Agria 39. (Az Egri Múzeum Évkönyve - Annales Musei Agriensis, 2003)

Lőkös Péter: A Magyar avagy Erdélyi Simplicissimus mint történeti forrás?

Dacianischen Simplicissimus' auf. Speer übernahm zum Beispiel die Reisebeschreibungen (auch die von Eger) aus der 'Neuen Beschreibung des Königreichs Ungarn' von Martin Zeiler. Turócz-Trostler machte aber auch darauf aufmerksam, daß auch die Erlauer Gefangenschaft eine mögliche Quelle hat: 'Die Reysbeschreibung eines Gefangenen Christen Anno 1604' des Johann Wild. Vergleichen wir die zwei Beschreibungen miteinander, so stellt sich heraus, daß es viele Übereinstimmungen gibt. Nach unserer Hypothese ist es möglich, daß es auch hier nicht um persönliches Erlebnis geht. Speer habe die Episode der Gefangenschaft nur deshalb in den Roman eingefügt, weil die Berichte über türkische Gefangenschaft in der deutschsprachigen Literatur des 17. Jahrhunderts sehr beliebt waren, er wollte also nur dem Geschmack der Zeit entsprechen. Im Roman gibt es auch andere Stellen, wo der Verfasser aus einer Lektüre ein persönliches Erlebnis macht (z. B. die Geschichte der Hexe von Eperjes). Lőkös Péter The "Hungarian, or Transylvanian, Simplicissimus" as Historical Source We know relatively little about everyday life in Eger during the course of the Turkish occupation. Historians of the period, however, frequently refer to the Hungarian, or Transylvanian, "Simplicissimus" as a source because in Daniel Speer's novel, published in 1683, one of the episodes takes place in Eger. In chapters 22 and 23 the narrator relates how he falls into captivity, gets sold to a Turk, and wins back his freedom. This study attempts to discover whether one can actually consider Speer's work to be a historical source capable of giving us a true picture of everyday life in Eger during the second half of the 17th century. First we give an overview of 19th and 20th century research into this particular topic. From our analyses it emerges that historians treated the novel as if it were a diary or a piece of travel writing, taking the view that Simplicissimus's experiences were those of the author himself. Speer did after all spend a few years in Hungary. German literary historians now take the view that it was a picaresque novel, and consequently a piece of literature. Picaresque novels always took the form of fictive autobiographies in which the events described had not necessarily been experienced by the authors themselves. The writers of the genre often took episodes and motifs from other books. In his study of 1915 the Hungarian literary historian József Turóczi-Trostler listed the sources for Hungarian, or Transylvanian, "Simplicissimus". For the description of towns, for example (which included Eger) Speer used Martin Zeiler's "Neue Beschreibung des Königreichs Ungarn". Turóczi-Trostler also draws our attention to the fact that there is another source for the Eger episode, namely Johann Wild's account "Die Reysbeschreibung eines Gefangenen Christen Anno 1604". Comparing the two texts one finds many similarities, suggesting, therefore, that we are not dealing here with personal experiences. Speer simply included the imprisonment episode because he knew that such tales of Turkish captivity were popular amongst his 17th century German readership. In other words he simply wanted to cater for the tastes of his audience. There are also other places in the novel where the author takes a previously published episode and narrates it as if he had been there himself, as in the case of the Eperjes witch. 376