Summary of the Articles
István TÓTH:
The Várad Court of the Younger István
Bethlen, or the Venus of Murány in Várad
The
nephew of the reigning prince of Transsylvania Gábor Bethlen became the commander-in-chief of the border castle of Várad in 1621, at the age of 15 and, at the same
time, the heir to the throne. The reigning prince of a flourishing little
country intended that he should continue his life-work. According to this
purpose he carefully provided for his education and when the time came he
entrusted him with one of the most important border castles of Transsylvania where a late Renaissance courtly centre was
formed at this time, although it was shortlived. The author has done researches
into the spiritual environment of this Renaissance court. He presents us the
main personalities who were present around the young Bethlen, among them several of the humanist poets from the beginning
of the XVII-th century: Christian Schaeseus, György K. Károlyi,
Gáspár Bojthi Veres, Pál Háportoni Forró, and includes long quotations from their poetry
in his own translation.
Another famous personality of this court is Mária Szécsi, a renowned beauty at the tune, also called since
István Gyöngyösi's famous poem "the Venus of Murány". Several latin poems were written for her wedding
by Ferenc Bornemisza and later Mihály Kalmár and János Fileki wrote
poems at the death of her daughter.
The most important poet among those who gathered around István Bethlen was János Laskai Matkó,
the translator of Justus
Lipsius, whose poignant latin poem written at the early death of his protector was
also the epitaph of a brief but flourishing period.
Sándor TAMÁS:
The Woodland Properties of the Szekler Frontier Guards Regiment in Csík Sedes
The
study deals with the history of the common woodlands of the onetime 1-st
Szekler Infantry Frontier Regiment from 1918 until the liquidation of all
common properties in Romania.
What happened to these properties represents the saddest chapter
of the economic plundering of the Hungarian peasantry which came under Romanian
rule. The fate of these common properties is one of the most representative
cases in which, through a gross violation of the rights of the Hungarian
minority, of all international and local norms of the
law, the private properties of the minority as well as the clerical or other
common properties of public utility were sacrificed by a regime driven by
nationalism and self-interest. These common properties were liquidated in 1923,
and even after a prolonged and expensive litigation, justice has not been
administered in this case.
András BODOR:
The Scientific Investigation of the
Ancient History of Transsylvania until the Middle of the XIX-th Century
The
interest concerning the ancient history of Transsylvania began in the XIV-th century and it manifested
itself in the collection of Roman relics and inscriptions. The first wellknown epigraphist was John Megyericsei (Mezerzius), who copied
about 120 inscriptions and got his collection to Italy too. The famous work of
Stephen Szamosközy (Zamosius), Analecta lapidum, was
published in a short interval in Italy and Germany, Szamosközy appreciated inscriptions as some lighting rays which
illuminate the past. He tried to identify ancient towns and roads and to treat
some numismatic problems in connection with the so called Koson golden coins.
After Szamosközy
the research knew an interval
of decline, but soon it had a new impulse owing to intellectuals coming from
abroad (Opitz,
Manovius, Trösler and the
Italian A.F. Marsigli) and to local scholars (Huszty, Weidenfelder, Seivert). In the beginning of the XVIII.
century there was established the first museum and there were founded various
scientific societies and there were published several newspapers and
periodicals in German, Hungarian and Romanian. In the years 1803-1804 the State
Tresury ordered the execution of an official excavation to find some golden coins
called Koson, about which the
sorrounding inhabitants had spread many stories and myths. Meanwhile the
Romanian historians too lined up to study the Roman past of the country. Among
the scholars of the time we mention T. Cipariu, Neigebaur, András Lugosi Fodor and J.W. Ackner.
After such a long preparation and research work there were laid
down the foundations on which notable scholars such as Mommsen, Torma, Goos and many others by surveying sites, by
excavations and studies, in the second half of the XIX. and the beginning of
the XX. centuries could create in this field the real scientific research work
of the Transsylvanian history.
Vilmos TÁNCZOS:
Peasant Cantors ("deaks") in the Hungarian Villages of Moldavia
At
present there are about a quarter of a million Catholic csangos living in
Moldavia at different stages of ethnic and linguistic assimilation. Regarding
their origin, they are all of Hungarian descent, but today only about one third
of them speak Hungarian. This is mainly due to the lack of public worship
conducted in their mother tongue. During the Middle Ages the religious life of
these Catholics was supervised by the Hungarian kings, then beginning from 1622
foreign (Italian, Bosnian, Croatian, Polish) priests were sent here by the
missionary organization called De Propaganda
Fidei which had its centre in Rome. But these priests were always too few and
they didn't even speak the language of their congregation. At the end of the
XIX. century a Roman Catholic Episcopacy and Theology was founded in Iasi but
these institutions have served the Romanian nationalism up to the present day:
the priests educated in Iasi forbid the use of Hungarian in Moldavia.
The official leaders and the priests have never spoken to the
Hungarians living in Moldavia in their mother tongue. Still the language of
private worship remained Hungarian until the middle of the XX. century. This
folk religiousness was directed by so called "deaks", peasant cantors who could
read and write and knew the songs and prayers that these people used. As
priests could very rarely go to one village or another, these "deaks" were the
ones who prayed together with the people in church on Sundays, sang funeral songs,
taught their children and lead their pilgrimages, etc. They had regular contacts with the Hungarian Catholics from Transsylvania and had an important role in the
preservation of the mother tongue. This is why in the XX. century the official
church together with the state liquidated this institution. The old "deaks"
were banished from the churches and their prayer and songbooks were
confiscated, finally they were not allowed to pray in Hungarian even at
funerals at private houses.
Vilmos KESZEG:
Hungarian Folklore
Researches in Romania (between
1944 and 1994)
Vilmos Keszeg's study
outlines the results of the Hungarian folklore researches in Romania in the last
50 years. He presents the sporadic institutional network (university education,
museums, publishing of books and reviews) which - mainly voluntarily - embraced
the cause of these divisions of learning, or rather, owing to the lack of which
the researches were done in an extremely unorganized and inefficient way. Due
to these circumstances specialist replacement was almost impossible, there was
very little professional interest and hardly any scientific life. Scientific
research merely consisted of the work of a few persons and reflected only some
archaic spheres of the popular culture.
The study analyses the contributions of the Hungarian folklore
researches in Romania to the general Hungarian folkloristics (the works of Olga Nagy, József Faragó), as well as the remarkable isolated research
themes and methodological strategies (of Gabriella Vöő, István Pál Demény, János Ráduly, etc.)
The conclusion of the author is that the results of these
researches as well as their professional standard is due to the lack of proper
institutions, education and scientific life, of long-term perspectives, the
finality of the research, the redefinition of concepts and that of a
well-defined object of research.