On the Hi/lary of Coaches^ &£.^ 



f Aug. n 



fl:e King, Matthias Coiviniis, often ufed 

 to have for his amuleirent combats on 

 hor/i back and in cairiages, and rnakrs i\fe 

 of the expiefTion, ' aurigatione aflidua 

 iifus tft,' Sic." Thisexpveflion of Bon- 

 firius ^ave Lifthiiis the occafion to fuH- 

 join tliis marginal inierpietation. ' Bi- 

 zoiiy cochis rein v'olt. Romanus cnim 

 iihe mns jam olim turn delierat, nifi f.i te 

 dicerevelif, curru kcchy (it is pronounced 

 kyji) vcduin, ciijus Rex ptimus inventor 



" The fecond witnefs is, Stephan Bro- 

 <!eieth IS, who, in the delcription of the 

 battle lolt at Ivlohatlch, in 1506, relates 

 the followincr of Paul Tumor)', Aichbi- 

 Jliop of Koloifciia. — ' Ulii cxploratum ha- 

 bui: Tii:cx ill Hungariini ad vent um, non 

 c.menf.is iJ, p;r lit^ras tt nuncios faspe 

 i.iitea I'l-gi fig: ificafle, corfcenfis raptim 

 levib'.is curribiis, qiios nos a loco Kokxe 

 njipellntniis, vigtfima Murtii, ad re^em 

 t;i! c'^VifiVoradi agcntem, repente advclat,' 

 o-c. 



" The third >s, Sigifmund Baron of 

 IIeibfiitein> the Imperial Amba(r.idor at 

 the C. ui t o the King cf Hvmpary, Louis 

 11. in his iiiiKh cHeeined ' CoiTrnentariiis 

 ds Rebus MufcQviticis' (Bafil, 1571, foj. 

 page 14.5), vvreie, accidei;tally mention- 

 iiio lb:! e pod Itations in Himgaiy, is a 

 P'.ffage which merits attention. It is 

 thi« : — ' Qijarta (relpiraiio ec],uorum et 

 psimutaiio) it<\ infia Jauiiniini miliari- 

 bus, in pago Colzi, a quo et reiiJores cur- 

 nis nonicn acceperiint, Colzi que adhuc 

 priitniii ue appellintiir.' 



'- Further, Frederick Nollleder, a wri- 

 ter of the lixreerth century, leenij 10 ac- 

 knowledge, likeA ile, the Hnngatit.ii origin 

 oi coaches, when, in his Work upon the 

 Get nun War, p. 6iJ, lie txprtfles liiin- 

 feit jhiis : — ' The Einpeior Cliaiks V. 

 lad himielf to llcep in an HLingaiiaii 

 coach {gu'fc!>-ivag£7i) , as he had the 



g.;llt." 



Fun her proofs would be unnecefTary j 

 but it injy be necelVary to add a few w ords 

 uj.on the immoderate ufe which the Hun- 

 garians made of th'S national inventi.n. 



As the coach, even in Hungary, in the 

 niiddicoi tiie fijcreenth century, was fome- 

 wi^at fcaice, it is no wcjider that eveiy 

 Hungarian wifhed to travel in ti.em, and 

 e'.'en to ufe th-jm in the field } and that it 

 "■ai nectlTary to put a Hop to this abiife 

 by a law of the laud. For this purpole, 

 i I a dt^ite ol 1523, Art. 20, a law runs 

 t'lus : — " £t (juod nobiies unius ItCunis 

 per linguia capita^aritcr inliirgere et ad- 

 vi.,irc :cnc2n ur, et no7i'inhclJi, prcut p!e- 

 ' ■'}';£ Iclent, led exKrcituaatiuin more, 



vel equites, vel pedites, ut pugnare pof- 

 fiiit, venire fint obligaii." — It is likewife 

 worth while, on quoting this ai5l, to add 

 thiscircumftance, as a faither I'upport of 

 the opinion of the coach being an Hun- 

 garian invention, that, at fii rt', we' knew 

 not how to name this carriage in Latin, 

 which was unknown to the Greeks and 

 Romansjbut by fimply calling it, as in the 

 Hungarian, kotfi, or fom.times currum 

 kotfi. 



Some paflages of the Manufcript Lift 

 cf the Ruyal Expenditure of Hungary for 

 the year 1516 may alio be referred to, of 

 which Father Pray, ii» the Annal.- Reg. 

 Hung. P. U. p. loj, has coramunictied 

 to us a valuable fragment, where it is faid 

 in the note q — ' Pro fuhitione koify i.ati 

 funt in cupreis flor. 50 ;' and in the n< te 

 r. ' Pro expenfis et folutiore kotjy ad 

 Vi.-nnamel ex qvio Vienna- tandem equum 

 emcre debeblt, dati lunt in cupreis floreni 

 75 ;' and again, in the note /, •' Pro foJu- 

 tione triumcurruum iot/y., &c." 



Since, from thefe tettunonits, It is fulE. 

 ciei tly evident that the horo»ir ot the in- 

 vention is due to Hungsry. and that even 

 tl.e word kuifcke owes its origin to a place 

 of this iime naine in Hungary, it may 

 I'rem furprifing that Jofeph Bcnkci fiiouid 

 aflcrt, in his Tranfylvania, P. I. p. 3X0^ 

 that the Hungarian word ko!fi is derived 

 from the German word kuljche, lince the 

 tiling is quite the reverfe. Even a learned 

 German, a contemporary of King Mat- 

 thias Cirvinus, John Cufpinianus, pro- 

 perly cslled Spiefshammer, phyfician and 

 cour,fc!lor to the Emperor Maximilian I, 

 and who was, as he fays himi<:lf, within 

 the /pace of five years, .'erif twenty-four 

 times to Himpar)- as ambdTador, plainly 

 Igys, in his " D.ariumde CongrelTu Max- 

 imiliani 1, Cats, cum Vladiilao, Ludo- 

 vico, et Sgiimundo, Huftgaris, Bohen.ise, 

 ac Polonias Regibus, in Mat. Bel's Adpa- 

 intiisad Hilt. Hung. dec. i. monum. vi. 

 p. 291, xh-ii koifchii is a native Hunga- 

 rian word ; for when he gives us a de- 

 fciiption ofthefolemn en'ry of the Empe- 

 ror Maxiirilian I. and the three before- 

 mentioned kings into Vienna, of which 

 Ceremony he himfelf was an eye-witnefs, 

 and even concerned in, he fays, as fome- 

 thing charaftenftic cf the Hungarian 

 pomp, *' Vehtbantur multi (Hung.uo- 

 rum) in curribus il.is velocibus, quibus 

 nomen eft patria lingua /■o/z'/c/j/." 



The orly remaining difficulty is as to 

 the ulace where they were fill invented, 

 and wl.ich is called by Brodcrith KoUze, 

 but by the Baron of Herbtilkrn, Cotzi. — 

 Brcdcrith is fiient as to the utuaticn of 



tiliis- 



