Petercsák Tivadar - Berecz Mátyás (szerk.): Magyarország védelme - Európa védelme - Studia Agriensia 24. (Eger, 2006)

AZ EGRI VÁR DIADALA - 1552 - R. VÁRKONYI ÁGNES: Kihívások és alternatívák. Dobó, Tinódi, Balassi

of Poland, before serving as a lieutenant at the castles of Eger and Érsekújvár (now Nővé Zámky, Slovakia). His hectic life came to an end at the siege of Esztergom. His poetry addresses the topics of love, martial exploits and religion. As a poéta doctus he was influenced by Renaissance philosophy, and Marsilio Ficino’s Neo-Platonism in particular. In sharing the common ideal of Petrarchism he is related to the English poet Sir Philip Sidney, and his poetic achievement ranks with that of his great contemporaries Ronsard, Kochanowski and Shakespeare the sonnet writer. His emotionally charged poetry is a synthesis of the European and Hungarian spirit. His experience of, and empirical familiarity with, the conflicts in the border regions were elevated to the level of humanist poesy, and he was first to give voice, in the Hungarian language, to the idea that Hungary was the bulwark of Christendom. Expressing the mentality of the Renaissance and its joie de vivre, he became the initiator of major lyrical poetry in Hungary.

All three men offered answers to the questions of the day in Hungary, whose answers also proved valid and indispensible for the European community as a whole.

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