É. Apor (ed.): Codex Cumanicus. Ed. by Géza Kuun with a Prolegomena to the Codex Cumanicus by Lajos Ligeti. (Budapest Oriental Reprints, Ser. B 1.)
L. Ligeti: Prolegomena to the Codex Cumanicus
4 L. I-IGETI to the words of Coman origin in the Hungarian dialects of present-day Coman regions (Mándoky). It is easy to see why Hungarian Turcologists devote special attention to the problems of Coman history and language. As is well known, the first mention of the Codex was made by Tomasini in 1656. Leibnitz discovered the manuscript in the catalogue of the Venice Library in 1768. In 1769 Daniel Cornides of Hungary, secretary to Count József Teleki sought out the Codex Cumanieus in Venice and copied its first 22 pages. Later, in Hungary he informed Pray about the manuscript with reference to the on-going controversy concerning the Coman Lord's prayer. 11 Finally, through Tomasini, Klaproth re-discovered the manuscript, managed to obtain a copy of the first part of it, and in 1826 edited the copied text. This touched off a series of scientific examinations of the Codex Cumanieus. Despite its deficiencies, G. Kuun's edition constitutes a significant step forward from Klaproth's pioneering edition. Its publication marks the beginning of research on the manuscript itself, together with analyses of its contents. From Tomasini's time until recently, the Codex Cumanieus was called the Petrarca-Codex, on the basis of the belief that it was one of Petrarca's books left to Venice. G. Gyürffy has closely studied the manuscript and its background in Venice, and has arrived at several significant conclusions. 1 2 1 1 The topic in question is treated by Kuun in detaiJ, (pp. I —XIV). Only the section on Cornides needs some elucidation. According to Kuun, and after him, Gyárfás (op. cit., p. 13), Cornides and József Teleki visited Venice in 1770. They determined this date from Cornides' letter to György Pray. According to Dóra F. Csanak (in her book «Két világ határán» [On the Frontier of Two Worlds], in press), this visit took place in May, 1769. The text (draft) of the letter addressed to Pray can be found almost unaltered in the previously mentioned (Kuun, p. X) manuscript, entitled Commentatiuncula, kept in the Manuscript Department of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Tört. 2° 164). The part copier! from Cornides begins with the first word of the Codex (Audio: Mesnoem esiturmen] he thought the first two words were a single Coman word), and ends with equità — Atlan , which is on p. 22 instead of 23. The copy made in Venice soon went astray, as he himself wrote in a letter: «aduersaria mea in Transilvania reliqui». If not definitively lost, it must lie hidden somewhere there (perhaps in Szeben, Sibiu). 1 2 G. Györffy, Autour du Codex Cumanieus , in: Analecta orientalia memoriae Alexandra Csorna de Kőrös dicata. Bibliotheca Orientális Hungarica V, Budapest 1942, pp. 110 — 137. Györffy's argument was accepted by A. v. Gabain, Komanische Literatur, in Fundamenta II, pp. 243 — 244. Referring to Gabain, Louis Bazin, Les calendriers turcs anciens et mediévaux , Paris 1974, p. 625 reiterated Györffy's view. Györffy's study is a bibliographical rarcty, as Vol. V of BOH came out in a very limited number of copies due to the devastations of the war. Dagmar Driill, in her doctoral dissertation entitled Der Codex Cumanieus, Entstehung und Bedeutung, Stutgart 1980 (Geschichte und Gesellsrhaft, Band 23, Klett-Cotta), re-examined the date, place, and circumstances of origin of the Codex. Miss Driill saw and studied the Codex itself, had exports examine the watermarks again, and thoroughly analyzed the paper used for the Codex. All her research confirms Györffy's findings in essentials.
