Simon Kézai

Simon Kézai or Simon Keszi was one of the most famous Hungarian chroniclers of the 13th century. The circumstances of his life are by and large unknown.

His main work, the Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum ("Deeds of the Huns and Magyars") he dedicated to the then king, Ladislaus IV. As he himself writes, he compiled this Gesta from Italian, German and French sources, in some places he has himself but informed from Hungarian chronicles and sagas. The work was written in Latin.

We know about Kézai that he was Hungarian, because in his work he refers to the Hungarian language as “our language”. His family name suggests that he came either from Kéza in Bihar County or from Dunakeszi . The second assumption is more probable, as he mentions the names of the sons of the Dunakesser landowner Renold Básztej in connection with the battle of Dürnkrut and Jedenspeigen . Ladislaus IV mentions Simon Kézai on October 19, 1283 as his notary, "homo regius".

As a teacher and court priest he wrote his Gesta around 1282–1283. The two-volume work begins with the story Hunor and Magor , where the author tries to prove the relationship between the Huns and Magyars . In the first volume the author deals with the history of the Huns up to the death of Attila ("Etzel, Etele") and the dissolution of the Huns' empire. In the second volume he describes the history of the settlement of the Hungarians and their founding of the state, i.e. the Hungarian early Middle Ages up to 1280. Kézais emphasizes that his description is as realistic as possible.

In the appendix of the chronicle he describes the newly arrived nobles, the employees in the yard, and he reports on important information about the population.

Kézai strongly criticized Orosius , whom he quotes in the tradition through Jordanes , for his "weak fairy tale" about the Hungarians. He himself used the travelers' descriptions when writing about Scythia .

His work was published six times: first in Vienna in 1782, then in Buda in the same year. In 1833 Josef Podhardszky printed the third edition, in 1849 István Endlicher in St. Gallen the fourth, then in Hungarian in 1862 Károly Szabó in Pest, and finally a critical edition appeared in 1999.

Editions and translations

• László Veszprémy, Frank Schaer (ed.): Simonis de Kéza Gesta Hungarorum. Simon of Kéza: The Deeds of the Hungarians. Central European University Press, Budapest / New York 1999, ISBN 963-9116-31-9 (critical edition with English translation; online at Google Books ).

Web links

• Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum by Master Simon Kézai (Hungarian)
• Pallas' online large lexicon (Hungarian)