Kasza Péter (szerk.): Stephanus Brodericus - Epistulae (Bibliotheca Scriptorum Medii Recentisque Aevorum, Series Nova XIV., Argumentum Kiadó - Magyar Országos Levéltár, Budapest, 2012)

Preface

PREFACE

A bigger selection of the letters of István Brodarics was published first in 1908, when Gábor Kujáni published 43 letters of Brodarics kept in the Nádasdy Collection of the MOL, complemented by 7 items known from other sources.1 His publication served as the basis for the translations that are included in the volume Magyar humanisták levelei edited by Sándor V. Kovács, in the chapter devoted to Brodarics.1 2 3 After Kujáni’s edition, Brodarics’correspondence was outside of the focus of scholarly interest, so his letters appeared only occasionally in scholarly journals, ones that were deemed interesting from the perspective of literary history. Some of his letters were published sporadically in Acta Tomiciana published in Poland. The situation changed somewhat after the millennium, as letters connected to specific locations of sources were included in various compilations of sources. József Bessenyei published several letters from the Vatican Archives in the volume titled Lettere cli Principi. f Péter Tóth published the ones in the Libri legationum in Warsaw.4 Even these works, valuable as they are, cannot substitute for a systematic critical edition of extant correspondence of Brodarics.

But this correspondence is important not only because, as Gábor Kujáni put it, "Brodarics’ biography is virtually told by his letters’'5, which means that from them we can get to know one of the prominent Hungarian Humanists of the first half of the 16th century, but mainly because they enable us to study more deeply the two decades of agony of the medieval Hungarian Kingdom. So 1 hope that this volume will be useful not only for literary historians but historians and cultural and church historians too.

The present volume is the result of one decade of research. With regard to the correspondence, it aims for completeness. This means that it includes all presently known letters written by or to Brodarics regardless of their earlier publication. It includes, however, neither his most famous work, his report on the Battle of Mohács (Historia

1 Kujáni Gábor, Brodarics István levelezése. Történelmi Tár, 1908, 258-293, 321-346.

2 V. Kovács Sándor (ed.). Magyar humanisták levelei XV-XV1. század, Budapest, 1971, 553-596.

3 BI'SSIínviíi József, Lettere di principi (15IX-157B), Rome-Budapest, 2002.

4 Tóth Péter (ed.), A tenget királyi kancellária Libri legationum sorozatának magyar vonatkozású iratai II. 1526-1541, Miskolc, 2003

3 [Kujáni Gábor], Jcrosini Brodarics István. Irta: Sörös Pongrácz, Századok, 1908, 348.

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