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

PROLEGOMENA TO THE CODEX CUMANICl'S 11 lamaci], C tilmac [tilma^ «Dolmetscher». The commercial aspects of office activities will be discussed later. The connections between the Italian colonies and the Golden Horde deserve much more attention, since the Golden Horde was more than just a trading partner to the Genoans and Venetians of the Black Sea region. On several occasions the two Italian rivals concluded written treaties with the central, or more frequently, with the local, representatives of the Golden Horde. These pacts were generally bilingual, with the original draft in Turkish, and the translation, done by an interpreter, into Latin or Italian. Let me refer to some of these documents that are already familiar to researchers. During the reign of özbeg (1312 1340) the Venetians signed a contract with Kutluctemir in 1333, and gained thereby the right to build in certain areas near Tana. The agreement was worded in the Coman language, and translated into Latin by Dominicus Polonus (de Cumanico in Latinum). In 1358, the Venetians concluded a treaty with Berdibek himself, «the Lord of the Mongols and Comans» (1357— 1359), which confirmed their trading privileges originally granted in the conventions of 1338 and 1346. Though the Genoans preceded the Venetians in colonization, their documents date back to later times. One of their pacts is dated 1380, the time of Toqtamis (1380— 1395). Upon the order of the Genoan consul of Kaffa, the treaty was translated from the original «ugaresca» into Latin by a scribe named Julianus Panicarius, with the help of an interpretor. The Genoans signed another pact with the delegates of Toqtamis in 1387. The original of this treaty, written in «ugeresca», was translated into Latin by Franciscus Gabelete. The Turkic texts of the cliploms have been lost, but it can be argued that the «ugaresca» script of the latter two documents denotes the Uighur script, in which the famous yarli'q of Toqtamis was written. It can hardly be doubted that both the language and the script were identical. The source does not reveal in what language the Venetian contract of 1358 (and the two previous ones) was written, but it is certain that the 1358 document was drafted in Coman. I do r.ot doubt that this Coman language is identical with the Coman tongue of the first, Italian part. The first document shows clearly that the Venetians did not only use the Coman language for commercial purposes but also in their diplomatic contacts.

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6 For a detailed analysis of the diplomas of the Golden Horde see I. Vásáry, Chancellery of the Oolden Horde (BOH, in press). Gyárfás, op. cit., pp. 16—17. Hammer-Purgstall, Geschichte der Gohlenen Horde, Pesth 1840, p. 250. Hammer also disclosed that according to a document issued by Temür Qutluy the Venetians were granted three ports in the Crimea, and their consul resided in Tana. G. Kuun dealt with a document dating 1387 in his Adalékok Krím történetéhez [Data on the History of the Crimea] (cf. supra, note 5). He mentioned three documents (dating 1380, 1381 and 1387), giving only a sketchy translation of the last written in vulgar Genoan. The date of the first document is H 782, the last day of Sa'ban (28), i.e. November 28th, 1380 (op. cit., p. 43). These two