The Historical Context of Polyphony in Medieval Hungary: An Examination of Four Fragmentary Sources

Abstract

It is an unfortunate fact of history that during the sixteenth century, the central regions of the kingdom of Hungary came increasingly under Turkish threat, especially following the Battle of Moha,cs on August 29, 1526, and for over a century most of its southern territory was under Turkish occupation. As iconoclasts, the Turks destroyed many statues and paintings, and except for a few illuminated manuscripts taken to Istanbul, many sources related to medieval Hungarian history must have been destroyed.1 A few manuscripts survived this devastation, some by being copied and used in the safer regions of Slovakia (Upper Hungary) and some by being taken along with the fleeing populace as they moved north and west. However, many of these sources succumbed to the often fickle criteria of changing artistic styles and were cut apart and reused to bind or protect later, more current works. Due to the vision and industry of the late prof. Laszlo Mezey, a working group was established in Budapest to systematically examine all manuscripts and older printed books for earlier fragmentary sources. The first catalogue of their work appeared in 1983, devoted to material from the Egyetemi Konyvtar (University Library) in Budapest, and a second volume with material from the former Seminarium Centrale Cleri Hungariae was published in 1988.2 In the course of their researches, four new polyphonic sources were recovered, and these are the basis for this present investigation.3