Sebestyén Tinódi Lantos (c. 1510 in Tinód – 30 January 1556 in

Sárvár Sárvár (german: Kotenburg or ; la, Bassiana; sl, Mala Sela) is a town in Vas County, Hungary. Sárvár lies on the banks of the River Rába at Kemeneshát. The population is nearly 16,000. The town has become a tourist centre of internatio ...

) was a 16th-century Hungarian lyricist, epic poet, political historian, and minstrel.

Biography

Little is known about Tinódi's childhood. He attended various schools and studied

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 ...

, and excelled at sheet music. He joined the military service in 1535 and in 1539 was wounded in a battle, which rendered him ineligible for further military service. In 1541, when

Turks Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic languages * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic ...

invaded, it made a big impression on him. He became a political poet at this time, his works expressing the need to resist the Turks. Tinódi started a family, and visited parliament and scenes of battles, and wrote poems about these. He then began to put his poems to music and performed them to the accompaniment of a lute, which led to his nickname, "Lantos" - the lute-player. His songs became recognized as an important chronicalization of the events of the day by Tamás Nádasdy in 1545, who recommended to Parliament that this become a public post for Tinódi. From 1546 to 1551 there was a general period of peace, but in 1552 a new Ottoman military campaign began, and this was again chronicled by Tinódi. In 1553, he was formally recognized by the king as a chronicler who processed the historical events of his age in a poem form, and was conferred the patent of nobility. The collected edition of his works was published in 1554. He traveled to

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for a while and returned in 1555, but died shortly thereafter.

Works

Chronica
Kolozsvar, 1554

References

* Szakály Ferenc: Lantos és krónikás. Tinódi (História 1981/2) * Révai nagy lexikona

External links

Vass József: Tinódi Sebestyén
(Vass József: Tinódi Sebestyén (Vasárnapi Újság, 1859. January 2.)
short article Fidelio on a portal

All his poems in Magyar Elektronikus Könyvtár

His statue in the town of Dombóvár
1510 births 1556 deaths Hungarian male poets Hungarian nobility 16th-century Hungarian poets {{Hungary-writer-stub