The Érdy Codex is the largest collection of
Hungarian legends, and the greatest volume of
Hungarian language
Hungarian, or Magyar (, ), is an Ugric language of the Uralic language family spoken in Hungary and parts of several neighboring countries. It is the official language of Hungary and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. Out ...
literature in history.
It is a middle-sized folio paper
codex
The codex (: codices ) was the historical ancestor format of the modern book. Technically, the vast majority of modern books use the codex format of a stack of pages bound at one edge, along the side of the text. But the term ''codex'' is now r ...
written mostly with running letters, while at some parts, especially in capitals, and in
epistolas it is in printed capital letters. The codex was written by one author, probably a
Carthusian
The Carthusians, also known as the Order of Carthusians (), are a Latin enclosed religious order of the Catholic Church. The order was founded by Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns. The order has its own rule, called th ...
monk, who finished his work on 23 November 1527, the day of
Saint Clement, according to the last page. The place of its origin and early owners are unknown. In the 17th century it was the property of the Seminary of Nagyszombat (today:
Trnava
Trnava (, , ; , also known by other #Names and etymology, alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia, to the northeast of Bratislava, on the Trnávka river. It is the capital of the Trnava Region and the Trnava District. It is the seat o ...
, Slovakia), whence through abbot Ferenc Stipsics, it was moved to the library of Hungarian National Museum in 1814. It is now kept at the
National Széchényi Library
The National Széchényi Library (, ) (OSZK) is a library in Budapest, Hungary, located in Buda Castle. It is one of two Hungarian national libraries, the other being University of Debrecen Library.
History
The library was founded in 1802 by th ...
.
The content of the work is
sermon
A sermon is a religious discourse or oration by a preacher, usually a member of clergy. Sermons address a scriptural, theological, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law, or behavior within both past and present context ...
s for the whole year; additionally in one part it contains the legends of ninety most important
Saints
In Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Anglican, Oriental Orth ...
. It also lists Saints of the
Hungarian history, namely
St Stephen
Stephen (; ) is traditionally venerated as the protomartyr or first martyr of Christianity.["St ...]
,
St Ladislaus,
St Emeric,
St. Elisabeth,
St Gellert, etc.
The codex itself was based on Latin works of Pelbart of Temesvár from the 15th century.
The name was given to it by
Ferenc Toldy
Ferenc Toldy (born Franz Karl Joseph Schedel, August 10, 1805, in Buda - December 10, 1875, in Budapest) was a literary critic from the Austrian Empire and later Austria-Hungary.
Biography
As a small boy, he lived with his parents, Franz Schede ...
in honour of its first editor,
János Érdy.
Sources
*Gyula Zolnai: Nyelvemlékeink a könyvnyomtatás koráig (Budapest, 1894) (Our language heritage before the age of printing)
External links
* The text of the Érdy Codex in its original orthographic form is available and searchable in th
Old Hungarian Corpus
{{DEFAULTSORT:Erdy-Codex
Hungarian language
Hungarian chronicles