Fraternity-Testvériség, 2000 (78. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
2000-07-01 / 3. szám
i__1_ FRATERNITY Page 5 The First Hungarian in America John Parmenius Budacus, poet, explorer. (1555? - 1583) He was involved in the explorations of the new world, through the English, and thus indirectly in the explorations which in the long run brought about what became the United States of America. John Parmenius was bom in Buda, the capital of Hungary, which was then occupied by the Turks. He was a child of Christian parents. He was the product of the humanism of the Hungarian Renaissance, and its quest for new territories of knowledge. After a basic education in Hungary, he traveled to England continuing his education at Oxford. This was England’s Elizabethan period, the era of the first great English explorations and colonization. While he was at Oxford, Parmenius became a close friend of the greatest geographer of these English voyages, Richard Hakluyt. Hakluyt in turn introduced him to Sir Humphrey Gilbert, confidant of Queen Elizabeth and organizer of the first English effort of the colonization of Newfoundland. The English lord was working on the preparation of his second exploratory voyage. Both Hakluyt and Gilbert commissioned Parmenius to go along on this journey and be the official chronicler of the voyage to Newfoundland in 1583. Parmenius gladly obliged. Whilst preparing for the trip, Parmenius wrote and published his poem, Pacem, in which he praised God and nature in the spirit of Psalm 104. Also it this was at the same time the thanksgiving song of his safe journey from the land of captive Hungary to free England. (Two copies of this poem remain, one in the British Museum and the other in the library of Eaton College.) After reaching St. John’s Newfoundland, he composed an eulogy on both Gilbert and the voyage. Upon returning, his ship, the “Delight”, was hit by a hurricane and sank. With it perished Parmenius. In the report of the voyage to Queen Elizabeth, the following was stated: “Amongst those drowned then was the learned Hungarian Parmenius Budacus. He partook of the journey due to the nobleness of his soul, his object being the preservation in elegant Latin verse of this glorious exploration for the greater glory of England. He was well fit for this assignment being both of extraordinary talents and an excellent stylist. A rare poet of our time.” In his famous book, Principal Navigations in 1589, Richard Hakluyt, best friend of Budai Parmenius, published the letter Parmenius wrote to him. Not only its content and historical aspects, but also for its beautiful Latin idiom established Parmenius Budacus amongst the writers of the history of the explorers of the world oceans. The first publication of a Parmenius biography was the result of research done by two Canadian scholars, David H. Quinn and Neil M. Cheshire: “The New Found Land of Stephen Parmenius: The Life and Writings of a Hungarian Poet, Drowned on a Voyage from Newfoundland, 1583,” was issued by the University of Toronto Press in 1972. In this scholarly biography of Parmenius, one can find Parmenius’s writings, his poems and prose, in original Latin and their English translation. A bronze memorial commemorating the 400th Anniversary of his death, work of the sculptor Csaba Kur, is in the Memorial garden at the Zsuzsanna Lorántfy Home in Akron, Ohio. Sources: Vasvári Gyűjtemény (Vasvári Collection) Parmenius (Budai) István, B7:2-75 Kéz: 1:38 Kéz:2:76 T4/a:12 V.Ö. l/a:28 Somogyi Könytár, Szeged David H. Quinn and Neil M. Cheshire: “The New Found Land of Stephen Parmenius: The Life and Writings of a Hungarian Poet, Drowned on a Voyage from Newfoundland, 1583,” University of Toronto Press, 1972. Article compiled by Dr. Julianna Puskas, Historian. Csaba Kur’s bronze memorial at the Zsuzsanna Lorántfy Home in Akron, Ohio.
