Géza Szentmártoni Szabó
The first part of the lecture is about the poem of Janus Pannonius which praises Sicilian king René of Anjou (1409–1480). The 18-year old poet was commissioned to write Renatus Panegyricus (about the siege of Naples) by a Venetian patrician, Jacopo Antonio Marcello in 1452. The piece that had been written in Ferrara became published only later, in 1880, when Jenő Ábel found its first half in the Library of Vatican. Except József Huszti’s excellent essay from 1929, hardly any study has dealt with the incomplete work so far.
My interest in Janus Pannonius’ iconography resulted in finding two illustrations of the Strabo-volume (the book translated by Guarino is now taken care of in Albi), one of them I considered to be the portrayal of the poet. My research on the attributions led me to the discovery of the complete text of the panegyricus. Léon-Gabriel Pélissier (1863–1912), positivist historian reviewed the poem attributing the work to an unknown artist in 1898, in a French periodical. In 2009, when reading the article that has been left without a comment for 111 years I recognized the author and it got me started in chasing down the whole text of the writing in Naples.
Studying the specialized reads, during writing an essay I noticed a so far unknown 100-line poem that could be attributed to Janus Pannonius. I tried to support his authorship with detailed arguments. I produced the Hungarian translation and the textbook of the poem praising Saint Maurice (patron of the Order of the Crescent) and René of Anjou (founder of the Order).
During my researches in Naples, I managed to trace down the copy-writer of the 19th century MS of Renatus panegyricus. He was Scipione Volpicella (1810–1883), head of a scientific society that did researches on the history of the city. His figure led me to Castelnuovo and the Library of Società Napoletana de Storia Patria, where I found the antecedent of the copy kept in the National Library of Naples. Although part of a composite volume dating back to the middle of the 17th century, it may be regarded as primary source.