La Tradition Textuelle Des « Admonitions » De Saint Étienne De Hongrie

Abstract

One of the most famous works of literature written in Latin in Hungary is the the mirror for princes attributed to Saint Stephen, founder of the Hungarian state, which, therefore, enjoys high respect in the Catholic Church. However, as all the manuscripts in which the text survives go back to the 15th and 16th century, there has arisen the suspicion of forgery. This supposition is not adequate, because legends of Saint Stephen of the 11th–12th centuries give an exact description of the work. Saint Stephen presented his admonitions to his son at a moment when, after the death of Henry (Heinrich) II, Stephen’s son Emeric, as the closest relative, was being considered a suitable candidate for emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Later the text of the Admonitions , as a rule, came to be handed down with that of Stephen’s “Laws”, which generally meant that there emerged two versions of the text, both being of approximately the same value. The correct original text can probably be reconstructed through their colla...