Hungarian Palaeography
In 1686, Italian Count and military engineer, Luigi Fernando Marsigli, took part in the liberation of Buda from the Turks. But today we remember him because of a quite different deed: during the war operations he visited Transylvania, where he found a peculiar peace of wooden staff carved with strange incisions. He was told that this was ancient Scythian writing. Intrigued, he started to study "the language of the descendants of the Scyths". He made an accurate copy of this ancient relic, and preserved it for coming generations. This act made him famous. The original wooden staff has long time ago perished, but Marsigli's handwritten copy is luckily preserved in the University Library of Bologna (Biblioteca Universitaria Bologna), in band MSS.MARSILI MS.54 (band 54 of the 120 Marsigli collection).
The wooden staff itself was 1.5m (5ft) long, 2.5 cm (1 inch) thick, and it was carved on all four facets. It contained 671 written signs, which represented 914 letters, 243 of them should be understood from the context. The 46 ligatures contained 103 letters, that represented some 38% saving. If that saving wouldn't be implemented, the length of the staff should have been 2m (7ft). [Bibl.2]
The type of copied writing is presented on the following picture [Bibl.1]. The first reading was done by Marsigli himself (maybe the native people of Transylvania helped him), then by Sebestyén Gyula. Marsigli thought he found a calendar of variable holidays, it turned out, that the writing was actually a calendar of fixed Name Days of the Székelys. The estimates about the time of the origin are between the end of 1200s and the beginning of 1300s, and most likely the wooden staff itself could have been a copy of a much older original.
Page 1: Title page - with Marsigli's handwriting and notes (Archive No.669).
|
Raccolta della lingua
|
that was used by the Scythians, inhabitants of Sekely in antique times, cut into wood, which represents the Calendar of to the Catholic faith, which I collected from the same staff, and sent to my cabinet in Italy, when I closed the passes of Transylvania. |
The reproduction of Page 4 of Marsigli's manuscript (Arch.No.683) is shown on the next picture. Here are written the Name Days beginning with Ambruzs (4-th of April). Due to exceptionally bad quality of the reproduction, I had to redraw and re-scan most of the names as follows in the table below. The pages seem to be mixed up, their correct sequence is
Page 2: (Archive No. 673) The actual copy starting with 1st of January. On the backside is a handwritten note: "Nella prima faccia del Boscone (This is on the first page of the Great Rovás)".
| 1 |  |
Küskarácson - in dialect: Little Christmas (Circum Cisio) | 5 | 1st Jan |
| 2 |  |
Szentkereszt today Vizkereszt (Epifanio) | 4 | 6th Jan |
| 3 |  |
Pál (S. Paulus Convertio?) | 3 | 10th Jan |
| 4 |  |
Antal | 1 | 17th Jan |
| 5 |  |
Piroska, Piriska (Pristina Virgo) | 2 | 18th Jan |
| 6 |  |
Fábián (S. Fabianus) | 1 | 20th Jan |
| 7 |  |
János (S. Johannes Chrysostomi) | 1 | 21st Jan |
| 8 |  |
Ince, Inceh? (Vincentij M.) | 3 | 22nd Jan |
| 9 |  |
Pál (S. Paulus Apos.) | 7 | 25th Jan |
| 10 |  |
Bréda (Brigita Virgo) | 1 | 1st Feb |
| 11 |  |
Boldogasszony (Purificatio- V.B.M.), Gyertyaszentelő | 1 | 2nd Feb |
| 12 |  |
Balázs (Blasij Epis Apos) | 2 | 3rd Feb |
| 13 |  |
Ágota (Agnes) | 1 | 5th Feb |
New line:
| 14 | Ágota crossed out- repeated entry by mistake! | |||
| 15 |  |
Dorottya | 3 | 6th Feb |
| 16 |  |
Apollónia | 2 | 9th Feb |
| 17 |  |
Kolozs (Colotina M.) | 4 | 10th Feb |
| 18 |  |
Bálint (S. Valentinus M.) | 4 | 14th Feb |
| 19 |  |
Júlia (Juliana V. et M.) | 6 | 16th Feb |
| 20 |  |
Péter (Cathedra S. Petri Antiochia) | 3 | 22nd Feb |
| 21 |  |
Mátyás (S. Mathias Apos.) | 16 | 24th Feb |
| 22 |  |
Gergely (S. Gregorij Papa) | 9 | 12th Mar |
| 23 |  |
Benedek (Benedictus) | 4 | 21st Mar |
| 24 |  |
Boldogasszony- Gyümölcsoltó (Annuntiatio B. M. V.) | 10 | 25th Mar |
Page 4: (Archive No. 683) starting with 4-th of April.
| 25 |  |
Ambrus (Nagy Ambrus= Nagyszent) | 19 | 4th Apr |
| 26 |  |
Júlia (V. et M.) | 16th Apr | |
| 27 |  |
Boldogasszony (Nuntiatio Virginis?) | ? | |
| 28 |  |
Márk (Marcio), wrong reading by Marsigli? Albert | 23rd Apr | |
| 29 |  |
György (Gregori Papa) | 24th Apr | |
| 30 |  |
Márkos, Marci (Marcilia n gelista) | 25th Apr | |
| 31 |  |
Filip Jakab (Philippi et Jacobi Ap.) | 1st May | |
| 32 |  |
Erzsébet (Elisabet) | 2nd May | |
| 33 |  |
Szentkereszt (Inventio S. Crucis) | 3rd May | |
| 34 |  |
Gotárt | 5th May | |
| 35 |  |
János (Johannis ante porta latinam) | 6th May | |
| 36 |  |
Mihály (Apparitio S. Michaely A.) | 8th May | |
| 37 |  |
Zsófia | 15 May |
New line:
| 38 |  |
Barnald (Pirnaldinus) | 2 | 20th May |
| 39 |  |
Ilona (Helena), here are some corrections by Marsigli! | 4 | 22nd May |
| 40 | Orban, crossed out by Marsigli- error? | 4 | 25th May | |
| 41 |  |
Ferenc | 2 | 26th May |
| 42 |  |
Set, Est? Eszter? Estván? | 1 | 24-30 May? |
| 43 |  |
Petrónia, (Petronilla Vis.) | 11 | 31st May |
| 44 |  |
Barnabás (Barnabas Apos.) | 2 | 11th Jun |
| 45 |  |
Vigy (Hidvigis V. et M.) | 1 | 15-23 Jun? |
| 46 |  |
János (Nativitas S. Jonnis B.) | 2 | 24th Jun |
| 47 |  |
János, Pál (Johanis et Pauli M.M.) | 1 | 26th Jun |
| 48 |  |
Eliás? László? (Elyas) | 2 | 27th Jun |
| 49 |  |
Pál, Péter (S.S.A. Petri et Pauli) | 1 | 29th Jun |
| 50 |  |
Pál (Commemoratio S. Pauli A.) | 2 | |
| 51 |  |
Boldogasszony, Sarlós? (Visitatio B. M.) | 9 | 2nd Jul |
| 52 |  |
Benedek | 2 |
Blank Page: (Archive No. 674) This page has been left blank - no indication why!
Page 3: (Archive No. 677) starting with 14th of September. The first entry is not completely visible. The first four entries are on an attached sheet. On the backside is a handwritten note: "This is on the second page of the Rovas".
| 53 |  |
T? Entry not fully visible! | 2 | |
| 54 |  |
Máté (Mattei) | 21st Sep | |
| 55 |  |
Gyárfás | 5 | 24th Sep |
| 56 |  |
Mihály (Dedicatio S. Michaelij) | 29th Sep | |
| 57 |  |
Jöromos, Jehromos? (Jeronimus, Hieronimus) | 4 | 30th Sep |
| 58 |  |
Ferenc (Franciscus) | 2 | 4th Oct |
| 59 |  |
Ábrán (Abraham) | 3 | 6th Oct |
| 60 |  |
Dines, Dénes (Dionysy) | 9th Oct | |
| 61 |  |
Gyál, Gál | 16th Oct | |
| 62 |  |
Lukács (Lucilian) | 1 | 18th Oct |
| 63 |  |
Orsolya (Ursula) | 21st Oct | |
| 64 |  |
Demeter (S. Dimetrius), Dömötör | 26th Oct | |
| 65 |  |
Simó (Simonih et Judita) | 28th Oct | |
| 66 |  |
Mincent, Mindszentek (Omnium S.S.) | 1st Nov | |
| 67 |  |
Emért, Emerih? (Emercus), Imre | 5th Nov | |
| 68 |  |
Albert (Albertus) | 15th Nov | |
| 69 |  |
Márton (Martinus) | 7th Dec |
New line:
| 70 |  |
Luca (Lucio) | 4 | 13th Dec |
| 71 |  |
Lázár | 5 | 17th Dec |
| 72 |  |
Tamás (Tomas) | 3 | 21st Dec |
| 73 |  |
Szent Estély? Crossed out- error? | 1 | 24th Dec |
| 74 |  |
Karácson (Nativicus Chri.) | 25th Dec | |
| 75 |  |
István (Stefanus M.) | 1 | 26th Dec |
| 76 |  |
Jan | 1 | 27th Dec |
| 77 |  |
Aprószentek | 1 | 28th Dec |
| 78 |  |
Tamás (Silvester Papa?) | 2 | 29th Dec |
| 79 |  |
Sül Est (Szilveszter) | 2 | 31st Dec |
| 80 |  |
Vester (Szilveszter) crossed out- error? | 31st Dec | |
| 81 | Entry crossed out- error? | |||
| 82 | Entry crossed out- error? | |||
| 83 | Entry crossed out- error? |
The last four entries are all crossed out - error in copy? Maybe the attached sheet corrected this error. Still the whole of August is missing (perhaps this was the blank sheet for?).
On the edge of the wooden staff there were groups of notches associated with names and most probably their number determined the day in the calendar. Their number is given in the second-last Column of the Table (if visible in the manuscript). The last Column of the Table consists the dates from the Roman Catholic Calendar for comparison.
Note: It is clear that this calendar is based on the Roman Catholic Calendar, but we can find some typically ancient Hungarian holidays as well, as the Boldogasszony. Seven of them are of great importance, as we know from the Hungarian ethnography [Bibl.3, Band 3, pp.467-468], the most important one the "Nagy Boldogasszony" is on 15th of August and they could not have been omitted from the original calendar, unless Marsigli made mistakes or lost one page of the copy.
