János Baranyai Decsi or János Csimor Baranyai Decsi ( Hungarian: ''Baranyai Decsi Csimor János'') is a Hungarian

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

writer who lived in the 16th century. He lived in the

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...

n court of Báthory Zsigmond.

Life

He was born in

Decs Decs is a village in Tolna County, Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Rom ...

in Ottoman Hungary in 1560. His family name was Csimor. He belonged to the

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...

Church. He completed his studies in Tolna,

Debrecen Debrecen ( , is Hungary's second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the largest Hungarian city in the 18th century and i ...

and Kolozsvár (now

Cluj-Napoca ; hu, kincses város) , official_name=Cluj-Napoca , native_name= , image_skyline= , subdivision_type1 = Counties of Romania, County , subdivision_name1 = Cluj County , subdivision_type2 = Subdivisions of Romania, Status , subdivision_name2 ...

). In 1587, he travelled abroad accompanying the young Hungarian aristocrat, Ferenc Bánffy de Losoncz. The pair studied in

Wittenberg Wittenberg ( , ; Low Saxon language, Low Saxon: ''Wittenbarg''; meaning ''White Mountain''; officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg (''Luther City Wittenberg'')), is the fourth largest town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Wittenberg is situated on the Ri ...

, where Bánffy was elected as rector. In 1590, they moved to

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

. The family estate had been ruined by the Ottoman Turks. In 1592, he moved to Kolozsvár (now

), where the Duke, Sigismund Báthory supported him. The following year, he moved to Marosvásárhely (now Târgu Mureş) where he began working as a teacher, which he held until his death. He travelled a great deal, to Gyulafehérvár ( Alba Iulia), to Kolozsvár (now

), and once even to

to be granted a higher degree.

History of Hungary 1592–1598

Baranyai was close to the official documents of the

n court, he mentions as informators Márton Pethe,

Demeter Naprágyi Demeter Naprágyi (''Náprágyi'', ''Napragyi'', ''Napraghy'' or ''Napragi''; 1564 – before 5 March 1619)Markó 2006, p. 115. was a Hungarian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, who served as bishop of several dioceses. He was the Archbish ...

, Ferenc Dersffy, Sebestyén Thököly, László Hommonai, Miklós Czobor. He even interviewed the beg of Lippa (now Lipova) Mohamed in prison. His source for earlier periods is often

Antonio Bonfini Antonio Bonfini (Latin variant: ''Antonius Bonfinius'') (1427‒1502) was an Italian humanist and poet who spent the last years of his career as a court historian in Hungary with King Matthias Corvinus Matthias Corvinus, also called Matthias ...

. His relation to the Catholic duke was contradictory; on the one hand Baranyai needed the prince's support to finance his own work, but Baranyai often spoke out against what he perceived as the duke's crimes and impotence in military or political matters. He often quotes the facts without commentary. The work would copy

in its structure, written in the form of the ten decades of Hungarian history but Baranyai only wrote the tenth decade, which turned out to be similar. First editions are of Marton Kovachich 1798 and of Ferenc Toldy in 1866.

Works

*Hungarian translation of

Sallust Gaius Sallustius Crispus, usually anglicised as Sallust (; 86 – ), was a Roman historian and politician from an Italian plebeian family. Probably born at Amiternum in the country of the Sabines, Sallust became during the 50s BC a partisan o ...

's ''Catilina'', '' Iugurtha'' published in 1609 *Hodoeporicon *History of Hungary 1592–1598 *Poems in Latin and Greek *Thesis on the

Hun The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...

nic-

Scythia Scythia (Scythian: ; Old Persian: ; Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) or Scythica (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ), also known as Pontic Scythia, was a kingdom created by the Scythians during the 6th to 3rd centuries BC in the Pontic–Caspian steppe. His ...

n alphabet *Hungarian translation of Erasmus of Rotterdam's proverb collection *Essay on the Hungarian Law "Syntagma institutinonum iuris imperialis ac Ungarici" published 1593 in Kolozsvár

Literature

Baranyi Decsi János magyar historiája (1592–1598) Budapest 1981 Helikon translated from Latin by Kulcsár Péter

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baranyai Decsi, Janos Hungarian chroniclers 16th-century Hungarian historians