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
52 L. I-IGETI The Interpreters' Book was compiled using earlier, so far unknown, sources in one of the Italian colonies along the Black Sea. Its compiler remains unknown. Besides Genoa, Venice also figures in its origins. The work must have been frequently copied at the hehe ,t of the Italian colonists, and was used by both Genoans and Venetians. The date of its origin is unsettled. The hypothesis that its predecessor goes back to late (perhaps mid-) 13th century, cannot be excluded. The date July 11th, 1303, at the very beginning of the Codex, was preserved in the existing copy which itself dates from around 1330. This precise date (July 11th, 1303) does not mark the date of writing so much as the date of beginning (or ending) of the copying. No copy made by an Italian in an Italian colony has come down to us. The existing copy was made in a Franciscan monastery around 1330. The predecessor of the Missionaries' Book is shrouded in even deeper mystery. From its original contents, only the so-called third fascicule remained extant headed by the Coman riddles. This inherited part is followed by the clerical passages used for missionary purposes. It should be stressed, however, that the copy of cc. 1330 was not suitable for missionary objectives, and most probably was not used for such. A letter of Pascal intimates its purpose insomuch as he states in it that the Franciscans (and other friars and tradesmen) went to Sarai to learn Coman. 6 7 The 1330 copy did not yet contain the glosses. The extant copy of 1330 might have been made in the Monastery St. John, but it might just as well have been written in Sarai. On the other hand nothing proves that the Missionaries' Book, dating from around 1340 1356, was likewise compiled in the Monastery of St. John, in nearly Sarai. Should this hypothesis hold ground, the question why the Franciscan friars of the monastery waited for over ten years to start with the Missionaries' Book eould not be explained. 6 7 The friars of the Monastery of St. John were by no means native Germans exclusively, since it was here that the intriguing story of Fráter Stephen of Peterwaradin (a town in one-time Hungary called Pétervárad) took place. The young Franciscan publicly converted to Islam, but soon after regretted his step, and returned to the Christian faith. This enraged tlie Muslims, however, so they tore friar Stephen apart, and burned him. His martyrdom was included in the histories of the Franciscan order. Pascal of Vittoria also relates this story in 1338 for his fellow friars left in the Convent of Vittoria from Almalik (Armalec). This letter also reveals that Pascal set out from Tana, and arrived in Sarai accompanied by Greeks. His fellow missionaries went on to Urgenj (Urganth ). He did not join them because he wanted to learn the Coman language and Uighur script in the capital. His Franciscan brothers returned to their monastery from Urgenj, hut Pascal remained and preached the faith in the newly mastered language, without, as he stressed, an interpretor. He had been in Sarai for over a year when the martyrdom of Stephen took place. The rest of his letter gives a somewhat vague account of his missionary activities, and of his return to Almalik. Cf. Yule, Cathay and the Way Thither III, pp. 81 — 86.
