Dr. Szabó Lajos: A magyar ifjúság testi nevelésének története (A Sportmúzeum Kincsei 5. Budapest, 2004)

Lovagi nevelés A reneszánsz kultúra virágkora az Anjou uralkodók és Hunyadi Mátyás korában

THE FLOURISHING PERIOD OF KNIGHTLY CULTURE was during the reign of Anjou rulers (Charles Robert and his son Lewis I. (the Great). Charles Robert organized a huge tournament in 1335 on the occasion of the Visegrád Meeting, in which John, the Czech king was also participating in a red and white colour gymnastic dress on the back of a horse having the same colour blanket. He himself was the heroe of several tournaments. Knightly education - similar to the Árpád Age - became well-known in Hungary through the German knights coming from abroad. From the period of the Anjou knights it was adopted by most of the Hungarian aristocratic families. Humanistic ideas also appeared in this area of Europe. Humanism, ideology of the human-centered urban bourgeoisie, growing in number, was formed in Italy. The new idea split the absoluteness of teological education of previous centuries and the active man and the nature, surrounding it was placed into the centre of interest. Two of the humanistic educators became soon well-known in Hungary. Pier Paolo Vergerio, teacher of the University of Padova arrived to Hungary in 1418 for the invitation of King Sigismund, and lived here until he died. He wrote about the questions of physical education and body care/personal hygienie in his book Education of children of high rank and the free sciences well-known in whole Europe. The teacher should consider the natural abilities, inclination of the children, give them the chance to rest, and play and train their body. Physical education was important mainly in the afternoons, during the relaxation period, after finishing intellectual work. In his opinion those exercises should be selected for the children that improve and maintain health, strengthen the body, considering the age, too. He said that permanent training is a necessary part of preparing for military life. "Body should be prepared for military life from early childhood, and the soul must be trained for suffering. Child should be led to the arena/battlefield, to train to endure/tolerate heat and tiredness with an easy heart even among blood and sweat - he wrote. The other humanistic educator was Enea Silvio Piccolomini (the later Pope Pius ID.who was the educator of the child King Ladislaus V, and prepared a work for the Hungarian educator, Caspar Vendel in 1450 about the humanistic educational principles of the 15th century for noble children: "About the education of children". There are certain games suitable for physical education. Aim at acquiring the right body posture, and care for the health of your body. If you have a good body posture in your childhood and you care for maintaining it, it will keep your body healthy at an older age. As it is necessary for the king to be the leader of the army in case of war, it is important to train himself in military exercises already at childhood. ...So it will be very useful, Ladislaus - as you will have to fight against the Turkish -, if you learn now in your childhood, how to use the bow, the sword, to throw the spear, to mount on a horse, to