Giovanni Maria Parenti utazása Mátyás király udvarába (1486). A humanista útinapló eredeti szövege és magyar fordítása

Giovanni Maria Parenti was a 15th-century humanist cleric who wrote a book on the life and miracles of Saint Geminianus, the patron saint of his native Modena. The book, decorated with colour engravings, was published in 1495, also in Modena. A lesser known detail of the author’s life is that in 1486 he was part of an embassy to Hungary and compiled a twelve-page travel diary of his journey from Venice to the Hungarian royal court. The original manuscript, preserved in the State Archives of Modena, is not in good condition. Much of the text is very difficult to read, but it is well worth the effort: the diary-like document is not simply a list of the places visited on the journey, but a colourful and eventful account of the experience, with scenes of humour, enthusiastic praise and sharp criticism. And the description of the Archbishop’s seat in Esztergom includes unique details that are rarely found in other sources: the large murals of the archiepiscopal castle, details of the portraits of kings, mainly known from Antonio Bonfini’s work, and the scene of the conquest of the Pannonian Basin by the Magyars. The study provides information on the origins of the document, analyses the content of the text, adds other sources to the story, and the appendix includes a Hungarian translation of Parenti’s travel diary alongside the original text.