Századok – 2022

2022 / 6. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Somogyi Szilvia: IV. László úgynevezett második kun törvényének korai másolatai

SOMOGYI SZILVIA

THE EARLY COPIES OF KING LADISLAUS IV’S SO-CALLED SECOND CUMAN LAW

By Szilvia

Somogyi

SUMMARY

The paper explores the scriptural tradition of the so-called second Cuman law, which was issued by King Ladislaus IV in August 1279. Its text, preserved in the form of a royal charter, has so far only been known from eighteenth-century and later copies. Consequently, several scholars questioned its authenticity, and thought it was a forgery prepared at the time of the Jász-Kun

Redemption,

in the eighteenth century. The paper, however, presents three earlier copies of the law, which have hitherto remained unknown or dropped out from the historical record. Based on historical and philological arguments, it argues that at least one among the copies contained in the Codex 8219 of the Österreichische

Nationalbibliothek was

certainly made before 1636. Similarly, collection-historical and philological arguments support the hypothesis that the copy of the law which had belonged to the Körmend

archives

of the Batthyány

family,

and was recently restored to the Hungarian National Archives, is likewise earlier than the eighteenth century, and must have been made by the end of the sixteenth. The paper examines the relationship of the freshly found early copies to the already known text.

1165