Antikvitás & Reneszánsz

Peres Imre – Ledán M. István, Ókori görög sírfeliratok, A Debreceni Református Hittudományi Egyetem Újszövetségi Tanszékének kiadványai 2., Debrecen, 2023, 504 pp.

Imre Áron Illés — 2024-12-01

Peres Imre – Ledán M. István, Ókori görög sírfeliratok, A Debreceni Református Hittudományi Egyetem Újszövetségi Tanszékének kiadványai 2., Debrecen, 2023, 504 pp.

Representations of Suicide in Latin Sepulchral Inscriptions and Epigrams

M. István Ledán — 2024-12-01

In the Latin funerary inscriptions we often meet the motif of taedium vitae. Would this indicate that there are more suicides in Latin sepulchral literature than in Greek epitaphs? Given the prevalence of taedium vitae, it may be surprising that we have slightly fewer „suicidal” Latin epitaphs than Greek. However, almost all of them are clearly suicidal, whereas in the Greek epitaphs in many instances we can only suspect the case of suicide. Concerning the epigrammatic evidence, in contrast to the Greek epigram material, in Latin literature there are few epigrams which deal with suicide. This can be explained by the fact that the Latin epigram literature is far less rich than the Greek. There are few Latin epigrams that can be evaluated as literary epitaphs, and even fewer on the subject of suicide. In our study, we will first examine the „real” epitaphs and then examine how the few available „sepulchral” epigrams represent suicide.

Foreigners in Greek Rome – Xenophobia in the Juvenalian Satires

Gergő Gellérfi — 2024-12-01

The word ‘xenophobia’ is frequently found in the scholarship on Juvenal’s Satires, in relation to the content and the narrator of the poems as well as to the poet himself. Although the use of this term may seem anachronistic in an ancient context, the examination of the question is justified by its large number of occurrences in the relevant literature and the fact that one satire does include a figure who bears the main characteristics of xenophobia – however, this is not the narrator of the satires, but the central figure of Satire 3, the interlocutor called Umbricius. In my paper, I present the arguments suggesting that, unlike the narrator (and, of course, the poet), it is Umbricius who can be rightly labelled xenophobic in Juvenal’s poems.

Ficino’s Neoplatonic-Theurgical Explanations on the Operation of Talismans in De vita coelitus comparanda

Monika Frazer-Imregh — 2024-12-01

In the third book of his On Life, Marsilio Ficino uses astrological and natural magic aspects to support man’s vitality with the gifts of heaven. Through the teaching of intelligible realities and the world as a living being, Neoplatonic philosophy developed a specific system of vertical relationships. Through these bonds, certain forces from the celestial sphere can be included in the body of talismans, which, when made at the right time, from the right materials and form, become an object radiating that power. In De vita coelitus comparanda, which was written as a commentary on Plotinus’ Enneads 4, 3 (On the Soul), Ficino incorporated the lessons of his translations of further Neoplatonists into his explanations.

Some textual criticism questions regarding the text of King Matthias’ foreign affairs letters

Mátyás Darvas — 2024-12-01

This study reports on the textual criticism dilemmas that I encountered while translating and editing the Latin items of the volume titled Foreign Letters of King Matthias 1458–1479 (published in 2023). The main text of the 130-year-old edition on which the translation was based turned out to be inaccurate in many places, so it became necessary to compare it with the manuscript copies that still exist today. The use of the text variants found in this way in the main text entailed many questions and difficult decisions: how can the original goal, the most complete translation, be reconciled with philological accuracy and exactingness? The study presents these dilemmas and their results with concrete examples.

A Contribution to the Hungarian Edition of Coluccio Salutati’s De tyranno: Dante in the scriptorium of Coluccio Salutati.

Armando Nuzzo — 2024-12-01

Coluccio Salutati’s De tyranno has almost always been read as a political work, within the framework of the history of ideas, provoking because of its contents a debate on the coherence of the Florentine chancellor’s political and legal ideas. However, the work was created to justify and explain a passage from Dante’s Inferno, and it therefore seems more appropriate even today to interpret it on a literary, moral and theological level. But it is perhaps even more interesting to point out that together with Bruni’s Dialogi ad Petrum Paulum Histrum, De tyranno is a manifesto of Florentine culture in the very early fifteenth century. It shows us how a laboratory functioned around Salutati, in which even Latin-loving humanists esteemed Florentine poetry in the vernacular and in particular the work and thought of Dante.

16th-century Hungarian political conditions through the eyes of a Ferrarese humanist

Annamária Molnár — 2024-12-01

Celio Calcagnini, a humanist from Ferrara, arrived in the Kingdom of Hungary in 1517 with the attendance of Bishop Ippolito d’Este of Eger and spent a year and a half in the country. During this period (and even after his return to Italy), he maintained a correspondence with many Hungarian humanists, and his astronomical work Quod coelum stet, terra autem moveatur, which anticipated the Copernican world view, was also written in Hungary. One of the most remarkable pieces of his oeuvre, both in terms of genre and topic, is De concordia, dedicated to György Szatmári, which reflects on and expresses his concerns about contemporary Hungarian political conditions. Calcagnini uses a number of literary examples from antiquity to convince Hungarians of the need for unity against the Ottomans, while at the same time warning off the fate that awaited the country in its absence. The aim of my study is to bring Calcagnini’s figure back into the field of research in Hungary and to present the tropes, sources, and unique features of De concordia.

Proposals of a Hungarian Jesuit on the “elimination of heresies” at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries

István Dávid Lázár — 2024-12-01

István Szántó (Arator), a significant Hungarian representative of the first generation of Jesuits, fought against the Reformation almost all his life, continuously and determinedly, in order to restore the Catholic faith. Wherever he served, the ultimate goal of all his activities was this: In Rome, as a Hungarian confessor, he attempted to establish the Collegium Hungaricum to promote priestly training; he compiled a prayer book in Hungarian; during his stay in Transylvania, in addition to founding a school supported by the prince, he engaged in numerous religious debates with Protestants; he began (and, according to some opinions, completed) the translation of the Bible into Hungarian; he prepared a refutation of the Koran, etc. Unfortunately, however, most of his works have been lost, but a good part of his numerous and often voluminous letters have survived. His surviving letters from the 1600s and a short summary (Brevis et succincta descriptio, quo tempore et qua occasione haereses in Ungariam et Transylvaniam fuerint invectae, quem progressum habuerint, et quis modus sit eas exstirpandi) show how the ageing Szántó, based on many years of experience, sees the situation of Catholicism in Hungary of his time, and what methods and measures he believes can be used to suppress the rise of Protestant denominations.

Hercules in Comics:

Mercédesz Stocker — 2024-12-01

Myth-making is not an exclusive feature of the distant past: new stories and new heroes reflecting on moral and social issues are also emerging today in the context of a new, modern myth-making, sometimes adapting ancient mythological stories and reinterpreting the heroes of these stories in a modern guise. In my study, I examine the comic adaptations of the Hercules myths, most notably the Marvel series The Incredible Hercules, in which the Greek hero appears as a superhero in the modern sense.

Marcus Annaeus Lucanus: A polgárháború 2. könyvének fordítása

Máté Majoros — 2024-12-01

Az alábbiakban Marcus Annaeus Lucanus Bellum Civile (Pharsalia) c. epikus költeménye második könyvének jegyzetekkel ellátott verses fordítása olvasható.