The Legend of Saint Margaret ( hu, Szent Margit legendája) is an important piece of
Mediaeval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
Hungarian literature
Hungarian literature is the body of written works primarily produced in Hungarian, . The only specimen of the text was preserved in the Margaret Codex, copied by
Lea Ráskay
Lea Ráskay, O.P., (; early 16th century, sometimes also spelled ''Ráskai'') was a Hungarian nun and scholar of the 16th century.
Life
Ráskay was likely a descendant of that old Hungarian aristocratic family which would have gotten its name ...
in 1510. The legend tells the life and deeds of
Saint Margaret of Hungary
Margaret of Hungary (January 27, 1242 – January 18, 1270) was a Dominican nun and the daughter of King Béla IV of Hungary and Maria Laskarina. She was the younger sister of Kinga of Poland (Kunegunda) and Yolanda of Poland and, through her fa ...
.
The Margaret Codex
The Margaret Codex is a copy of a lost earlier book. The legend was originally denoted in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
in the 14th century, and soon was translated to
Hungarian. The document was copied in 1510 by the famous early 16th century
Hungarian nun,
Lea Ráskay
Lea Ráskay, O.P., (; early 16th century, sometimes also spelled ''Ráskai'') was a Hungarian nun and scholar of the 16th century.
Life
Ráskay was likely a descendant of that old Hungarian aristocratic family which would have gotten its name ...
. Ráskay is also valued by posterity for saving a number of other
Old Hungarian works.
She did not simply copy the book, but also applied her own
orthography
An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation.
Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and mos ...
, and added several
glosses.
Significance
The legend reveals many less known parts of the life of
Saint Margaret, and provides a true picture about the lives of the monasteries of
Mediaeval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
. It also gives an insight to the days of
Buda
Buda (; german: Ofen, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Budim, Будим, Czech and sk, Budín, tr, Budin) was the historic capital of the Kingdom of Hungary and since 1873 has been the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest, on the ...
and
Pest in the 13th century.
Sample
*
Hungarian:
:''"Nyulak szigetében, másképpen Bódogasszony szigetében, hol nyugoszik Szent Margit asszonynak teste, hogy ott megtudakoznának nagy erős bizonság alatt Szent Margit asszonynak szentséges életéről, csodatételéről, kit ez jámbor doktorok és kananokok híven mind megtőnek és mend végig elvégezék és híven megírák, pápának bevivék, nékönk és írva hagyák, miképpen jól látjátok, az ő legendáját."''
*
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
:
:''"In the
Island of the Hares, or in other words, in the island of the
Blessed Mary
Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...
, where the body of the holy lady Margaret reposes, they enquired with being strongly sure about the sacred life and miracles of Saint Margaret, whom these guileless doctors and canons all devotedly testified, verified and faithfully described, and took the text to the
pope
The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...
, so they, as you can see, left the legend of her to us and in a written form."''
Sources
The text of the legend(in Hungarian only)
*
Zolnai Gyula: Nyelvemlékeink a könyvnyomtatás koráig, Budapest, 1894
*
Krúdy Gyula: Szent Margi
(Available online, in Hungarian)
External links
*
* The text of the Margaret Legend in its original orthographic form is available and searchable in th
Old Hungarian Corpus
See also
*
Saint Margaret of Hungary
Margaret of Hungary (January 27, 1242 – January 18, 1270) was a Dominican nun and the daughter of King Béla IV of Hungary and Maria Laskarina. She was the younger sister of Kinga of Poland (Kunegunda) and Yolanda of Poland and, through her fa ...
*
Hungarian language
Hungarian () is an Uralic language spoken in Hungary and parts of several neighbouring countries. It is the official language of Hungary and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. Outside Hungary, it is also spoken by Hungarian ...
*
History of Hungarian
Hungarian is a Uralic language of the Ugric group. It has been spoken in the region of modern-day Hungary since the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin in the late 9th century.
Hungarian's ancestral language probably separated from th ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Legend Of Saint Margaret
Hungarian literature
14th-century books
Manuscripts
Hungarian legends
Medieval legends