A Herman Ottó Múzeum évkönyve 50. (2011)

TÖRTÉNETTUDOMÁNY - GYULAI Éva: Hunyadi János emblémája Ottavio Strada 1585 körül készült rajzán

306 Gyulai Eva JOHN OF HUNY AD'S EMBLEM ON DRAWING OF OTTAVIO STRADA, AROUND 1585 Keywords: impresa, John Hunyadi, Ottavio Strada, shield, King Matthias Corvinus I Among manuscripts of Ottavio Strada, several could be found in which he collected the impresas of the rulers and prominent personalities of his age, which provided the base for Aegidius Sadeler's engravings for the Prague emblem book (1601-1603). Among Strada's emblem drawings, King Matthias Corvinus I's father, John Hunyadi (1407-1456) is also represented with device depicting a shield and a motto (INVENISSEM SI VIVISSEM). Neapolitan poet, Bernardino Rota (1508/9-1575) mentions a love emblem of his contemporary, Antonio Severino, which consists of a black shield bearing the following motto: INVENISSEM SE VIVEREM (="I would have found it if I lived"), so Strada was wrong when he attributed this motto to Hunyadi. It can only be suspected that this was due to Strada's mistake who wanted to commemorate with his drawing the military leader, well-known in the 16

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h century, too. Although John of Hunyad could not match the Italian, German or French war lords of the 15

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h and 16

th centuries in popularity, and therefore, his emblem is not known with the exception of the one that was presumably drawn erroneously by Ottavio Strada, John Hunyadi was a well-known and acclaimed personality in the late Renaissance on the one hand, as a hero defeating the Turks, the winner of Belgrade, and, on the other hand, as the father of Hungarian King Hungary Matthias Corvinus (1443-1490). Eva Gyulai