THE LATE OLD HUNGARIAN PERIOD
THE SYSTEM OF THE LANGUAGE

THE LATE OLD HUNGARIAN PERIOD

In the history of the Hungarian language the period starting with king Sigismund's reign, ending with the defeat at Mohács is called the late Old Hungarian period. By this time the major linguistic changes which had started earlier came to an end (or they were very close to their end), so the form of the Hungarian language at this point was very similar to the language used today. Through a later development the vocabulary and set of expressions and also the morphology and syntax became richer and more stable. Linguistic development was parallel with the slow gradual material and spiritual growth . The number of schools also increased, so the use of the written language became more and more widespread, though literacy was mainly through the medium of Latin at this time.

Besides charters, mainly religious documents were produced (theological works, sermons, legends, service books), but there were several secular works as well (especially chronicles and poems). At first the usage of the Hungarian language was limited to actual speech, but the demand for writing and reading in Hungarian also increased, so there was a need for written Hungarian works. First of all there were codices containing translations of Latin religious literature. However, some Latin-Hungarian word lists and glossas for Latin sermons were also preserved. Apart from these, independent Hungarian works also appeared in this period: e.g., poems, letters, civilian documents.

Codices

Codices were religious readings. (The first pieces of Hungarian codices, the Jókai codex and the Hussite Bible belonged to the previous period.)

In the late Old Hungarian period the number of codex translations increased significantly. The boom in translations was partly due to the medieval reforms of principles of monastic orders, which instructed monks to read religious texts and perform prayers. Owing to the reform church - especially monastic - literature began to boom. In Hungary - as abroad - this kind of literature was written in Latin. However, Latin sermons, legends and hymns had to be translated into Hungarian for nuns who did not speak Latin. The rich codex literature of the late Old Hungarian period grew from these translations. The period is also known as the era of codices because of the great number of codices written at this time. Nuns escaping from the Turkish demolition brought about 50 valuable codices with them - so these were saved.

The majority of sermons in the codices are from a collection of speeches by Pelbárt Temesvári, a Franciscan monk, who wrote them according to contemporary theological literature and made them more interesting by adding instructive stories to them. His collection of speeches, called the Rose Wreath, was finished by his Benedictine student, Osvát Laskai. The other main source of the legends of the codices was a collection known as Legenda Aurea (Golden Legend), the work of a Dominican monk, Jacobus a Voragine († 1298). This collection was very popular all over the world. Another source of the legends was the Italian bishop, Petrus de Natalibus's († 1400) Catalogus Sanctorum (the list of saints, that is the series of legends of saints), which was published in printed form in 1493, and contains more than 3,000 legends.

Codices were translated into Hungarian by monks. But most of the codices were preserved in the form of copied versions, and not in their original version. Copiers were also monks or nuns. In several monasteries of the country - in the richer ones - there were copy workshops. The Dominicans, for example, worked in the monastery on Margaret Island (then the Island of Rabbits); the Franciscans worked in Óbuda (in the Clarissan monastery), in Buda, Sepsiszentgyörgy and Marosvásárhely; the Paulians in Nagyvázsony; the Premontreans in Somlóvásárhely. Certain copying workshops often lent the copied codices to other workshops, so some texts are identical in several codices. In this period the language of literature was not standardised, the copiers usually copying the texts into their own dialect. However, the change of codices encouraged the unification of the written language.

Different codices were copied by one hand (that is a monk or nun), or at other times by several hands. Only a few names of the copiers have survived: for example, Paul Váci, Andrew Nyújtódi, Bertholomew Halábori, Paul Tetemi, student Michael, Lea Ráskai, and Martha Sövényházi. Copiers of codices often made personal notes during copying: they asked their readers to pray, apologised for bad writing, gave thanks for being able to finish their work. For example, "The one who wrote this asks for an Ave Maria prayer"; "pray for the sinner who wrote this. Alleluia"; "I was very ill"; "I have a bad headache"; "Thank God". Lea Ráskai's notes are especially interesting. Most of the codices were copied in the workshops of Dominican and Franciscan monks (17 Dominican and 17 Franciscan codices have survived).

The majority of the Dominican codices are designed books containing only one long unit of text. These were probably written for the nuns of Margaret Island. The oldest of them is the Birk codex from 1474, which was written by Paul Váci, a Dominican monk. The lack of certain parts and corrections of the text suggest that it might be the original composition, a draft of the translation. The first part contains St August's regulations, while in the second part we can read about the instructions concerning the life style of Dominican nuns. (In today's reading: "So that you can see yourselves in this little book like a mirror, so that you won't miss anything because of your forgetfulness, it must be read once a week".) The huge Winkler codex (1506) was written by three persons and it is quite mixed regarding its content. It starts with a calendar, and the second part is a well-designed hora book. You can find prayers and litanies in Latin and Hungarian in it. In other parts we can read different parts of the gospels, Mary's laments (because of Christ's sufferings) and prayers and legends in verse. Certain parts of it are original Hungarian works.

The most outstanding ones from among Dominican codices are Lea Ráskai's codices. The best-known one is the Margaret legend from 1510, which tells of King Béla IV's daughter, St Margaret (of the Árpád dynasty)'s life. The original text of the legend was written by Marcellus, the head of the Dominican order, Margaret's confessor for the investigation of the canonisation. The codex was divided into three parts. The first one describes Margaret's lifestyle in the nunnery, the second part tells of her miraculous deeds and the third one contains the statements of her fellow nuns made in front of the canonisation committee. The legend describes Margaret's humble and self-sacrificing life, but we can read about the everyday life of contemporary monasteries. The corrections and crossings out in the codex show that Lea Ráskai corrected and modified her text.

Lea Ráskai's second outstanding biographical codex was the Dominican codex of 1517. In this she describes St Dominique's life in detail and introduces the history of the "preaching monks", that is the Dominican order, which he founded. She commemorates the fact that St Dominique sent Master Paul (Paul of Hungary) to Hungary to preach. The codex tells of several miracles, parables, visions from the saint's life. Its style is very impressive and powerful. We can find several expressions from the subject of teaching, science and education. For example, student, dean, master, school, science, learn. Lea Ráskai copied the major part of the Book of Parables in 1510 (from page 19 to page 64). The other two copiers of the codex are unknown. Its Latin source was a collection of religious parables from the 15th century, which contained moral teachings and parables. The most significant of its parables are the conversation on life and death and the so-called death dance, which emphasises the terrible fact that death knows no distinctions.

In the first part of the Cornides codex, which was copied between 1514 and 1519, we can find sermons for the significant feasts of the ecclesiastical year. The main source of these was a collection of speeches from the 15th century. The second part of the codex tells of the legends of female saints, who died as martyrs in the first centuries of Christianity. At a certain place Lea Ráskai noted down the date of copying and she also revealed her name there (after Saint Justina's biography): raskay lea. The different notes at the end of certain units of the text provide information about the events of the age and the life of the monastery: about the reconsecration of the chapel, the death of Emeric Perényi and the Dózsa peasants' revolt. Lea Ráskai's writing had an individual character with a firm line tracing. Her spelling was correct and logical; she was one of the most outstanding copiers of her age. On the basis of her name written in the Cornides codex we can identify the codices which were copied by her.

The Jordánszky codex, compiled between 1516-1519, is a thick Dominican codex. Its content, similarly to the Hussite Bible, is a Bible translation, but independent of the latter one. It included certain parts of the Old Testament, the four gospels, the Acts and other parts of the New Testament. Its spelling and language show similarities with the Érdy codex (for example, it doubles the letters when it refers to vowels é and á.) Its copier is not known.

The Booklet about the Honours of the Saint Apostles from 1521 describes a contest between the apostles and other saints in a conversational form, imitating living speech. It enlists the reasons why the apostles are more honourable than other saints. The original version of the codex was an unknown Latin essay. The text mentions Dante, and the first lines of metrical poetry appeared here for the first time in the Hungarian language. The codex must have been copied by a Dominican nun in the nunnery of Margaret Island.

The greatest Dominican codex is the beautiful Érsekújvár codex dating from 1529-1531. It was copied by three persons and was decorated with painted pictures, too. Most of it was written by the nun Martha Sövényházi. Its content is mixed: it contains lental and Easter gospels, as well as short teachings and parables. Its most famous part is the legend of Saint Katharine of Alexandria in verse. It is a scientific work full of theological essays. The main source was Pelbárt Temesvári's sermons and a medieval Latin book of sagas. The translator did a very good job putting the text into Hungarian with a very good sense of rhythm, independent of the original Latin text.

Other Dominican codices are: the Horváth codex from 1522 (Lea Ráskai's writing), the Gömöri codex (1516), the Virginia codex (1529), the Kriza codex (1532) and maybe the Christina legend (1510) and the Thewrewk codex (1531).

The majority of the codices copied by Franciscan monks contain parts of the gospels, sermons as well as legends, essays and songs. Most of them were copied in the rich Clarissan nunnery in Óbuda. The earliest of them is the Guary codex from around 1490. Its copier might have been Lucas Segösdi, the head of the order at that time. It was copied precisely, and had a nice look with beautiful language. It contains religious essays and teachings. Certain parts are parallel with the text of the Nádor codex. Its spelling partly follows the spelling of the Hussite Bible. The Nádor codex was also copied for the Clarissans of Óbuda by an unknown copier in 1508. It contains meditations, legends, holy songs and a list of sins for confessions. Certain parts of it are identical with texts of the same topic of other codices (for instance, the Winkler codex, the Érdy codex, the Kazinczy codex). In this codex we can find the oldest Hungarian noted song. Its songs are Hungarian folk songs - one of them still being sung even in the 17th century.

The copier of the long Nagyszombat codex, which was made in 1512 and 1513, is also unknown. A large part of the codex is devoted to meditations and essays. It also includes the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the "I believe" prayer and the explanation of the salvation - and also a list of sins. For example, it states that the Sun is eight times bigger than the Earth, there is five times more water on Earth than soil, and there is a heaven above the starry sky. The dialect of the codex uses ö-s and ü-s.

The greatest Franciscan codex is the Debrecen codex, copied in 1519. The first part of this tells of the legends of the saints, who are celebrated from St Andrew's Day (November 30) till March 25. The second part includes teachings and legends of other saints.

The Kazinczy codex was compiled for a very long time: the dates 1526, 1527 and 1541 are written into it. So it must have been finished after the defeat at Mohács, but before the occupation of Buda and the escape of the Clarissans of Óbuda. It was copied by three unknown monks; the second and the third one used the ö-dialect (it used the sound ö instead of the sound e.) This codex is a collection of sermons, proverbs and legends. It contains valuable romantic proverbs and legends (e.g.: the St Anna legend, the St Elek legend and the legend called Barlam and Josafa). Its copier asks for an Ave Maria from the reader.

Other Franciscan codices made in Óbuda and Buda are the Simor codex (1508), the Weszprémi codex made in 1512, the Lobkowitz codex (1514), the Bod codex (around 1520), the Sándor codex (around 1518), the Vitkovics codex (1525), the Miskolc Fragments (1525) and the Tihany codex (1532).

Franciscan codices made in Transdanubia contain translations of psalms. The Keszthely codex was copied in 1522 by Gregory Velikei in Léka in county Vas for third order nuns. The copier noted down the date and his name onto one of the pages of the codex. The Kulcsár codex, made in 1539, was written by Paul Pápai, a Franciscan monk in Ozora, in county Tolna.

Some Franciscan codices were made in Transylvania. The most outstanding of these is the Székelyudvarhely codex. The first two parts of it - The Book of Judith and the catechism - were translated and written down by the monk Andrew Nyujtódi in 1526. He translated it - as he wrote - for his "beloved sister, Judith Nyujtódi", a nun from Tövis. He asked his sister not to consider his "peasant style, but the real meaning of it". The translation of the Book of Judith from the Old Testament existed in the Hussite Bible as well as the Vienna codex, but this is independent of those. Its text shows a lot of similarities with today's Székely dialect. We can also find the first Hungarian catechism in this codex. The other parts contain meditations and parts of the gospels. The copier of these parts may have been Judith Nyujtódi herself, the owner of the codex. The note on a page refers to this: "This book belongs to the virgin Judith: it was written in the year 1528 in Tövis".

The Teleki codex was made for the beginas of Marosvásárhely (1525-1531). Its legends are romantic stories written in an imaginative style. The Zelma Lázár codex might also have been copied in Marosvásárhely, after 1525. The Festetics codex, written around 1494, and its supplementary book, the Czech codex from 1513 are the works of Paulian monks and these are two old books of prayers. Both of them were made in the Paulian monastery of Nagyvázsony (county Veszprém) for Mrs Kinizsi, a Hungarian Begina. The Festetics codex is a beautifully decorated book of prayer. Its special value is that it contains the first Hungarian translation of Petrarc's seven repentance psalms. In the Czech codex we can find private prayers besides the offices. The most significant of them are St Brigitte's 15 prayers and a beautiful poem: St Bernard's hymn to the crucified Christ.

The Peer codex most probably originates from the Paulian monastery of Nagyvázsony from around 1518. It is a work of six persons; its writers are unknown. It contains legends, prayers and poems. Andrew Vásárhelyi's beautiful song is a prayer in verse to the Virgin Mary, the patron saint of Hungary. The poet included his initials in the starting lines of the verses. The other beautiful poem of the codex is a song about King St Ladislaus. We can find the Cantilena here too, a mocking, jeering song about priests written by Francis Apáti. The codex also includes an eternal calendar, the so-called csízió (calendar), which is a translation of a calendar written in verse, very popular throughout Europe. A similar calendar has survived from earlier times; it was preserved in a Latin codex, the Thuróczi codex, written after 1462.

There are very few codices from Premontrean monks. One of them is the Döbrente codex from 1508, which was copied by Bartholomew Halábori, a priest and royal clerk. It contains translations of psalms, sermons, parts of the gospels and hymns. But we can also find a tale in it, - simply called "Tale". The codex is the oldest memory of the i-dialect of the Tisza region (it uses the sound i instead of the sound é). The Lányi codex is also from the Premonreans. It was copied in 1519. Written for the nuns of Somlóvásárhely, it describes the rules, regulations and religious ceremonies of the Premontrean order.

The best known Hungarian codex - and also the biggest collection of Hungarian legends - is the Érdy codex. It was written and translated by an unknown Carthausian monk between 1524-1527 in Lövöld (Városlőd). The codex was compiled for "all monks and nuns". Besides its Latin preface it also has a Hungarian preface; this is the first preface in Hungarian in Hungarian literature. The book is a collection of speeches based on Pelbárt Temevári's sermons: it contains Sunday sermons, legends about the life of saints and explanations of the gospels. The legends about Hungarian saints are quite significant. The unknown Carthausian was an independent, brave translator; his vocabulary was very rich. The language he used was the most developed dialect of the age.

Glossas, word lists

We have already mentioned the glossas (explanatory notes written to Latin texts) and the Latin-Hungarian word lists, which made learning easier, in the previous part of the series.

With the growth of Latin education the number of glossas and word lists increased significantly in the late Old Hungarian period. There are glossas from this period both in religious and secular texts. Most of the glossas are from a Latin collection of sermons, which were compiled into two connected codices, called the Sermones Dominicales ("Sunday Sermons"). The two codices are copies of a series of sermons written in 1456. The glossas were attached to the text to help the Hungarian performance of the speeches. For example, glossa: explanatory note, philosopher: pagan wise man, bibliothek: book chamber. The two copies in total contain 6,200 Hungarian words.

The Jászó Glossas originate from around 1460. They were discovered in the library of the Premontrean monastery of Jászóvár (Jasov, Slovakia), in a collection of Latin manuscripts. It contains 23 Hungarian words. The Zirc Glossas were entered into the collection of sermons of a Premontrean monastery at around 1470-1480. The glossas contain about 20 words. We can find more glossas (about 400) in the collection called the Nagyváty Glossas. These were written around 1490 to the text of a Bible printed in 1478. The vocabulary is quite mixed, with lots of secular words contained in it.

The Szalkai Glossas (1490) were written by secular priests and students. Ladislaus Szalkai noted down 440 Hungarian words into the school book of Sárospatak. His words show the growth of vocabulary encouraged by Latin education, and they are significant additions to the history of Hungarian literary language. For example, the word poeta means the "creator of poems" for him, but he also uses the word as "poet". The word muzsák [muses] means "female poets"; the word törlít [write] means "write, create a written work".

The Ábel word list from around 1490 is of secular origin. It must have been written after dictation; it contains 220 pairs of word including conversational expressions. We can also find a list of numbers in it. The word list was discovered in Jenő Ábel's heritage.

From among glossas originating from the beginning of the 16th century, the most significant ones are the Gyöngyös Glossas from 1520, containing 600 words. These can be found in the manuscript of a Latin codex describing the rules of the observant Franciscan order. The glossas (454 glossas) of the Ortus Sanitatis ("The Origin of Health"), a scientific work, from around 1525 are also quite outstanding. These might have been made by a doctor. The work describes three classes of nature (plants, animals, minerals).

Original Hungarian Texts

Some original (that is not based on a translation)Hungarian written memories are also from the late Old Hungarian period. Most of them are secular works. They include a historic song, but poems can also be found, as well as fragments of poems, civilian documents and letters.

The most outstanding of them may be a 150-line historic song from 1476, Szabács's Battle. Its unknown author wrote about King Matthias's famous deed, the siege of the fortress of Szabács near the bank of the Száva river. This historic song might have been written not very long after the occupation of the fortress. In all probability it is a fragment of a longer poem. Earlier it was considered to be a forgery because of its perfect metric features. However, modern research showed that it might be an original work of art after all.

The oldest cursing was recorded in 1479. The Hungarians swore at their enemies, the Germans; they threatened them thus: "you drank our blood before, but now we will drink your blood". The cursing was attached to the text of the Latin Dubnic Chronicle from 1479.

The Bagonya Curses from 1488 contain three superstitious folk curses. The first one was used for curing the ulcer of a "reddish horse", the second one for curing the limping of a horse, and the third one for getting rid of the warts of a man called John.

The oldest memory of love poetry is the Sopron love song from 1490. In today's reading it says: "Little flower, you have to know I must leave you. And I must wear mourning clothes because of you".

During the time between the end of the 15th century and the battle of Mohács (August 29, 1529) a lot of private letters, juridistic and other civilian documents were written. The most significant of these were the following:

The first Hungarian missile letter is from 1479-1490. It was written by Aladar Várday to his brother, Michael Várady. In his letter Aladar ensured him that his case was also supported by the voivode. Emeric Török's greetings in verse originate from 1485. The writer greeted his lady, Christina in the postscript of a Latin letter. The first Hungarian invoice is Andrew Vér's safe-conduct from 1493. In this Andrew Vér admitted that his debtor, Blasius Erdőhegyi had given him 20 forints from his 100-forint debt. The first testament that survived is from 1507 and it was written by Stephen Cheh, who had left his estate, mill and movable property to his wife and children. A rare memory of court literacy is a sentence from the court of honour from 1516. In this document the state judges reconciled the governor of Croatia with the ban of Jajca, whom he had slandered.

Mária Drágffy's list of dowry (from 1516) is a valuable document from the point of view of educational and linguistic history. It contains a lot of words which do not exist today (name of jewellery, types of textiles). For example, majc, which meant "a ribbon weaved from gold and silver threads"; násfa, which meant "necklace"; gíra, which meant "the measurement of weight used for measuring gold and silver"; futa, which also meant "a type of textile"; velez, which meant "a type of textile"; salfil, which meant "saphire".

A lot of private letters have survived from the weeks before the defeat at Mohács. Francis Batthány's letter to his wife, for instance, is a moving good-bye letter and his letter to the ban Doroszlay, in which they apologise to each other, is also beautiful. Another outstanding example is Ilona Bocskay's (she was head of a nunnery) letter to her nephew, Stephen Bocskay, who died in the battle of Mohács. It was written before August 19, 1526. In this letter "Elena, a priorist nun from the Island of Rabbits", asks her brother not to disturb the villeins of the church. The special feature of the letter is that it was not written by the sender but by Lea Ráskai, who lived in the Dominican nunnery of the Island of Rabbits and was a librarian there.

THE SYSTEM OF THE LANGUAGE