Vadas József (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 13. (Budapest, 1993)

MIKÓ Árpád: „Pogánypénzes" kehely a 16. század elejéről

ÁRPÁD MIKÓ A CHALICE WITH "PAGAN COINS" FROM THE EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY IS THE CHALICE OF UDALRICUS BUDAI, THE PREBEND OF GYULAFEHÉRVÁR, IN THE TREASURY OF THE NYITRA CATHEDRAL? In the last third of the nineteenth century, that is, the heroic age of art history writing, a strange, late medieval chalice decorated with Roman and Byzantine coins was found among the treasures of the Nyitra cathedral.

1 It was later exhibited in Budapest several times, together with the other medieval chalices of the Nyitra treasury

2

, and it was studied by art historian experts. While the other two medieval chalices from Nyitra (one with filigree decoration, and Pál Bornemisza

's cloisonne chalice) are still well-known relics of Hungarian medieval art

3

, the chalice with "Pagan Coins" has somehow slipped from the memory of Hungarian researchers. The chalice belongs to the oldest treasures of the Nyitra cathedral. It was already mentioned in 1606 in an acknowledgment of receipt, signed by Ferenc Forgách, bishop of Nyitra, for Pál Apponyi, who gave back all treasures that had been saved in Vienna before the Bocskay attack in 1605.

4 Earlier, it had been mentioned in 1587, among treasures kept in the vestry, in the bequest inventory of Zakariás Mossóczy, bishop of Nyitra.

5 It is probably this chalice that is referred to in a benigna resohitio, in which a chalice decorated with antique gold coins is searched by the court in the bequest of Mossóczy.

6 The chalice with "pagan coins" first appears in the testimony of Bishop Pál Bornemisza (Abstemius), in 1577.

7 Bornemisza bequeathes the chalice to the Gyulafehérvár cathedral, or rather, he wants it to be given back to the cathedral from where he had collected it for personal use and did not give it back after he, a Catholic, had been forced to leave the Presbyterian Transylvania. The condition of giving the chalice back is that the Catholics should be returned the Gyulafehérvár cathedral - in any other cases, the treasures were to remain in Nyitra. The returning of the cathedral, however, took place only in 1715; thus, the chalice with "pagan coins" stayed in Nyitra. The chalice decorated with antique coins was collected by Pál Bornemisza as the Bishop of Transylvania, between 1553 and 1556.

8 It is likely to have belonged to the equipment of the St. Ann chapel, or at least this can be supposed on the basis of the testimony. The chapel was built by Bishop Ferenc Várday, at the northern side of the cathedral, between the Lázói chapel and the northern transept.

9 We have only a few information about its equipment; the detailed inventory of 1531, in which all the treasures of the cathedral are listed, does not specify the origin and the owner of the pieces. Twenty-two chalices are mentioned here, including one decorated with antique