Magyar Hírek, 1988 (41. évfolyam, 1-22. szám)
1988-06-24 / 12. szám
Hie ßSStß Hungarian language and culture in Croatia THE NEKCSEI BIBLE As regards its national composition Yugoslavia is one of the most colourful states in Europe. Six nations and more than twenty national minorities live on the territory of the country. The treaty of Trianon annexed Hungarian-populated districts to Yugoslavia as well. In Croatia, for instance, more than 25,000 people professed themselves to be Hungarian-speaking at the last census. In reality many more people speak Hungarian as their native language. One of the buildings of the main square of the Eszék castle district on the shore of the River Drava is the home of the Federation of Hungarians in Croatia as well as of the Magyar Képes Újság (Hungarian Illustrated Journal). The Federation was formed in 1949 as organizer and coordinator of the Hungarian idea and cultural life. I discussed the activities of the Federation with Ferenc Tripolszky, the President and Sándor Tröszt, the General Secretary. “Besides Hungarians, Italians, Czechs, Slovaks as well as the people with Ruthenian and Ukrainian as their native language have national federations” says Sándor Tröszt, “but our federation is the largest one. The federation is a collective body of various associations, clubs and literary groups. Our work supplements their programmes mainly with financial, methodological and professional assistance.” "The Federation is operated by honorary workers. Where do these enthusiastic people, who sacrifice their free time, come from ?” “Under the terms of the Hungarian-Yugoslavian cultural agreement we were able to send a hundred university students to study in Hungary. They are our most important staff members since many of them help to promote Hungarian culture in clubs and associations on their return. Nowadays even the conditions are more favourable for this, since people tend to stay at home, where they were born, much more than they did a few years ago. There are more young people in the villages, since agriculture provides more jobs and the improvement of transport conditions also made the distances seem shorter. I can say without hesitation that the chances of preserving Hungarian as a native language are better now than some years ago. We have access to every newspaper and literary work published in Hungary, excellent connections with the town of Pécs and with County Baranya, the National Institute of Education and the Széchényi Library. Browsing through the pages of the paper in the editorial office of Magyar Képes Újság, we can’t help noticing the open, critical tone. The reports presenting the life of Hungarians aim to awaken Hungarians to the consciousness of their national rights. Under the law everyone can freely speak their native language. In places, where Hungarians dominate, knowing the Hungarian language is obligatory in all public offices (courts, police stations, taxation office, post office etc.). The situation is similar in education. There are still some people, however, who fear that sending their children to a Hungarian school might prejudice their career. This in one of the reasons why articles published in the newspaper encourage Hungarians to study in their native language. The opportunity to do so exists from kindergarten to university. KLÁRA ZIKA King Caroberto (1308—1342) managed to control the feudal anarchy that had become unmanageable during the last kings of the House of Árpád, thanks to the strength of arms and the wisdom of his advisors. As soon as he succeeded in breaking the power of the barons he set out to straighten the economy and the financial muddle. In this Demeter Nekcsei, the Lord Chief Treasurer, who controlled the royal treasury and the financial management of the country proved of considerable help. The Nekcsei family—formerly called Lipoczis after their first estate of Lipocz were descendents of the Aba family, related to the kings of the Árpád dinasty, thus Demeter had an eminent position amongst the barons of the country not only by virtue of his office and the size of his estates but also thanks to his origin. King Caroberto granted the family the right to build a castle at Nekcse, and from then on Demeter called himself Nekcsei instead of Lipoczi. He had a new church built in the centre of his estates to provide a suitable burial place for his family. According to some scholars the beautifully produced hand-written and richly illustrated Bible, parts of which will soon be reproduced in a facsimile edition, were written for the new Nekcse church. Other authorities believe it was donated either to the St. Peter and Paul priory of Óbuda, or to the parish-church of Gyöngyöspata, or to Paulitian monastery at Csatár. The issue is undecided to this day, nor do we know, who made the book? It is also undecided whether it is the work of a single illuminator or of several of Hungarian or foreign masters? The stylistic characters suggest that the text written on parchment ornamented with colourful initials and genuine goldleaf is the work of scholarly clerics trained in the Bologna school of scribes. Judging by the ductus, the characteristics of the hand, there could have been three who carried out the comission of the Noble Lord either in Bologna, or as his guests in Esztergom. There is no doubt that the great folio (32x46 cm) written on 1400 pages was commissioned by Demeter Nekcsei, since the illuminators painted his coat of arms above the first line of the Book of Genesis. The Latin Bible containing the whole of the Old and the New Testament is the 13th century Paris version, which differs from the Vulgate, that is from the text the Catholic Church accepts today as authentic, owing to the prologues that precede the various chapters. Nothing is known of the story of the great work in its first two centuries. A handwritten note refers to a 16th century owner called Zuleman (Suleiman?) who could not be a Turk in spite of his name but someone in the retinue of Hieronimo Adorno, the ambassador of Ferdinand I to the Porte. According to his note he was imprisoned in Constantinople and tortured, thus it is likely that he received the Bible from Ferdinand 1 as a recognition of the misfortunes he suffered. After that the volume disappeared again and emerged only early in the 19th century in England in the possession of one Henry Perkins. When Perkins's library was auctioned in 1873 the Bible was bought by the Library of Congress, where it has been ever since. Information of the whereabouts of the Bible became available when Meta Harssen of the New York Pierpont Morgan Library, examined it together with other MSS and communicated with Dezső Dercsényi, the Hungarian historian, who on the basis of the coat of arms already mentioned substantiated that none but Demeter Nekcsei could have commissioned the work. Since the possibility or acquiring the volume for a Hungarian public collection is—out of question, Helikon publishers of Budapest proposed the publication of a facsimile edition. After lengthy consideration it was decided not to publish in full, since the two large volumes (the Bible was divided into two parts at a rebinding) would be too expensive to produce. Thus the facsimile edition that will appear this year will contain 108 of the most beautifully illustrated pages of the original, supplemented by an introductory essay by Dezső Dercsényi in Hungarian and English. Publication will be jointly by Helikon of Budapest and the Library of Congress of Washington D. C. The latter supplied—free of charge—the photographic material. Printing will be in Hungary on special paper made in the German Federal Republic. LÁSZLÓ PUSZTASZERI In the editorial office of "Magyar Képes Újság" in Eszék (Ősiek)
