LITERATURE, CONTINENTAL, IN 1876. 



471 





emician and professor, Budenz, has produced, 

 in OIK- volume, a grammar of the Mokscha and 

 Mordvin languages, and effected a unifi- 

 cation of these two dialects, which have been 

 hitherto separately treated by Finn-Ugrian 

 philologists, such as Ahlqvist (" Vcrsuch einer 

 nn)!;sr,ha - mordwinischen Grammatik, nebst 

 :i ami \\orterverzeichuiss," St. Peters- 

 burg, 1861) and Wiedemann (" Grammatik der 

 erza - mordwinischen Sprache, nebst einem 

 kleinen mordwinisoh-deutschen und deutsch- 

 mordwinischen Worterbuch," St. Petersburg, 

 1885). 



In connection with philology, I may mention 

 M. Paul Hunfalvi's "Ethnography of Hun- 

 gary," which treats of the origin of the Magyar 

 race, as well as the early history of the non- 

 Magyar population of the country, such as the 

 Germans, Slavonians, Roumanians, Armenians, 

 Gypsies, and Jews, the latter in their quality of 

 integral parts of the crown of St. Stephen, a 

 proceeding which deserves approbation, since 

 the ethnological conditions of these last-named 

 nationalities have been already amply treated 

 by Rossler, Haufle, Miklosich, and Czoernig. 



Dramatic literature can boast of two eminent 

 product* : " Milton," by Maurice J6kai, a work 

 defective in dramatic construction, but thor- 

 oughly poetic; and " Ishkariot," a Biblical 

 tragedy, by the young Anthony Varady. A 

 lofty and poetic mind pervades the dramatic 

 poem, "The Day of Judgment" ("Az itelet 

 napja "), by Baron Ivor Kaas. The greater 

 part of the products of dramatic literature are 

 composed to supply daily demand. 



Fiction is represented only by our genius, 

 Maurice J6kai. To him we are indebted for 

 "The Comedians of Life" ("Az 61et kom6- 

 diasai "), a social novel, " The Lunatic of De- 

 breczen " (" A debreczeni lunatikus "), an in- 

 teresting and humorous tale, and " To the North 

 Pole " (" Egesz az esszaki p61usig "), a fantastic 

 novel in the style of Jules Verne. 



Essays on literary history are mostly pub- 

 lished in periodicals. As separate volumes, 

 we find " The Ballads of Arany " (" Arany 

 balladai "), expounded by Augustus Greguss; 

 " History of our Literature, 1711-'72 " (" Irodal- 

 inuuk tortenete, 1711-'72 "), written with great 

 care by Joseph Szinnyei, junior ; and " The 

 Two Kisfaludy " ("A ket Kisfaludy "), by Thom- 

 as Szana, of which the latter describes two in- 

 teresting individuals in Hungarian literature, 

 viz., Alexander Kisfaludy, one of the most 

 eminent representatives of erotic poetry, and 

 Charles Kisfaludy, the founder of Hungarian 

 comedy. The valuable work of Francis Toldy, 

 " A Manual to Hungarian Poetry " (" A ma- 

 gyar kolt6szet k6zikony ve "), is only a second 

 and enlarged edition of the original book. 



Turning to history, I may begin with the 

 publications of the Academy, which, edited by 

 a special committee, mostly refer to the investi- 

 gation of our original resources. That cotnmit- 

 i resided over by Bishop Horvath, the emi- 

 nent historiographer of this country, enjoys an 



annual subsidy of 50,000 florins from the Gov- 

 ernment, and unites our best scholars on the 

 field of historical resources. The publications 

 called Monurnenta Hungariee Historica " con- 

 sist of two different groups, those relating to 

 parliamentary matters, and the " Acta Extera." 

 In the past year came out the following note- 

 worthy work : " Diplomatic Monuments of the 

 Time of the Anjou Dynasty," by Prof. Gusta- 

 vus Wenzel, extending from 1370-1426 ; " Dip- 

 lomatic Monuments from the Time of our Great 

 King Mathias Corvinus," edited by Ivan Nagy 

 and Baron Albertus Nyary, comprising the 

 time between 1458-'70. As particularly in- 

 teresting, I have to mention " The Correspond- 

 ence of Nicolaus Olah," published by Bishop 

 Arnold Ipolyi, a book which throws an essen- 

 tial light upon one of the most interesting pe- 

 riods of Hungarian history. Nicolaus Olah 

 was a private secretary of Queen Maria, the 

 wife of our unfortunate King Ludovic II., 

 who fell at the disastrous battle of Mohacs. 

 Queen Maria having been obliged to emi- 

 grate after the Turkish occupation of Hunga- 

 ry, her secretary, N. Olah, followed her, with 

 a noble attachment, to the Netherlands, and 

 the correspondence which he kept up, from 

 that country, with his friends in Hungary, is 

 rich in details concerning the diplomatic trans- 

 actions of those times between Charles V., 

 Ferdinand I., and Clement VII. We get 

 from these letters an insight into the great 

 panic which Europe experienced with regard 

 to the Turks ; but, at the same time, we see 

 how mutual rivalry and total ignorance of facts 

 stood in the way of an energetic and combined 

 defense. Bishop Ipolyi's book, comprising 621 

 letters in Latin, fully deserves the attention of 

 foreign scholars. 



This year the congress for prehistoric ar- 

 chaeology and ethnology held its eighth meet- 

 ing, at Buda-Pesth. England was represented 

 by Messrs. Franks, Evans, and Grote ; France, 

 Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Belgium, Germany, 

 Holland, and the different provinces of ancient 

 Poland, sent their most distinguished savants 

 to our capital ; Vienna, Russia proper, and 

 Roumania, were absent. The principal feature 

 of the congress was a noble exhibition of the 

 most important prehistoric remains found in 

 Hungary, which gave a correct idea of the dif- 

 ferent types of Hungarian finds. 



ITALY. Guasti, of Prato, near Florence, has 

 recently published the forty-sixth and forty- 

 seventh portions of the monumental " Storia 

 dell' Arte Cristiana nei primi otto secoli della 

 Chiesa," by Father Raffaelo Gurrucci, of the 

 Company of Jesus. These two portions com- 

 plete the third folio volume, which treats of 

 miniatures and painted glass. The fourth vol- 

 ume is now commencing, which will describe 

 the mosaics. This work is now about half fin- 

 ished, and all those persons who are engaged 

 in the history of art ought to express the de- 

 sire that it may be carried on to the end ; they 

 should also give it their best encouragement 



