book, the Ladislaus legend, and almost the whole historiography in the age of the Árpád dynasty - which was closely connected to the employees of the royal chancellery - belong to this category.

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
CONTENTS OF LITERATURE

The borders of literature and literacy were less sharp in the Middle Ages than nowadays. Each text which was written in Latin, consequently in settled forms, and was aimed at a definite audience, was considered as literary creation. Juristic and administrative literacy also contain certain signs because of which they cannot be excluded from the category of literature. Charters, laws and synod-resolutions, which were almost all created in royal and prelates chancelleries, and in the scriptoriums of chapters and monasteries, where mostly the historical works were born. The arengas and narrations of charters urged high quality compositions. From among written pieces of works these texts survived in the greatest number, there were more of them than the total of narrative texts.

Purely scientific, didactic literature survived only in a very small number from Hungary from the age of the Árpád dynasty, and these were mainly theological-philosophical (St Gerald's Deliberatio), juristic (Paulus Hungarus's works) books or works connected to political science (King St Stephen's Exhortations). Historical and narrative literature in the age of the Árpád dynasty in Hungary meant mostly chronicles, that is stories about the past (chronicles and gestas, legends), and in a smaller number they were written as memories or history of the age (Master Rogerius's Miserable Song, Riccardus's report about brother Julianus's journey). Poetry appeared mostly as church or liturgic poetry. Compared to this secular lyrics survived only in very small numbers (Planctus); they were oath inscriptions (The Gisela-cross, the inscriptions on the Coronation cloak) and rhymed epitaphs (e.g.: Béla IV's epitaph).

The Categorisation of Works by their Contents

Literary pieces of works in the Hungarian language survived in a very small number from the age of the Árpád dynasty (e.g.: Funeral Oration and Prayer), which usually followed the original Latin structure, if there was any, but they always satisfied the requirements of the style and genres of the Latin language. The majority of literary works were written in Middle Latin, and survived in this form. There was a sharper borderline between ecclesiastical and secular literature. The aim, audience and function of ecclesiastical literature is totally different from those of secular literature. Ecclesiastical literature was made to enrich and improve the texts of the service (= liturgy), it was supposed to teach moral lessons, it was aimed at church or monastic communities, and its task was to spread religious thoughts to a broad audience.

Secular literature, on the other hand, came into existence to preserve human memory and entertain. It was aimed at prelates and dignitaries at the court, that is, it was for an audience who lived a worldly life. Its task was to propagate and spread political-ruling ideas. Concerning forms, however, secular literature was often disguised as church literature, but the analysis of the content and aesthetical values clearly shows the characteristics of secular literature. Was court literature part of secular literature? Though there were several signs showing that certain phenomena of western court-culture became deeply rooted in Hungary, too, from the beginning of the 13th century. Since they were limited to formality, lacking characteristics referring to the content, we cannot talk about court literature in Hungary in the age of the Árpád dynasty. The reason for this could be the lack of a social transferring medium.

The Periods of Literature

In the age of the Árpád dynasty literary creation in the Latin language was continuous. Charters (or references to them, e.g.: a torn off lead seal from King Peter) were preserved from each ruler, without exception. The authors of these learnt in chancelleries from their older colleagues and when they were copying charters they used their predecessors' charters as samples. In almost each ruler (of the Árpád dynasty)'s court there was a historiographer, who copied, rewrote, or compiled and continued the codices of earlier chronicles. It is not surprising, that the legends, which were created first and foremost for liturgic purposes, were known and read till 1301, but the fact that the influence of St Stephen's Exhortation could be strongly felt continuously is quite amazing.

Besides continuity there are periods when literature became more intensive. After the age of St Stephen the first such period is the age of King Ladislaus (1077-1095) and King Coloman (1095-1116), when not only charters, but also legends, chronicles, and laws were created. Writers became aware of their values, and also juristic literacy became wide-spread. In all probability this improvement was the result of the spread and consolidation of the Christian belief and system of institutions; formally it was shown by the canonisations. The second outstanding period was the time of King Béla III (1172-1196), when juristic literacy was institutionalised by the organisation of chancelleries. In Béla's court Anonymus wrote a narrative gesta, and the author of the St Ladislaus legend wrote a biography reflecting a worldly philosophy.

Besides the encouraging influence of the consolidation in Béla's age there is a certain purposefulness in the intellectual content of the two literary pieces, and also in the fact that Béla sent clergymen to Paris. The ruler - his experiences in Byzantium might have helped him in this - probably recognised the possibility and necessity of royal propaganda in literacy. In addition to the German emperor's crusaders, who marched through the country, also had their influence on the country. The third outstanding period is the age of Stephen V and Ladislaus IV, when the representations of social conditions: chronicle-writing, hymn-poetry and letter writing became intensive. The development rooted in the serious problems of social changes, since St Stephen's system of institutions started to break down definitely, and more modern political and social forms took its place.

The Survival of Literature in the Age of the Árpád Dynasty

Till the invention of printing, medieval texts were preserved in handwritten codices, which were exclusively made of parchment till the 14th century, but after that they used the cheaper paper, which was brought from China by Arabic merchants. It was very rare when texts survived in manuscripts (autographon), but in Hungary there were no texts found with the author's approval. In most cases there are only copies, the origin of which cannot at all be traced, except by checking the mistakes which were made during copying. The manuscripts of early works often originate from a later period, and there are works which were preserved only in primitive printed copies.

Manuscripts were copied in the scriptoriums of monasteries, in the middle of the Middle Ages in royal and prelates' chancelleries, and finally at the end of the Middle Ages in manufactures, which were continuously operating. In the late Middle Ages copying books was in connection with university education. The size of codices could vary from one eighth of a page (octave) to the big folio, so the sheets were folded into gatherings respectively. The text was organised into two columns on the page, and it was written with the appropriate font of Latin writing in the age. There was a big difference between the plain codices in use, which were written with cursive characters, and the beautiful, expensive codices, which were richly decorated with initials and miniatures because of the costumers special request, or the purpose or content of the manuscript.

There are codices, which contain only one piece of work, and there are volumes where several works of the same or different topic are collected (sometimes the later owner had some different manuscripts bound in one volume). In the course of copying, manuscripts were often supplemented, provided with notes, sometimes they were completely rewritten. The quality of the preserved book depends on the age, number and quality of the manuscripts. Considering the antique authors, the first codex of Vergil's work originates already from the 4th century, the first codex of Ovid's works is from the 9th century, and that of Propertius comes only from the 12th century.

The number of manuscripts was influenced by its genre. Books of general use, books containing lithurgic, juristic and educational texts were kept in several manuscripts: there are more than 8000 Vulgata-manuscripts, around 1000 of the popular Legenda Aurea, and Donatus's Grammatics, about 400 of St Augustine's work describing God's city, 400 of Bishop Isidorus's encyclopedia, and 400 of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy. Historical works survived in an average of 50, maximum 200 manuscripts. The first complete printed book was the Bible from 1455, this was followed by the first editions (editio princeps) of certain works of St Augustine (1467) and Vergil (1469). The critical editions of the works give information about the survival of the text.

The majority of the Hungarian manuscripts and the earliest ones contain liturgical texts. From among literary texts the manuscripts of St Gerald's and Anonymus's works were copied almost at the same time as they were written (Anonymus's work was copied not more than three decades after the author's death), these survived only in one manuscript. The earliest manuscript of St Stephen's smaller and larger legend was made at the end of the 12th century (Ernst codex), but there are later versions as well. Similarly the synod-resolutions from Coloman's age (together with the Pozsony Year-book) were preserved in a codex from the end of the 12th century, but the oldest codex in which the Emeric and smaller Gerald legend survived originates from the turn of the 12-13th centuries.

Bishop Hartvic's work was not so lucky, since its earliest copies, which contain the unbroken text, originate from the 14-15th centuries; the larger Gerald legend survived in a codex from the 14th century, and the text of the Ladislaus legends was preserved in a 15th century codex and in a primitive printed version (incunabulum); the "Exhortations" and Ladislaus's laws were found in the 15th century Thuróczy and in the 16th century Ilosvay codex. The earliest manuscript of Stephen's laws is the Admont codex from the 12th century, but this does not contain all the acts, in contrast to this the Thuróczy and Ilosvay codices give the complete, at several points better text. Master Rogerius's Miserable Song preserved only in the primitive printing of János Thuróczy's chronicle. Simon Kézai's gesta was the most unfortunate: presumably the only complete manuscript was lost at the end of the 18th century, only the 18-19th century copies are known.

The case of Hungarian chronicles from the age of the Árpád dynasty is very complicated. Several manuscripts - including the ornamented manuscript of the Képes Krónika (Illustrated Chronicle) - preserved the texts of earlier chronicles, in all probability without changes, but now it is impossible to trace the history of later changes in the text. As their texts are continuous till the reign of Charles I and Louis I, it is uncertain which part was written by which author. Still, it is encouraging that fragments of a chronicles (fragmentum) were found in bindings during the last decades.

The earliest work which was printed in Hungary is the Buda Chronicle, which was printed by András Hess in 1473 in Buda at László Karai's expense. This was followed - although abroad, in Brunne and Augsburg - by the Thuróczy chronicle, which also preserved the text of the Hungarian chronicles, in 1488, in two editions. The Hartvic version of the Stephen legend, the Emeric legend, the Ladislaus legend and the first edition of the Mór version of the Vágvölgy hermits' legend appeared in a primitive print, which was edited many times, at the end of the 15th century in Strassburg (1486), in Venice (1498, 1512) and Krakow (1511, 1519). (In this case we do not take notice of the extracts from the Temesvár Pelbárt legend and printed breviaries.) By contrast Anonymus's work was first edited in the very same year when it was discovered, in 1746, Gerald's work was edited only in 1790.

We must not forget the fact that several literary pieces of work might have been destroyed, and we do not even know about them, though there are references to some lost works. For example, we know that Bishop Gerald had other works as well: he wrote about Holy Trinity and commented on Apostles Paul and John's letters (some fragments from his preachings - the legends suggested the existence of these - were found recently.) Similarly, the work of Bernard, archbishop of Spalato, King Emeric's tutor, against the heretics, and his preachings were lost, too. Anonymus also mentioned one of his works, which was written during his years of study about the story of Troy and the Greek wars - in the course of time it was lost, too. But in an independent form, the whole historiography of the Árpád age was lost. There are many references to charters and letters, which are also lost. And we did not mention literature in the Hungarian language, which was almost completely lost...

THE AUTHORS

The other Hungarian author of legends, who mentioned himself by name is Bishop Hartvic: "Bishop Hartvic, who holds this mental office from God's grace, wishes his Lord, Coloman, outstanding king, a happy eternal life after the final limits of life". The bishop-author's demand for literary perfectness, his skills, and his self-consciousness of a writer is expressed by the fact that he had written a letter of recommendation to the beginning of his work. According to ars dictaminis, one of the basic rules of writing letters of recommendation, letters or charters is that after naming the addressee, the author of the letter should name himself (intitulatio). This is how we got to know about the senders of missales (in case of these and charters the person who issued them and the actual writer should be differentiated, of course).

The Emeric legend is a special exception, since luckily its author could be identified with guest Fulco, whose biographical data coincided with the data mentioned in the legend, which referred to the author.

The majority of those who compiled laws were also anonymous, from among them only Alberic - contemporary of Bishop Hartvic, King Coloman's clerk, who framed laws - mentioned himself by name: "To Seraphin, a bishop who burns with the fire of heavenly virtues, from Albericus - although he is one of the smallests - a loyal servant of God in the palace of heavenly contemplation". His case is similar to that of Hartvic.

In case of scholarly books the name of the author was preserved by the text in the title of the work, as we can see it in Bishop Gerald's case: "Gerald's, Bishop of the Marosvár church, dissertation on »The Song of the Three Youths« to the learned Isingrimus". The reason why we do not know the name of the person who compiled the text of the Exhortations is that tradition considered King Stephen the real author of it at the end of the 11th century.

The authors of sermons (sermos) are known by name if the supplementary content of the preserving codex refers to them, as in the case of Benedic's, Bishop of Várad, sermons; while at the same time anonymity is quite regular in case of a collection, known as Sermons from Pécs.

Finally we must mention historical works. The author of the notes in the Pozsony Year-book is not known. We can only suspect that the writer of the first part, till 1060, might have been a Benedictine monk from Pannonhalma. Before the end of the 12th century the persons of chronicle writers were knot really known. The experts, who date the primary gesta back to the age of Andrew I and Salamon, suppose that the writer of the Letter of Foundation of Tihany was Miklós, Bishop of Veszprém, since they found stylistic similarities between the texts of the chronicle and the Letter of Foundation of Tihany, and also because the chronicle contains an article on Bishop Miklós. Drawing conclusions from the notes in the chronicle about St Ladislaus's life, Bishop Koppány from the Rád clan - who died in 1099 - might be considered the author of Gesta regis Ladislai.

The data of Master Ákos's career support the possibility that he was the writer of the gesta which originates from the age of Stephen V. Simon Kézai named himself in the letter of recommendation: "To the invincible and powerful Ladislaus III, the most glorious king of Hungary, Master Simon Kézai, his loyal priest, wishes that he desire the person, whose beauty is admired by the Sun and the Moon". The name of Master Rogerius was preserved by the text in the title of a historical dissertation on the age of the Tartar invasion; the situation was the same in case of Prater Ricardus's report. Brother Julianus wrote his report in the form of a letter, so he named himself in the intitulatio.

There is only one single case when the author calls himself by name - although we do not know his name: the author of the narrative gesta, Anonymus, King Béla's clerk, kept his whole name in secret because of the compulsory modesty of the writer, fulfilling the demands of captatio benevolentiae with this. The only thing he tells is that his name started with the letter P, so there were a lot of guesses about it. The experts thought he was one of prelates after Béla III's death, called Peter; either Peter, prepost of Esztergom, or more recently Peter, bishop of Győr. In the letter of recommendation the author tells that he is a "magister" and he was the outstanding King Béla's clerk sometimes, and in school he had a friend, whose name started with the letter N, and at whose request he started to write his work. Experts seem to agree that the mentioned King Béla must have been Béla III (1172-1196). According to the surviving data, King Béla III had only one clerk, whose name started with the letter P: it was Prepost Paul, who later became a bishop in Transylvania, then the Archbishop of Kalocsa.

Foreigners in Hungary - Hungarians Abroad

The peculiarity of medieval literature was its international spirit, expressed in the language and the rules of creation. It was inaccessible for literatures written in national languages, and though it increased the intensity of Hungarian literature, it also definitely decreased the tendency to turn outwards. For an educated clergyman there were more possibilities in the Middle Ages than for a peregrine in the 16th century, since church institutions were the same everywhere and all the educated people spoke Latin. As a consequence, the foreign environment had a great influence on the works of writers.

The authors of the first Latin works, the Exhortations and Stephen's laws, Bishop Gerald and the writers of charters must have come to Hungary from abroad. Some of the foreign authors soon returned to their country: Arnold, a monk from Regensburg, performed his St Emeram antiphonies and responcies in Esztergom; Bruno from Querfurt came to Hungary to find Radla, one of the students of St Adalbert, to check the data of the Adalbert-biography. With the appearance of the first Hungarian authors this process changed in its proportions, but it did not go to the other extreme: in accordance with King Stephen's Exhortations Hungary still meant an asylum and the country offered church career for those who came from abroad, even if the synod-resolutions in the age of Coloman seemed to regulate the reception of foreign clergymen.

Bishop Hartvic came to Hungary because of the dispute around the German ruler's right to appoint prelates: previously he had been a Benedictine in Hersfeld, then he became a bishop, then the governor of the Magdeburg archbishopric, but he soon had to leave his residence and after 1088 he was received in King Coloman's court. Alberic might have originated from a region where French was spoken, and for him the archbishopric of Esztergom was the ideal place to go. Cerbanus only travelled through Hungary, but the memories of his visit are his precious translations from Greek. With the settling down of new monastic orders in Hungary from the 12th century, the western connections of the country became more intensive: the Cystercian monasteries kept permanent and close relations with their mother-abbacies, from time to time the monks appeared in far monasteries and after a certain time they returned to their original residence.

John from Limoges came to Hungary through such a relationship. Between 1208 and 1218 he was the abbot of the Cystercian monastery of Zirc, then he returned home, to France. Only one of his works is said to be in connection with his stay in Hungary. This is "Libellus de dictamine", which put the art of letter-writing, the ars dictaminis, into the system of scholastic logic. John of Limoges created a dictamen-teaching book, which was highly respected in later times, too: the text of it can be found in a codex, which was previously owned by Franceso Petrarca. If the author really wrote his work, or part of his work, in Hungary, then this is probably the only ars dictaminis written in Hungary in the age of the Árpád dynasty. We must remember the fact that in King Emeric's court famous troubadours from Provence were making their poems: Peir Vidal (1175-1210) mentioned among other things King Béla's enormous feet.

The role of the authors who left Hungary and wrote their books abroad is also significant. The best-known among these is Paulus Hungarus, who later returned to his homeland to encourage the convertion of the Cumans as a member of the Dominican order. He appeared at the university of Bologne in the 1210s, where he taught canon law, then from around 1219 he joined the Dominican order. In 1221 he became the prior of St Nicholas' church and the dean of the university of Bologne. Later he returned to Hungary at the request of the universal canon of the order. In course of converting the Cumans in 1242, during the Tartar invasion, he died as a martyr. Both of his works are in connection with his teaching in Bologne. In the "Notabilia" he commented on certain parts of canon law, and the "Summa de paenitencia" is the collection of instructions concerning penitence disciplines - a kind of manual for confession.

In the latter there are no signs suggesting a connection with Hungary, but the comments on laws contain a lot of references to the country. It is certain that both of his works were written during his stay in Bologne. Both Master Ákos and Master Simon Kézai travelled to Italy, not only because of their studies, but also as the king's ministers to establish dynastic relations. When King Stephen's daughter was accompanied to Sicily, travelling to her fiancée, Charles Anjou, Andrew from Hungary might have gone with them, but he did not return with the delegation. He became Charles Anjou's chronicle writer. His personality is very interesting, since he took his "magister" degree with the king's support, then he became the member of the king's chapel ("Master Andreas Ungarus, chaplain and friend of late King Béla and Stephen"!).

Although the topic of his chronicle is not Hungarian, the language and education of the author is the same as those of the contemporary Hungarian chronicle writers. In his work, which consists of 75 chapters, he preserved Charles Anjou's campaign to Naples in 1266, the event in the course of which the Anjou dynasty obtained the throne of Naples in the fight between the Papacy and the western rulers.

These facts show that the transfer of literature, the exchange of works and the authors leaving their countries was continuous between Hungary and the West from 1000 on. The universality of the system of institutions - as the base of literature - seemed to function well in Hungary, too.

THE WORKS

The common feature in charters and in pieces of literary works was that the same rules and ideas applied in their construction and style. The reason for this on the one hand is that the manual and curriculum of literary demands was the ars dictaminis - both for authors of long books and writers of charters, but on the other hand, the authors of literary works were often identical with the writers of charters. The proof of this relationship is the structural and stylistic similarity of charters, missales or fictive letters and letters of recommendations in the Middle Ages. Two of the formulae of charters were especially suitable for creating literary compositions. One of them was the arenga, which - in most cases - was compiled from international arenga-sources, but there were special Hungarian types of it, too. The other formula, whose text reached the standards of literary requirements, was the narrative of charters; the part that explained the reasons and circumstances of the person who issued it in details.

While narration remained the short and plain presentation of facts in the West, from the second half of the 12th century in Hungary, in the royal chancelleries, it became more and more detailed, and in the case of a gift the king also listed the donator's merits and described the events concerning the fate of the country and that of the reigning and royal family. As the narrative of charters increased in size, the demand to create more perfect compositions also increased, so finally the narratives were transformed into complete biographies and stories of careers. These works often show epic specific features, and are carefully structured (parallels or contrasts). But the most important thing is that this way royal chancelleries were not only the workshops of juristic literacy, but also those of preserving personal or communal memories.

The Genres

The surviving works represent the different genres of the Middle Ages, and the multiplicity of genres shows the high quality of literature. Regarding the conditions of Hungarian cultural life and the genre existing in the West, it is not possible that in the course of time whole genres were lost. All that was preserved must reflect the contemporary reality.

The most represented genre in the age of the Árpád dynasty was hagiography. Several facts encouraged the creation of the biographies of saint in large numbers. As the number of manuscripts and editio princeps show, legends were the most popular, and at the same time they had the widest audience, too.

It is typical that a significant part of their audience - the middle and lower layer of secular priesthood - was also a transfering medium, they brought the literary content of the legend to the widest range of people in the national language. Liturgy also required biographies: concerning the chants of monks and secular priests, there was a need for suitable readings besides hymns and psalms at the celebrations of saints, and this was usually taken from the biography of the given saint. Sometimes the biography was specially structured: in each of the six hours of prayer there was an appropriate extract to be read. The medieval practice of spreading ideas also required the means of the legend: in 1183, the first Saints of Hungary were celebrated at various places within a series of festivals all through the year. On 16-17th July hermits Zoerard/Andrew and Benedic, on 26th July, in Csanád martyr bishop Gerald, on 20th August at Székesfehérvár King Stephen, and finally on 5th November Prince Emeric was canonised.

The earliest legend is about the life of the hermits of the Vágvölgy, almost two decades before the canonisation. The author of the legend was probably encouraged by local and personal adoration, and the development and theoretical foundation of the Italian ascetic trend of monastic reforms.

At the place where St Gerald died a martyr, and opposite this, in the building of the Pest parsonage, the adoration of relics started quite early. But the common ancestor of the two preserved legends was written at the earliest at the turn of the 11-12th centuries, rather around 1145. From this an extract - a sermon - was made soon at the end of the century and it was used for liturgic purposes. The detailed text was rewritten at several points at the end of the 14th century.

The spirit of the original Gerald legend was highly influenced by the fact that the author - in the worldly environment - used several sources, which could have hardly been obtained in the solitude of the monastery: presumably he used the text of the chronicle from the age of Andrew I, and in the representation of chieftain Csanád's story he relied on heroic songs and local traditions. The French mentality, established in Chartres, - which was the base of both renaissance thinking and gothic art in the 12th century - was first represented here, and this fact raises the value of the text. In the sources there is no trace of the admiration of King St Stephen yet, the first sign of the development of this cult is the birth of the bigger Stephen legend, which does not mention the canonisation in spite of the fact that it was written between 1077 and 1083, after Ladislaus's accession to the throne.

The author, who usually wrote for Benedictine communities, worked out an important thesis in the history of foreign relations: he refused Pope Gregory VII's feudal demands for Hungary, which was made in the name of St Peter, by offering the country to the patronage of the Virgin Mary, and so the country became her spiritual heritage (the thesis of "patrimonium Petri" was contrasted to "hereditas Marie"). The author of the smaller legend had already known the work of his predecessor. His work reflected a completely different view: Stephen did not represent the ruler of the larger legend, who was always looking for the final judgement, but an actual, powerful and righteous king. This is the first literary work in Hungary, which fulfilled the demands of contemporary literary theory in every respect, there is a recommendation, which refers to the author's literary self-consciousness, and there are certain elements in the text which suggest interest in antiquity.

Whereas the first two Stephen legends were motivated by liturgic and educational points of view, the creation of the third legend was defined by a political aspect. In the prologue the author, Bishop Hartvic, frequently repeated the royal order, and this was not only mere politeness. The author, who came to Hungary from abroad, did not have other sources than the two previous legends: what he could do was to mix the two texts. He created an independent chapter, where he described how Stephen received a crown from the Pope. In the time of the construction of the legend the emperor and the Pope had been fighting for long in the investiture fight, the dispute about the right of appointing prelates. Hartvic had to prove that because of the papal privilege given to Stephen the contemporary Hungarian rulers had their legal rights for intervening in church matters, which had been unwilling to grant to Christian rulers by the popes since Gregory VII.

The traces of St Emeric's adoration are so faint preceding the time of his canonisation, that Hungarian sources had hardly any valuable data referring to him. His legend was written between 1109 and 1116 in a Benedictine environment as a reading for monks. In Emeric the author celebrated chaste innocence, but the critique of the aims of Gregorian papacy can also be felt in the text (he calls Pope Gregory VII simply Hildebrand!).

About one hundred years after the first canonisations, in 1192 at Vrad, at B la III's request the Pope's legate entered King Ladislaus among the saints, and with this the number of saints in the Árpád dynasty increased to three. Though the adoration of King Ladislaus had already started in the first half of the 12th century, in his canonisation political aspects also played a very important role.

The original legend, which was written at the time of the canonisation, did not survive. It was shortened at the beginning of the 13th century for liturgic purposes, and in those days changes were made in the longer text, too. The aim of the author was to emphasise the main characteristic features and the virtues of the ideal ruler (in many aspects it was close to the ideal picture of a Christian knight in Hungary), and in his representation he was the first one to use international miracle sources.

Without the legend of St Elisabeth, who went abroad, the legend of St Margaret of the Árpád dynasty (legenda vetus) was the last one born in Hungary during the age of the Árpád dynasty.

Margaret was not canonised, though there were many attempts to enter her among the Hungarian saints. The writer of her legend, Marcellus, her father-confessor, took the official record of the examination of her canonisation as the base of his work. With the simplicity of the language and structure of his work he tried to express the way of life of his heroine, which was quite modern at that time throughout Europe: the idea of Christian myth. The same is true for the legend of Ilona from Veszprém, which was completed at about the same time as the Margaret legend. In spite of the fact that it came to light rather late, the data it contains about the age makes it authentic.

Only very few, actually only one piece of theological discussion survived, and this dates back to the beginning of the age (monastic regulations written in charter-forms, the rules of the Paulians, and Paulus Hungarus's juristic works do not belong to this genre). Only one theological work of St Gerald survived; it is the "Deliberatio", but we know that he had written more. The complicated style and difficult chain of thoughts, the special expressions, the many Italianism and the imperfect sentence structures must have made the work unpopular. The reason why this genre was poorly represented in Hungary is that St Gerald's work is the one and only theological work representing the genre in the West in the 9-11th centuries.

Sermon-literature plays a very important role among the works with liturgic purposes. We know that St Gerald liked preaching, the memory of this was preserved in his legends, but in spite of this only a small fragment survived from his sermons, and this is the only relic of old, homily-type sermons in Hungary. The new, thematic style is represented by the two sermons of Benedict, Bishop of Várad, about King St Ladislaus's life, and the 199 drafts of speeches of the Sermons from Pécs (Pécsi Beszédek) - which probably dates back to the last third of the 13th century - with 12 sermons about Hungarian saints among them.

Though poetry in Hungary served liturgic purposes, its first examples were not preserved in liturgic forms. It seems convincing that the votive writings of the Coronation Cloak and the Gisela-cross originate from Hungary, and the first Hungarian Leonine hexameter - the spoken invocative formula of the inventory of property from Pannonhalma from around 1090 (Divinum firmet nomen, quod scripsimus amen) - was also written by a native poet. It was continued by Enoch, the Dominican monk, and Cognoscens, Canon of Esztergom, in their charter of 1233: "Cum patre nos Natus iuvet hic et Spiritus almus"! After St Stephen's canonisation three antiphonies and three responsies were written in rhymed prose to the celebration of the king. Till the end of the 12th century a single antiphony about St Gerald and the Mary-sequence of the Pray codex (starting with "Mira mater extitisti") represented this style.

From the beginning of the 13th century liturgic poetry became very popular; sequences and hymns survived about the saints of the Árpád dynasty. This process reached a peak in the 1280s, when - probably to the encouragement of Archbishop Lodomer - an Augustine monk from Esztergom wrote a rhymed chant (in which he summarised the saint's life and its message) about King St Stephen to compensate King Ladislaus (the Cuman) IV's Attila-cult and his interest in a pagan past. The first Hungarian dramas also belong to liturgic poetry. Although these are just slightly modified versions of European dramas, their appearance was very important. The Twelfth-night Star play (Csillagjáték) was preserved in the prelate service book of Bishop Hartvic, and an Easter play beginning "Quem qaueritis" survived in many places: in Bishop Hartvic's service book, in Codex Albensis and in the Pray codex, too.

The first piece of secular poetry might have been written by an educated, anonymous monk, who, in his work, lamented on Hungary's devastation by the Tartars. His poem consists of 62 five-line, rhymed verses; its style and careful structure represents high quality poetry in contemporary literature. The same cannot be said about the Slovenian rhymed chronicle, written by a foreign Cystercian monk, who summarised Hungarian history from St Stephen to 1245, in 27 eight-line, blank verses. His poems do not reach the standards of Planctus, or the general level of contemporary poetry, either. A poet-minded, copier monk of the Pannonhalma scriptorium wrote a distichon about the foundation of a monastery by bailiff Walfer to the margin of Liber ruber. This is probably the first example of autotelic poetry in Hungary ("Walfer from the Nagy clan, who actually bears the title "great" [nagy means great],/ had a church built in the honour of the Saint Virgin".).

Letter writing as a genre is worth mentioning, since Hungarian prose in the age of the Árpád dynasty reached the highest standards in this particular genre. King Ladislaus's letter to Oderisius, abbot of Montecassino, might have been composed by bishop Hartvic, because he borrowed St Ambrus's thoughts from his funeral oration over Theodosius the Great. A lot of letters survived from Géza II's sister, Zsófia, sent from Admont, but the actual writer of these letters is not known, though he/she must have been a good stylist, who wrote letters of outstanding quality. Diplomatic correspondence reached high standards in general (e.g.: Béla IV's famous "Tartar"-letter from 1250), concerning its style and rhymed prose. Because of its literary requirements, Lodomer's (Archbishop of Esztergom) letter to Pope Nicholas IV, in which the archbishop lets the Pope know about the undesirable aspects of Ladislaus IV's reign, is an outstanding one.

Historiography

Historiography must also be examined, not only because of the number of the texts preserved, but also because it can compete with hagiography in continuity, popularity and its role to transfer ideas. Its relics can be put into the following categories: history-writing (the summary of knowledge about the past), memoirs and narrative gestas of an entertaining character.

Historiography - following Western patterns - had already started when Hungary became a Christian state. Annuals-type records were regularly kept (after the patterns of western monasteries) in Pannonhalma till the 1060s, which were continued elsewhere. Annuals carried boring, short records of facts; the birth of real historiography can be connected to the appearance of the original gesta, the common ancestor of Hungarian chronicles, in the 11th century.

Although it was continuously cultivated, the peculiarity of Hungarian chronicle writing was that the authors read each other's works, they restructured or combined the text with other texts, they added supplementary information or shortened the original text, sometimes they had a discussion with other writers. The earliest chronicle is from the age of the Angevine dynasty, but the text is a summary of the works of earlier authors. This means that the time when the separate historiographers compiled their works and the quantity of text written by them can only be defined through thorough microphilological examinations.

Basically there are two different views concerning the texts: according to one (which is more likely) the earlier texts - with slight modifications - were more or less preserved in their original form. According to the other view, however, there was an author living at the beginning of the 13th century, who terminologically-stylistically homogenised the text which incorporated all the earlier historiographic writings.

The other question concerning chronicles is when the ancestor of the earliest texts had been born. According to the representatives of one possible explanation, based on certain stylistical and historical observations, the first Hungarian historiographer must have lived around the middle or the second third of the 11th century, so either in the age of Andrew I (in this case the author might be identical with Nicholas [Miklós], Bishop of Veszprém) or King Salamon. Presumably there was a revised version made in King Ladislaus's court, so the history of the Béla-line became the focus of attention. All the experts agree, however, that King Coloman's chronicler rewrote the whole gesta in accordance with his king's interests.

This chronicler put the struggle of Salamon, Andrew I's son, and Béla I's sons in the center of his epic representation. Based on certain signs, it is quite likely, that this author is identical with bishop Koppány from the Rád clan. The larger part of the text that survived is the work entitled "Gesta Ladislai regis" (= The history of King St Ladislaus), but the most changes were also made on this very text, since the different authors tried to answer the political questions of their own age by taking sides in the fight of the princes and Salamon. After it was continued by an author in the age of Stephen II, the historiographer of the Álmos-line rewrote the gesta, as he did not agree with the earlier points of view. In all probability it was he, who presented the personality and reign of Coloman and Stephen II in dark colours in the age of Géza II or Stephen III.

The chroniclers of the 12th century described the events in details till 1152, but after that only a short extract survived from a German version, which is about Stephen III's reign. Following this, authors just completed the work of their predecessors with short comments, or at some points they may have rewritten the story. It is also possible, though, that there were chroniclers during the reign of Béla III and Andrew II, too, but we do not know much in respect of the content of their works. The story was continued at the end of the 13th century, when the body of the text was increased significantly and a general structure was introduced, which is reflected by all the manuscripts to a certain degree.

In the age of Stephen V, Master Ákos from the Ákos clan completed the chronicle with facts based on family traditions and foreign sources. Additional information was given in chapters concerning the history of the family and the age of plundering campaigns; in the case of the latter one he recorded historical sagas and described the privileges and treasures of the Fehérvár and Buda chapters in details. His activity became more intensive during the reign of Stephen V, but in the age of Béla IV it reflected the views of noblemen pushed out of power. With this, the text grew a lot in size, but structural changes were made only by Simon Kézai. With the purpose of expressing his views on the origin of power, he created the theory of Hun-Hungarian kinship, based on an earlier idea (he may have borrowed it from Anonymus), and placed a long Hun chronicle before the Hungarian chronicle, then he added an appendix to the text, describing the origins of social inequalities in it. Following this the work of Master Ákos and Simon Kézai became the textual base of all the later chronicles.

Because of its content, the report about Brother Julianus's travels, written by his monk-colleague, Brother Riccardus, belongs to the category of history of the age. Presumably the author did not know much about stylistic requirements, but this work is a very important source of the history of the 13th century. The most significant work concerning the history of the age is Master Rogerius's Miserable Song, written around 1243-1244. The Italian author described the events of the Tartar Invasion in a very expressive way, offering it to his supporter, Jacob Pecorari. In contrast to the traditions of Hungarian historiography, he chose a special form (letter) and a special method (pragmatism) for his work. His modern thoughts, the form that expressed these perfectly, his style and structure make his work an outstanding one in contemporary literature.

Since he was the source of the history of the age, Anonymus belongs to the category of historical literature as well. Anonymus wanted to make his mysterious friend acquainted with the past of the Hungarians, so he gave a very detailed picture of the Hungarian Conquest. The disputes around his personality have not been settled yet, but it is certain that he was King Béla III's clerk, and he wrote his work at the turn of the 12-13th centuries. Although he used historical written sources, his basic method was that he used place names and his imagination to revive the enemies of Árpád and his people, and with the help of his special geographical knowledge he could populate the Carpathian Basin with various peoples. Sometimes he used old traditions (e.g.: Chieftain Marót leading the Moravian people), but as a basic method, instead of written sources he used spoken sources (he disapproved of it in his prologue to win his readers) and folk etymology to compile his Gesta Hungarorum.