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Title Anonymus and Master Roger. : Anonymi Bele Regis Notarii Gesta Hungarorum = The deeds of the Hungarians / Anonymus, notary of King Béla ; edited, translated and annotated by Martyn Rady and László Veszprémy ; Epistola in miserabile carmen super destructione regni Hungarie per Tartaros facta / Magisteri Rogerii = Master Roger's Epistle to the sorrowful lament upon the destruction of the kingdom of Hungary by the Tartars / translated and annotated by János M. Bak and Martyn Rady
Published Budapest ; New York : Central European University Press, 2010

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Description 1 online resource : maps
Series Central European medieval texts, 1419-7782 ; 5
Central European medieval texts ; 5.
Summary An anonymous notary of King Bela of Hungary (probably Bela III, d. 1196), also Known as P dictus magister, wrote a Latin Gesta Hungarorum, (ca 1200/10), and enigmatic and much disputed work on the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin in the late ninth century, including a mythical origo gentis, and a history of the Magyars prior to the foundation of the kingdom in 1000 A.D. Additionally, he wove into it stories of heroic ancestors of the great men of his time. Anonymus (as he is commonly referred to) tried to (re)contruct the events and protagonists--including ethnic groups--of several centuries before from the names of places, rivers, and mountains of his time, assuming that these retained the memory of times past. Based on these, he presented a narrative in the style of the popular romances of the siege of Troy and the exploits of Alexander the Great, also utilizing some oral traditions and earlier chronicles. One of his major "inventions" was the inclusion of Attila the Hun into the Hungarian royal genealogy, a feature later developed into the myth of Hun-Hungarian continuity (by Simon of Keza and other chroniclers). Already translated into most Central-European languages, it is here for the first time presented in an updated Latin text with an annotated English translation
The Italian Master Roger (born around the time the retired notary was writing his Gesta) was canon of the cathedral of Varad/Oradea when the Mongols attacked Hungary. He recorded in great detail and vivid prose his experiences, including his hiding from and falling into the hands of the "Tatars". This he prefaced by an astute observation of political conflicts in mid-thirteenth-century Hungary. His description of the events, together with those of Archdeacon Thomas of Split (CEMT 4), is the basic evidence for the horrible devastation of the country by Batu Khan's armies. The present translation is based on the editio princeps of 1488, as no manuscript has survived. --Book Jacket
This volume contains two very different narratives: a work of literary imagination on early Hungarian history, and an eye-witness account of the Mongol invasion of 1241/42
Notes Maps on lining papers
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and indexes
Notes Original Latin texts with English translations. Introductions in English
Print version record
Subject Magyars -- History -- Early works to 1800
HISTORY -- Europe -- Germany.
Magyars
SUBJECT Hungary -- History -- 896-1301 -- Early works to 1800
Hungary -- History -- Mongol Invasion, 1241-1242 -- Early works to 1800
Subject Hungary
Genre/Form Early works
History
Form Electronic book
Author Rady, Martyn C., editor
Veszprémy, László, editor
Bak, János M., translator
Anonymus Belae Regis Notarius. Gesta Hungarorum. English & Latin.
Rogerius, Archbishop of Split, approximately 1201-1266. Carmen miserabile. English & Latin.
ISBN 9781441694997
1441694994
9789639776968
9639776963
Other Titles Anonymi Bele Regis Notarii Gesta Hungarorum
Gesta Hungarorum
Deeds of the Hungarians
Epistola in miserabile carmen super destructione regni Hungarie per Tartaros facta
Master Roger's Epistle to the sorrowful lament upon the destruction of the kingdom of Hungary by the Tartars