Hungary

In the 1400s the central European kingdom of Hungary experienced its own Renaissance. Learning, literature, and art flourished during these years, and Hungary's Renaissance attracted and produced some of Europe's leading scholars. This glorious period came to an end in 1526, when Hungarian forces suffered defeat by the Ottoman Turks* at the Battle of Mohács. After this defeat, ideas from northern Europe began to have a substantial impact on the culture of the newly divided kingdom.

The Hungarian Renaissance. The bishop of Várad, Johannes Vitéz of Zredna (1408–1472), played a key role in bringing about the Hungarian Renaissance. Vitéz, who later became an archbishop and the leader of the Hungarian church, was a major patron* of artists and scholars throughout Europe. He also founded a university in the city of Pozsony.

Vitéz had served under the Hungarian military hero Johannes Hunyadi, and he played a leading role in putting Hunyadi's son, Matthias Corvinus, on the throne of Hungary in 1458. He also helped form Corvinus's court, which became an important center of scholarship and the arts. Located in the city of Buda, the court boasted a new royal palace and a magnificent library. It became a haven for leading humanists* from around Europe. At one time the great Italian writer Marsilio FICINO even considered moving to the Hungarian court. Corvinus was a generous patron of the arts, and many foreign authors dedicated works to him.

Hungary had a long tradition of scholarship. For hundreds of years, Hungarian students had traveled to other parts of Europe to attend foreign schools. The first recorded undergraduate at England's Oxford University was Hungarian. The wealthy students attended the universities of Padua and Bologna in Italy, while most others studied in Vienna or Cracow. After completing their schooling, some Hungarians remained abroad as teachers. One of these was Janus Pannonius, whose fame as a poet and politician spread to many countries. However, most Hungarian students returned to their homeland to pursue careers in politics or in the church.

Latin was the main language of religious, political, and cultural life in Hungary. The kingdom's borders contained people of many ethnic backgrounds, all with different languages. Latin provided a common tongue for these various peoples. Most Hungarian literature was written in Latin until 1400, when some scholars and writers began to use their local languages. However, Latin remained the chief tongue for the leading humanists, who came from many different lands. Hungary was the last country in Europe to abandon the use of Latin as a second language.

The Hungarian Renaissance changed in 1526, when Turkish forces defeated the Hungarians at the Battle of Mohács. This battle split the kingdom into three parts. The Turks controlled one area, the Holy Roman Emperor* FERDINAND I ruled another, and the third was under the control of a rival king, Johannes Zápolya. Hungary's humanists scattered, taking positions at the courts of the emperor, the king, and various nobles in the region. After Zápolya died in 1540, the HABSBURG DYNASTY assumed control of all the non-Turkish parts of Hungary. They would rule the kingdom for the next 400 years.

Influence of the Protestant Reformation. In the 1530s, new ideas promoted by the Protestant Reformation* began to take root in Hungary. Latin and Greek traditions came to play a smaller role in Hungarian culture. They slowly gave way to the ideas of northern humanists, such as Desiderius ERASMUS and Philipp MELANCHTHON. At the same time, the use of vernacular* languages, rather than Latin, increased. The publication of a Hungarian-Latin grammar in 1539 gave a further boost to the use of local languages.

One leading Hungarian scholar of the early 1500s, Antonius Verantius, spoke five languages and held an important position in the Hungarian church. He also served as a personal representative of the king and made several official visits to the Turkish court between 1555 and 1568. On one of these trips, Verantius was part of a group that discovered the Ankara monument, an ancient tribute to the Roman emperor Augustus.

Faustus Verantius, the nephew of Antonius, has been called the greatest inventor of his day after the famous LEONARDO DA VINCI. Faustus's book New Machines, published in 1596, featured 56 original designs for mills, bridges, boats, and other devices. One of his "machines" was an early parachute, which some scholars claim the inventor actually tested by jumping off a tower in Venice. Faustus was also the author of one of the most famous multilanguage dictionaries of the time.

The Counter-Reformation* of the mid-1500s helped reestablish ties between Hungary and Italian culture. However, Protestantism still grew rapidly in the eastern region of Transylvania, which enjoyed considerable independence because of an arrangement with the Turks. This progressive region allowed its citizens to choose their religion and recognized people of different nationalities as equal under the law. No other European country showed a similar degree of tolerance at this time.

Most Hungarian literature of the late 1500s served political or religious purposes. Protestants favored the use of drama as a tool for expressing their views. Most Hungarian plays of the time were written in prose, usually in a realistic style. The 1500s also saw great achievements in poetry, notably the work of Sebestyén Tinódi and Bálint Balassi. The two wrote many songs about battles, inspired by the recent war against the Turks. Because of a lack of printing presses in Hungary, most of these works were published in Italy, Poland, or Germany. Local presses later appeared in the kingdom to keep humanist scholarship alive in the divided land.