Studies on the Illuminated Chronicle

The present volume of studies—a joint publication with the National Széchényi Library, Budapest—is the first Subsidium of the Central European Medieval Text series, accompanying CEMT vol. IX on the Illuminated Chronicle, composed in the fourteenth century at the royal court of Louis I of Hungary. The large size of the volume, with the text and its annotations, did not permit the inclusion of a detailed scholarly introduction, unlike other CEMT items, so it is here printed separately.

The first essays analyze the text and the illuminations of the Illuminated Chronicle (formerly called the Vienna Chronicle) from literary-historical, art historical and heraldic perspectives. They also summarize the literature on the chronicle for the past two hundred years. Additional studies address the narrative. Since the chronicle starts with the history of the Huns, the imaginary ancestors of the Hungarians, one essay addresses the Attila tradition in Hungarian historiography. Others devote attention to the dynastic struggles of the eleventh century, placing them in the context of amicitia and deditio, and to the image of St. Ladislas I as the “ideal king”. The final essays examine the fate of the fourteenth-century chronicle texts over the subsequent centuries, their appearance in legal texts, and their reception abroad.

János M. Bak, professor emeritus CEU (Budapest) and UBC (Vancouver) was editor in chief of Decreta Regni Mediaevalis Hungariae. The Laws of the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary (DRMH), and member of the editorial board of Central European Medieval Texts.

László Veszprémy, DSc is medievalist, paleographer, visiting professor at CEU, Department of Medieval Studies, director of the Institute of Military History. Books: co-author of the series Mittelalterliche lateinische Handschriftenfragmente (1988-98); editor, among other books, of Simonis de Kéza, Gesta Hungarorum (1999 CEMT 1); and (with B. K. Király) A Millennium of Hungarian Military History (2002).