A Kemény-eposz előszavának poétikatörténeti helye = The place of Gyöngyösi István’s foreword to the epic poem Kemény János emlékezete (The memory of Kemény János) in the history of Hungarian poetic theory

Hajdu, Ildikó (2025) A Kemény-eposz előszavának poétikatörténeti helye = The place of Gyöngyösi István’s foreword to the epic poem Kemény János emlékezete (The memory of Kemény János) in the history of Hungarian poetic theory. IRODALOMTÖRTÉNETI KÖZLEMÉNYEK, 129 (3). pp. 269-296. ISSN 0021-1486

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Abstract

In my paper, I analyse the sources of the foreword to the epic poem entitled Kemény János emlékezete (The memory of Kemény János) written by Gyöngyösi István (c. 1636/1637–1704), one of the most renowned Hungarian poets in the 17th century. The epic was first published in 1693; however, only a manuscript called “Nyitrai Ms.” contains the foreword, which addresses the reader. According to previous research on this text, it is one of the most valuable sources of early modern rhetorical and poetic thinking in Hungarian. Building on Tusor Péter’s discovery that Gyöngyösi studied at the Jesuit gymnasium and university in Nagyszombat (Tyrnavia, today Trnava SK), I argue that he used textbooks taught in the Jesuit gymnasia, particularly in the highest grammatical class, to develop his theory of writing poetry in Hungarian. Most of the definitions and examples in the text originate from Manoel Álvares’s Institutionum grammaticarum (primarily the third book), and I also assume the influence of Cypriano Soarez’s and Jacobus Pontanus’s textbooks.

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