Dialogical Epitaph of István Balassa’s wife, Ilona Zrínyi (1546−1570) in the Church of Sološnica

Abstract

Ilona Zrínyi’s epitaph which was written in dialogue form and got carved on white limestone, survives in the church in Széleskút (today’s Sološnica in Slovakia). The 42-line epigram was first published in 1828 by a certain J. Albrecht in a Viennese scientific journal, and then again in 1848 by György Gyurikovics in the Magyar Academiai Értesítő. The text of the epitaph had been recorded earlier, on the occasion of two canonica visitatio in 1752 and 1782. In 1859, Arnold Ipolyi praised the epitaph in the Vasárnapi Újság. The epigrams, composed with humanistic devices, have not been examined since then. In the long poem alongside lines from Virgil there is also an extract from an elegy by Jacopo Sannazaro. It is therefore worth republishing the poem containing the imaginary dialogue between Ilona Zrínyi and her husband. The essay contextualizes the poem with the biography of István Balassa and his wife, but it also contains information pertinent to the research of cultural history.