Janus Pannonius ( la, Ioannes Pannonius, hr, Ivan Česmički, hu, Csezmiczei János or ; 29 August 1434 – 27 March 1472) was a Croatian- Hungarian Latinist, poet,

diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...

and

Bishop of Pécs A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or offic ...

. He was the most significant poet of the Renaissance in the Kingdom of Hungary and one of the better-known figures of humanist poetry in Europe.

Life

Born in Slavonia, Janus's father was a CroatÁdám Makkai
''In quest of the 'miracle stag': the poetry of Hungary : an anthology of Hungarian poetry in English translation from the 13th century to the present in commemoration of the 1100th anniversary of the foundation of Hungary and the 40th anniversary of the Hungarian Uprising of 1956''
University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 41 whose social status and relation to the nobility is unclear. His mother, Borbála Vitéz, was Hungarian. Pope Pius II wrote that Pannonius was of Slavonian origin (''de origine Slavonica''). His biographer and friend Vespasiano da Bisticci said that he was of Slavic nationality. According to Ronsano of Palermo, he was from Dalmatia (''di natione Dalmata''). M. Franičević, in citing Ronsano, notes that many Italians saw all “Croats” as Dalmatians. Ludovik Tuberon Crijević, writing of Pannonius, says that he was born a Slav (''genere itidem Sclavenum'') in that part of interior Dalmatia that lies between the Sava and Drava rivers. Pannonius was brought up by his mother; in 1447 his uncle sent him to Italy for a humanist schooling. He attended the School of Guarino da Verona at

Ferrara Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream ...

, where the pupils were educated in Latin and Greek authors under the guidance of a noted teacher of the Italian Renaissance. The boy was considered the brightest pupil of his generation by both his teachers and fellow-students. He wrote poetry according to the rules of classical prosody; he was around thirteen when he wrote his first epigrams. His higher education was completed at the University of Padua in canon law. After making an educational tour of Rome, he returned to Hungary in 1458, the year of Matthias's accession to the throne. For a time, he worked at the Royal Chancery, and soon was appointed as the

and later Vice-Chancellor of the country. Janus Pannonius was an influential intellectual in the kingdom; he kept his connections with some of the leading philosophers of his time. He also collected a significant library of humanist works (probably dispersed in 1526). He served as the Ban of Slavonia in 1469. He died in the Medvedgrad castle near Zagreb.

References

Sources

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Works

Opera
Basel, 1555 {{DEFAULTSORT:Pannonius, Janus 1432 births 1472 deaths 15th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Hungary 15th-century Latin writers 15th-century Croatian poets 15th-century Croatian nobility Hungarian male poets Medieval Croatian nobility Hungarian people of Croatian descent Baranya (region) History of Baranya (region) People from Čazma Bishops of Pécs Royal treasurers (Kingdom of Hungary) Chief justices of Hungary Book and manuscript collectors Croatian male poets 15th-century Hungarian poets 15th-century Hungarian writers