Ovid’s Poems in the Printed Books of Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Hungary

Masterpieces of the classical Latin poetry were continuously among the products of the printing presses. Although Ovid was among the popular antique authors, researches in the sixteenthand seventeenth-century history of Hungarian book-printing show a surprising picture: only a few editions of Ovid’s works are known. In spite of this, Ovid was an often cited author in Hungary even before the publication of the first home edition of his works. There are two explanations for this: (1) foreign editions were used instead, or (2) citations, adaptations, and translations circulated beside the official whole-text editions.

num, cum finali utriusque exitu. Non ita pridem idiomate Hungarico per anonymum quendam ex scriptis poetae Nasonis… 2 (Debrecen 1576). 3 The text is based on Ovid's works, especially on the Heroides. The title-page of a 1597 edition contains a quatrain from Ovid's Ars amatoria. 4 Another contemporary book, Stories about Perfect Women by Miklós Bogáti Fazekas (Szép historia az tökélletes aszszonyállatokról, melly az Plutarchosból forditatott magyar nyelvre…, Kolozsvár/Cluj Napoca 1577), is a collection of stories about thirteen women (Chiomara, Micca, Stratonia, Timoclia etc.) from the ancient world based mainly on Plutarch, but in the story of Lucretia, the author used Ovid's Fasti as a subsidiary source as well. 5 The story of Ajax and Ulysses by Mátyás Csáktornyai (Ieles szep historia két görög hertzegröl, erös Aiaxról és bölcz Vlissesröl [An illustrious and beautiful story about two Greek Princes, the strong Aiax and the wise Ulysses], Kolozsvár 1592) is based on the Metamorphoses XIII (Armorum iudicium), 6 similarly to the story of Priam and Thisbe (Pryamus és Thysbe historiája…, Levoča c. 1680), from which only a short fragment has survived. 7 The funeral oration about Krisztina Bethlen, daughter of István Bethlen, contains some Latin citations from Ovid (Temetesi pompa… Betthlen Christina aszszonynak… [Funeral splendour for Christina Bethlen], Debrecen 1631). 8 There is a Lutheran apologetic pamphlet completely compiled from Ovid's verses (Georg Hochschild, Cento Ovidianus de Christiani nominis hostium furore inaudito…, Keresztúr 1615). 9 It was a great technical performance to put together citations like that. By all means, the schoolbooks regularly quoted from Ovid. István Magyari, a Lutheran theologian, the main polemical adversary of Péter Pázmány published a book about the "art of dying well" in Sárvár in 1600 (István Magyari, Kezbeli könyuetske au iol es boldogvl valo meg halasnac mesterségeröl [Manual about the art of the dying well and happy]). 10 In this book there are two quotations from Ovid in Hungarian translation. The first one, arguing that love and lust can be defeated by respectable work, is from Remedia amoris: 13 We can see that the Hungarian author combined two verses, which do not follow one another in the original, into a two-verses-long poem. The other Ovid translation in Magyari's book is from the Epistulae ex Ponto. It says that sudden death is the best way of passing: Könnyebben hal az meg, ki az víztől hertelen elborittatik, Hogy sem mint az, ki karját az folyó vizekben elfárasztja. 13 The original: Mitius ille perit, subita qui mergitur unda, quam sua qui tumidis brachia lassat aquis. 14 Some other authors, such as György Szepsi Korotz, also made translations from classical authors, especially from Ovid, in his cogitations about the virtues of the ideal king: György Szepsi Korotz, Βασιλικον δωρον. Az angliai, scotiai franciai és hiberniai elsö Jacob kiralynac… fia tanitasaert irtt kiralyi ajandeka… (A royal present written by James I, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland for the teaching of his son), Oppenheim 1612. 15 Another work discussing the same topic is Feiedelmeknec serkentö oraia az az Marcvs Avrelivs csaszarnac eleteröl az hires Gvevarai Antaltól … (The alarm clock of princes, that is life of emperor Marcus Aurelius by Antal Gvevarai), Bártfa 1628, by János Draskovich and András Prágai. 16 The most significant of these publications is perhaps Discursus de summo bono, az legföb iorol… (… about the supreme Good…), Lőcse 1630, 17 by Albert Szenci Molnár, who translated into Hungarian several verses from Ovid and other ancient authors as well. He transposed parts especially from Epistulae ex Ponto, 18 Tristia, 19 Ars amatoria, 20 Fasti, 21 and Amores 22 etc. 23 Surprisingly, researches in the history of book-printing in this age show a completely different picture. From among Ovid's original oeuvre only the Tristia was published with full text in a separate volume in Hungary in the 17th century, first in Lőcse (Levoča) in 14 1642 by the protestant Brewer press, 24 and afterwards twice in Nagyszombat (Trnava), in 1677 and in 1692. 25 We can see that Ovid was an often cited author in Hungary even before the publication of the first home edition of his work. There are two explanation for this: (1) foreign editions were used instead, or (2) citations, adaptations, and translations circulated beside the official whole-text editions.

Ovid's works as export from abroad
The whole intelligentsia read Ovid's works. Familiarity with his lifework was a part of elementary education and school curricula, so it is not surprising that the masterpieces of Ovid could be found in the libraries of schools, religious orders, and private persons as well. The Jesuit library of Nagyszombat owned twenty-seven volumes of Ovid in 1632. 26  Ovid is equally significant in the libraries of protestant schools. The most important protestant school in this period was the Calvinist college in Debrecen. A catalogue of its library is known from 1738. It is more thorough than the previous Jesuit catalogues. It contains thirteen volumes of Ovid (Metamorphoses, Heroides, Tristia, Epistulae ex Ponto), all of them published abroad. 35 This catalogue was written in the middle of the 18th century, but all the Ovid volumes in it were from the 16th-17th centuries. The smaller Calvinist colleges had smaller libraries as well, therefore they contained fewer copies of 28 Farkas (1997: 290). 29  Ovid's works. In Gyöngyös (the Catalogue is from 1677), there was only one volume of Tristia 36 (no details about the place and the date of printing); in Nagykőrös (the catalogue is from 1712-1730), there were two Ovids (without the data of their printing). 37 And finally, there were numerous Catholic, Lutheran, and Calvinist schools which had no volumes of Ovid in their libraries (the Jesuit library in Sárospatak in 1686, 1704; 38 the Lutheran library in Késmárk c. 1600; 39 Kisszeben in 1654-1670; 40 the Calvinist parsonage of Trnava in 1674). 41 Private persons also owned books: book catalogues compiled as appendices to last wills, or lists of possessions reveal that the intelligentsia had their own libraries of classical literary masterpieces and in them volumes of Ovid as well among others. The bibliophile humanist Hans Dernschwam collected his books in Besztercebánya (Banská Bystrica). He had eight volumes with Ovid's works, having bought all of them in Venice and Augsburg. They were high-quality editions with the commentaries of such great Western-European humanists as: Antonius Volscus, Antonius Constantinus Fanensis, Bartolomeus Merula, Christophosrus (Zarotti) Zarotus, Domitius (Calderini) Calderinus, Domitius Marius Niger, Raphael Regius, and Ubertinus Crescentinas. 42 There is another catalogue of a private library from 16th century-Hungary, the catalogue of Joannes Sambucus' library. He also ordered his Ovid-volumes from Venice, 43 Padova, 44 Paris, 45 Leiden, 46 Basel 47 and preferred the critical editions with the comments of the above-mentioned humanists. No other significant private library catalogue has survived from the 16th-century Hungary. The shorter catalogues of smaller private libraries, such as libraries of citizens or noblemen, contain fewer items of antique authors; their owners preferred religious literature and sometimes practical books (herbaria, medicine, laws etc.) to classical authors. There are some exceptions, however, such as the unknown citizen of Sárvár, whose list of possessions (c. 1590) contains his 22 books. He collected antique authors as well; among others, he had a three-volume edition of Ovid. There are no details about its origin, but considering the period, it must have come from abroad. 48 The situation is the same with the inventories listing the possessions of Georg Pukhen (1591), 49 a citizen of Besztercebánya (Banská Bystrica), of the parochial library in the same city, 50 of Tobias Zaunakh (1598), a citizen of Körmöcbánya (Kremnica), 51 of Con-17 rad Schall (1551) from Selmecbánya (Banská Štiavnica), 52 of Guthar Schlosser (1635) 53 and Christian Schaller (1683), 54 citizens of Beszterce (Bistriţa), of Elek Bethlen, an aristocrat from Transylvania (1683), 55 and others. These catalogues contain generally only the author and the title, sometimes only the author, or on some occasions other details about the book as well, such as its size, the colour of the binding etc.

Ovid's poems as secondary citations
Ovid's poems figured sometimes as secondary citations. This phenomenon may be best exemplified by a sanitary manual about the plague. Jan Weber, a pharmacist from Eperjes (Prešov) issued a book about the plague and how to prevent it, in 1644. He published it in Bártfa (Bardejov) in German, then in the next year in Bártfa in Hungarian and in Lőcse in Biblical Czech. 56 This book contains some citations from ancient classical authors, such as Cato the Younger, Virgil, and Ovid. The publication is especially valuable, because it is one of the few printed books published on the territory of the Hungarian Kingdom to contain Czech translations of Ovid's poems.
I will present the Czech version first (Johann Weber: Amuletum to jest zpráva krátká a potřebná o moru… Lőcse, 1645), but the same poems have German and Hungarian versions as well. There are three quotations from Ovid in it. The first is an exact translation from Remedia Amoris. Weber cited it in Latin, and then gave the Czech translation: V začátku hleď se brániti nemoci, a jí léčiti, když již se nemoc rozmůže, lékářství málo pomůže. 57 Ovid's original poem is about love, but Weber used the literal meaning, diseases can only be prevented or stopped at the beginning, because when they overpower the body, nothing can stop them any longer.
As we can see, the translator changed the versification. Weber translated Ovid's distiches in eight-syllables-verses, with double rhymes (a-a-b-b). The same tendency was noticed by Anežka Vidmanová in the translations of Šimon Lomnický z Budče and other Czech authors from the early Modern Age. 58 The German and Hungarian variants of Weber's texts follow the same system, distiches are translated in eight-syllables-verses. The Hungarian translation of the same verses: Ottan mindgyárt ellene állj, Nyavalyádnak orvossággal, mert ha erőt vészen rajtad, héában orvoslod magad. 59 And in German: Suche beyzeit ein guten Rath, Die Arzney kompt dir sonst zu spat, Wann Krankheit uberhandt hat gnommn, Die Gsundheit (!) wirst du schwer bekommn. 60 The other citations are from the Epistulae ex Ponto and the topic and the method of versification are the same.
Nemá to doktor v své moci, aby mohl všechněm pomoci. 61 The German and the Hungarian versions do not contain this verse.
In the following poem, Weber may not have used Ovid's original works, perhaps taking over the quotations from other medical books: Někdy nemoc tak zlá bývá, že žádný lík neprospívá. 62 A betegség néha úgy elhatalmazik, hogy semmi mesterseggel meg nem gyógyithatik. 63 Die Krankheit hat oft grösser macht, Als aller Artzney beste Kraft. 64 The secondariness of the citations is not obvious from the lines themselves, but it can be proved by examining other quotations from other antique authors in this book. There is a citation from Virgil about the benefits of lemons to one's health: Citrín jest kyselé jablko, nemá větší moci jak to Byť nemoc i s jedem byla, však aby ti neškodila, Citrín zas pomáhá k zdraví, mladým, starým jest lík pravý. 65 The versification has been changed into an eight-syllable form in the German and the Hungarian variant as well:  67 Weber wrote that this is a quotation from the Aeneis, but it is in fact from the Georgica, and the translation is not too faithful. 68 Probably, he did not know the exact source of the verse, just heard or read it somewhere as a citation without its context. Another citation from the Greek doctor Galenus is given without its source as well:

Conclusion
Ovid was known in Hungary in the 16th-17th centuries, but the overwhelming majority of the editions containing all his works came from abroad, especially from the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy. Beside the official whole-text editions, citations and adaptations also circulated, most of them in Latin. The number of translations from Latin to local vernacular languages (Hungarian, German, Slovak) was smaller, but (especially the Hungarian) translations were not so uncommon in this age. With regard to the reception of Ovid in the Hungarian literature, the 16th-17th centuries can be considered as an opening of the Age of Enlightenment, when ancient literature and secular themes acquired a stronger role in literature.