Episodes from the history of cultural encounters between the Marches and Hungary

Abstract

The region located on the shores of the Adriatic Sea preserved numerous Hungarian related memorial sites. For instance, in the capital of the region, one of the most beautiful chapels of the Ancona Cathedral had been consecrated by a bishop of Hungarian descent in the thirteenth century. Furthermore, the Franciscans of Marche facilitated the establishment of the Franciscan order on the territory of the Hungarian Kingdom, whose presence would bring about the production of the very first Hungarian Codex, later known as the Jókai Codex. Finally, Antonio Bonfini born in Montalto, educated at Ascoli but buried in Hungary at Óbuda, would become the historian of King Matthias’ humanist court. For his services, Hungarian nobility was conferred on him, as well. (Professor István Lázár celebrated in this book is an expert of Bonfini’s life and oeuvre; he had written an Italian book on this subject published at Ascoli in 1993, and then an Italian article reflecting on the relation between Bonfini and King Matthias that also came out in the volume of a congress organised in Montalto and published in Teramo in 2018). There are so many other places worth mentioning, yet I confine my survey only to mention Loreto, perhaps, the most significant one, and its treasury outstandingly significant from a Hungarian perspective. Ferenc II Rákóczi was the distinguished visitor of this place. Moreover Recanati: Leopardi, who often mentioned Hungary in his texts, immortalised Recanati in their writings alongside with the poet Mihály Babits, who dedicated a famous poem to it, as well. A relic of Saint James of the Marche, a saint originating from this region, had been kept for centuries now in the gothic Church of the Szeged Franciscans, a church erected with the support of King Matthias’s father, János Hunyadi.