János Baranyai Decsi and his adagia

Paczolay, Gyula (2000) János Baranyai Decsi and his adagia. Acta Ethnographica Hungarica, 45 (3-4). pp. 271-294. ISSN 1216-9803

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Abstract

The oldest extant Hungarian proverb collection – one of the first ones in East-Central Europe – can be found in the Adagiorum Graecolatinoungaricorum Chiliades quinque published in Bártfa in 1598. It was based on a 1574 Basel edition of the Adagiorum Chiliades by Erasmus, including collections of Gilbert Cousin and others, too. The 4827 Hungarian entries of the Adagia include about 900 proverbs, part of them in common use today, others known in certain regions while some fell into oblivion. About 100 of them can be found in about 30 books (e.g. Fables of Aesop by G. Heltai) and letters of earlier date. The author, János Baranyai Decsi, headmaster of the Székelyvásárhely school and graduate of the Strasbourg Academy also wrote a travel description, a book of comparative law, poems in Latin and Greek, translated Sallust into Hungarian, wrote on Hungarian runic writing, the history of his time (he died in 1601) survived in manuscript form.

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