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85-408: The village is first mentioned in 1067 as Byhor, later as Bychor in 1213, as Bihar in 1332, and again, in 1349 as Byhor. The Gesta Hungarorum , which is believed to have been written around the time of King Béla III of Hungary (1172–1196), mentions that Duke Árpád (born 845) sent envoys to a castle called Bychor, to Duke Menumorout . Biharia has a complex political history, with periods of

170-571: A prologue and 57 chapters. In the prologue, Anonymus introduced himself and declared that he decided to write his work to put in writing the early history of the Hungarians and their conquest of the Carpathian Basin. In addition, he stated that he wanted to write of the genealogy of the royal Árpád dynasty and of the noble families of the Kingdom of Hungary . The first seven chapters describe

255-415: A " 'toponymic romance' that seeks to explain place-names by reference to imagined events or persons, and vice versa." For instance, Györffy writes that Gelou's story was based on the conquest of Gyula of Transylvania 's realm by Stephen I of Hungary in the early 11th century and Gelou was named after the town Gilău where he was killed in battle, according to Anonymus. Anonymus likewise wrote that

340-621: A century earlier work: The Deeds of the Christian Hungarians instead of Anonymus's work before departing for the ancient homeland of the Magyars in the early 1230s. Later chronicles did not use the Gesta , suggesting that Anonymus's contemporaries knew that he had invented most details of his account of the Hungarian Conquest, according to Gyula Kristó . The Gesta was first published as

425-580: A leather book cover, impressed with a double-headed eagle , in the late 18th century. The manuscript, which was transferred to Hungary in 1933 or 1934, is held in the Széchényi National Library in Budapest . The author of the Gesta Hungarorum has been known as Anonymus ever since the publication of the first Hungarian translation of his work in 1790. The author described himself as "P who

510-482: A monography of the Gesta Hungarorum , concluded that the "analysis of several fragments of" the Gesta Hungarorum "has demonstrated that this work is generally credible, even if it ignores important events and characters and even if it makes some chronological mistakes". According to Neagu Djuvara , professor of international law and economic history, the factual accuracy of Anonymus's work is likely high, because it

595-435: A population of 4,393; of those, 74.37% were Hungarians, 17.94% Romanians, and 1.18% Roma. This Bihor County location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Gesta Hungarorum Gesta Hungarorum , or The Deeds of the Hungarians , is the earliest book about Hungarian history which has survived for posterity. Its genre is not chronicle, but gesta , meaning "deeds" or "acts", which

680-498: A position to extract tribute from the fractured Arab states. In addition to money, Abbad II al-Mu'tadid , the Abbadid ruler of Seville (1042–1069), agreed to turn over St. Isidore's remains to Ferdinand I. A Catholic poet described al-Mutatid placing a brocaded cover over Isidore's sarcophagus, and remarked, "Now you are leaving here, revered Isidore. You know well how much your fame was mine!" Ferdinand had Isidore's remains reinterred in

765-750: A situation that was rectified by the Fourth Council of Toledo. It also addressed a concern over Jews who had been forced to convert to Christianity. The records of the council, unlike the First and Second Councils of Seville, were not preserved in the Hispana , a collection of canons and decretals likely edited by Isidore himself. All bishops of Hispania attended the Fourth National Council of Toledo, begun on 5 December 633. The aged Archbishop Isidore presided over its deliberations and originated most enactments of

850-406: A whole, to give a scientific or philological account of the words, as a modern researcher would do. "It is obvious that, from a material point of view," argues Bruno, "Isidore's practical knowledge on etymology, geography, and history are considered outdated; his methods, from the current academic and scientific standpoint, are questionable, and some of his conclusions are indeed incorrect. But Isidore

935-564: Is a medieval entertaining literature. It was written in Latin by an unidentified author who has traditionally been called Anonymus in scholarly works. According to most historians, the work was completed between around 1200 and 1230. The Gesta exists in a sole manuscript from the second part of the 13th century, which was for centuries held in Vienna . It is part of the collection of Széchényi National Library in Budapest . The principal subject of

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1020-521: Is called magister, and sometime notary of the most glorious Béla, king of Hungary of fond memory" in the opening sentence of the Gesta . The identification of this King Béla is subject to scholarly debate, because four Hungarian monarchs bore this name. Most historians identify the king with Béla III of Hungary who died in 1196. Anonymus dedicated his work to "the most venerable man N" who had been his schoolmate in an unspecified school. Anonymus mentioned that they had found pleasure in reading

1105-425: Is less concerned about being etymologically or philologically right than being ontologically right." Therefore, Isidore, despite living in the early Middle Ages , is an archaic or "traditional" thinker. Being religiously inclined, Isidore would be concerned with the redeeming meaning of words and history, the ultimate quest of religions. The same researcher also found parallels between Isidore's interpretation of

1190-606: Is not evidence that he introduced the whole person of Gelou or the presence of Vlachs in Transylvania". Paul Robert Magocsi also regarded the Gesta as an unreliable work. Romanian-British historian Dennis Deletant joins the opinion that it is a debatable chronicle, criticizing how Anonymous has the Hungarians fighting Bulgarians while making no mention of the Moravians, Carinthians, Franks and Bavarians, and also his reliance upon legends and historical tradition than facts, such as in

1275-418: Is the earliest preserved Hungarian chronicle and is based on even older Hungarian chronicles. On the other hand, Carlile Aylmer Macartney described Anonymus's work as "the most famous, the most obscure, the most exasperating and most misleading of all the early Hungarian texts" in his book of medieval Hungarian historians. Carlile Aylmer Macartney writes in his critical and analytical guide of Anonymus "this

1360-605: The Bible and Dares Phrygius's Trojan History . He borrowed texts from the latter work and adopted its "overall structure of short but informative accounts naming important protagonists and main events", according to historians Martyn Rady and László Veszprémy. Anonymus also referred to "historians writing of the deeds of the Romans" when narrating the history of the Scythians . According to Kristó, Györffy and Thoroczkay, Anonymus obviously read

1445-662: The Caranthians of the Mura " ( Carinthinorum Moroanensium fines ) instead of the "lands of the Carinthians, Moravians " ( Carantenorum, Marahensium ... fines ) of which he read in Regino of Prüm's Chronicon , which shows that Anonymus did not understand Regino of Prüm's reference to the Moravians. Direct borrowings from Isidore of Seville 's Etymologiae , Hugh of Bologna 's Rationes dictani prosaice , and medieval romances about Alexander

1530-491: The Fourth Council of Toledo : Canon 60 calling for the forced removal of children from parents practising Crypto-Judaism and their education by Christians on the basis that while their parents were concealing themselves under the guise of Christians, they had presumably allowed their children to be baptised with intent to deceive. This removal was an exception to the general rule of the treatment of Jewish children according to

1615-499: The Gesta is the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin at the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries, and it writes of the origin of the Hungarians , identifying the Hungarians' ancestors with the ancient Scythians and Huns . Many of its sources—including the Bible , Isidore of Seville 's Etymologiae , the 7th-century Exordia Scythica , the late 9th-century Regino of Prüm 's Chronicon , and early medieval romances of Alexander

1700-567: The Gesta proves the existence of Romanian polities in the territory of present-day Romania at the time of the Hungarian Conquest. The Romanian government even published a full-page advertisement about the reliability of Anonymus's reference to the Romanians in The Times in 1987. The view of modern historians on the Gesta Hungarorum is mixed: some consider it a reliable source; others consider its information doubtful. Alexandru Madgearu, who wrote

1785-725: The Gesta Hungarorum wrote of a battle between the Greeks and the Hungarians at a ford by the River Tisza which was named after this event as "Ford of the Greeks", according to Anonymus, although it received this name after its revenues were granted to the Greek Orthodox monastery of Sremska Mitrovica in the 12th century. Late 9th-century sources mentioned the Avars , the Bavarians, the Bulgarians,

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1870-521: The Imperial Library in Vienna between 1601 and 1636. In this period, the court librarian Sebastian Tengnagel registered it under the title Historia Hungarica de VII primis ducibus Hungariae auctore Belae regis notario ("Hungarian History of the First Seven Princes of Hungary Written by King Béla's Notary"). Tengnagel added numbers to the folios and the chapters. The codex was bound with

1955-589: The Kabars in the Hungarian tribal alliance based on oral tradition of the noble families of Kabar origin, according to Györffy. The existence of a sole manuscript of the Gesta Hungarorum shows that the chronicle "was not very popular during either its author's lifetime or the subsequent centuries", according to historian Florin Curta . For instance, the contemporary 13th century Friar Julian and his Dominican brethren studied

2040-582: The Kingdom of Hungary , Eastern Hungarian Kingdom , and the Principality of Transylvania . With the breakup of Austria-Hungary at the end of World War I and the ensuing Hungarian–Romanian War , the Romanian Army entered the village, and after Treaty of Trianon of 1920, Biharia became part of the Kingdom of Romania . During the interwar period , it became part of plasa Centrală, in Bihor County . In

2125-459: The Renaissance . Until the 12th century brought translations from Arabic sources, Isidore transmitted what western Europeans remembered of the works of Aristotle and other Greeks, although he understood only a limited amount of Greek. The Etymologiae was much copied, particularly into medieval bestiaries . Isidore's De fide catholica contra Iudaeos furthers Augustine of Hippo 's ideas on

2210-620: The Trojan History and the romances about Alexander the Great, according to Macartney. Anonymus mentions an alliance between the Rus' people and the "Cumans" against the Hungarians. Macartney, Györffy, Spinei and many other historians agree that he misinterpreted the Hungarian word kun , which originally designated all nomadic Turkic peoples , and wrongly identified the Kuns mentioned in one of his sources with

2295-517: The Trojan History , a work attributed to Dares Phrygius , which enjoyed popularity in the Middle Ages. He also referred to a work of the Trojan War that he had "brought most lovingly together into one volume" upon his masters' instructions. Anonymus stated that he had decided to write of "the genealogy of the kings of Hungary and of their noblemen" because he had no knowledge of any decent account of

2380-574: The Volokhi with the Vlachs, because the Volokhi were actually Franks who occupied Pannonia , but the Hungarians expelled them during the Conquest. But Spinei, Pop and other historians write that Russian Primary Chronicle confirms Anonymus's report of the Hungarians' fight against the Vlachs. Madgearu, who does not associate the Volokhi with the Vlachs, emphasizes that Anonymous "had no interest to invent

2465-494: The episcopate , he immediately constituted himself as the protector of monks. Recognizing that the spiritual and material welfare of the people of his see depended on the assimilation of remnant Roman and ruling barbarian cultures, Isidore attempted to weld the peoples and subcultures of the Visigothic kingdom into a united nation. He used all available religious resources toward this end and succeeded. Isidore practically eradicated

2550-458: The stilus maiorum than his own," his translator Katherine Nell MacFarlane remarks. Some of these fragments were lost in the first place because Isidore's work was so highly regarded— Braulio called it quaecunque fere sciri debentur , "practically everything that it is necessary to know" —that it superseded the use of many individual works of the classics themselves, which were not recopied and have therefore been lost: "all secular knowledge that

2635-424: The totemistic pre-Christian tradition of the origin of the Árpád dynasty, narrating Emese's dream of the falcon impregnating her before the birth of her son, Álmos . The next section describes Álmos, mentioning that he was "more powerful and wiser than all the princes of Scythia", which may have derived from oral tradition or from the common wording of contemporaneous legal documents. The fifth chapter writes of

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2720-520: The trivium and quadrivium , the classic liberal arts . Isidore applied himself to study diligently enough that he quickly mastered classical Latin, and acquired some Greek and Hebrew . Two centuries of Gothic control of Iberia incrementally suppressed the ancient institutions, classical learning, and manners of the Roman Empire . The associated culture entered a period of long-term decline. The ruling Visigoths nevertheless showed some respect for

2805-522: The 13th century Summa Theologica , "[I]t was never the custom of the Church to baptize the children of Jews against the will of their parents...." He also contributed Canon 65 thought to forbid Jews and Christians of Jewish origin from holding public office. Isidore's authored more than a dozen major works on various topics including mathematics, holy scripture, and monastic life, all in Latin: Isidore

2890-547: The 1780s, pointing out that Anonymus failed to mention Great Moravia . . When demanding the emancipation of the Romanians of Transylvania in the late 18th century, the authors of the Supplex Libellus Valachorum referred to Anonymus's work. Anonymus's three heroes—Gelou, Glad and Menumorut—play a preeminent role in Romanian historiography. Romanian historians have presented them as Romanian rulers whose presence in

2975-517: The Arabs studied Greek philosophy extensively. In 619, Isidore of Seville pronounced anathema against any ecclesiastic who in any way should molest the monasteries. Isidore presided over the Second Council of Seville, begun on 13 November 619 in the reign of King Sisebut , a provincial council attended by eight other bishops, all from the ecclesiastical province of Baetica in southern Spain. The Acts of

3060-674: The Bulgarian Laborec had died at the River Laborec and the Czech Zubur on the Mount Zobor near Nitra . Anonymus did not allude to the Hungarians' decisive victory over the united Bavarian forces in the Battle of Pressburg in 907, but he narrated battles unknown from other works. Anonymus seems to have applied place names when creating these battles, according to Győrffy. For instance,

3145-571: The Council fully set forth the nature of Christ, countering the conceptions of Gregory, a Syrian representing the heretical Acephali. Based on a few surviving canons found in the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals , Isidore is known to have presided over an additional provincial council around 624. The council dealt with a conflict over the See of Écija and wrongfully stripped bishop Martianus of his see,

3230-499: The Cumans of his age. The latter had at least twice supported the Rus' princes against the Hungarian monarchs in the 12th century, which explains Anonymus's mistake. The ninth chapter of the Gesta describes the submission of the Rus' and "Cuman" princes to Álmos. Anonymus also writes how seven Cuman chieftains joined the Hungarians, which may have preserved the memory of the integration of

3315-915: The Danubian Slavs , the Gepids and the Moravians among the peoples inhabiting the Carpathian Basin. Anonymus did not mention the Avars, the Bavarians, the Gepids and the Moravians, but he listed the Czechs , the Greeks , the Khazars, the "Romans" and their shepherds, the Székelys , and the Vlachs besides the Bulgarians and the Slavs. According to Györffy and Madgearu, Anonymus may have based his list of

3400-483: The Great prove that Anonymus also used these works. According to Macartney, textual coincidences show that Anonymus adopted parts of late 12th-century chronicles narrating Frederick Barbarossa 's crusade . For instance, Anonymus' descriptions of tournaments seem to have been taken from Arnold of Lübeck 's Chronicle of the Slavs . Anonymus also used the ancient "Hungarian Chronicle" or its sources. However, there are differences between Anonymus' narration of

3485-403: The Great —have been identified by scholars. Anonymus also used folk songs and ballads when writing his work. He knew a version of the late 11th-century "Hungarian Chronicle" the text of which has partially been preserved in his work and in later chronicles, but his narration of the Hungarian Conquest differs from the version provided by the other chronicles. Anonymus did not mention the opponents of

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3570-650: The Hungarian Conquest and other works preserving texts from the ancient chronicle. For instance, the Illuminated Chronicle wrote of the Hungarians' arrival in Transylvania across the Carpathian Mountains from the east at the beginning of the Conquest, but according to Anonymus the Hungarians invaded Transylvania across the valleys of the Meseş Mountains from the west at a later stage. Sources from

3655-404: The Hungarian Conquest. According to scholars who identify Anonymus as King Béla III's notary, he wrote his Gesta around 1200 or in the first decades of the 13th century. The study of place names mentioned in the Gesta suggests that Anonymus had a detailed knowledge both of the wider region of Óbuda and Csepel Island (in and to the south of present-day Budapest ) and of the lands along

3740-443: The Hungarians , is the first extant Hungarian chronicle. Its principal subject is the conquest of the Carpathian Basin and it narrates the background and the immediate aftermath of the conquest. Many historians—including Carlile Aylmer Macartney and András Róna-Tas —agree that Simon of Kéza 's chronicle, the Illuminated Chronicle and other works composed in the 13th–15th centuries preserved texts which had been written before

3825-612: The Hungarians with the Rus' people and the "Cumans". Anonymus's report of the Hungarians' passing by Kiev was based on the ancient "Hungarian Chronicle", according to Macartney. References to the Hungarians' march by Kiev towards the Carpathian Basin can also be found in the Russian Primary Chronicle , and in Simon of Kéza's and Henry of Mügeln 's chronicles. In an attempt to make his work more entertaining, Anonymus supplemented this information with vivid battle-scenes borrowed from

3910-550: The Hungarians' legendary homeland—mentioned as Scythia or Dentumoger — and their departure from there. According to Macartney, the first chapter was based on the late 11th-century "Hungarian Chronicle", and it contains interpolations from the Exordia Scythica and Regino of Prüm's chronicle. The second chapter explains that the Hungarians were named after "Hunguar" (present-day Uzhhorod in Ukraine ). The third chapter preserved

3995-558: The Jewish presence in the Christian society of the ancient world. Like Augustine, Isidore held an acceptance of the Jewish presence as necessary to society because of their expected role in the anticipated Second Coming of Christ . But Isidore had access to Augustine's works, out of which one finds more than forced acceptance of but rather broader reasons than just an endtime role for Jews in society: According to Jeremy Cohen, Isidore exceeds

4080-691: The Kingdom of the Visigoths. The council granted remarkable position and deference to the king of the Visigoths. The independent Church bound itself in allegiance to the acknowledged king; it said nothing of allegiance to the Bishop of Rome . Isidore of Seville died on 4 April 636 after serving more than 32 years as archbishop of Seville. Isidore's Latin style in the Etymologiae and elsewhere, though simple and lucid, reveals increasing local Visigothic traditions. Isidore

4165-502: The anti-rabbinic polemics of earlier theologians by criticizing Jewish practice as deliberately disingenuous in De fide catholica contra Iudaeos . But once again Isidore's same predecessor, Augustine, seems to have written of at least the possibility of Jewish rabbinical practice along that subject's content's purportedly deceptive lines in the same work cited above: He contributed two decisions to

4250-409: The codex originally contained the beginning of the Gesta . It was blanked because the scribe had made mistakes when writing the text. The work was written in a Gothic minuscule . The style of the letters and decorations, including the elaborate initial on its first page, shows that the manuscript was completed in the middle or in the second part of the 13th century. Scribal errors suggest that

4335-522: The commune became fell in Oradea Raion , within Bihor Region (renamed Oradea Region in 1952 and Crișana Region in 1960). In 1968, the old territorial division into județe was reinstituted, and Biharia reverted to being part of Bihor County. At the 2011 census , the commune had 4,205 inhabitants, of whom 85.87% were Hungarians , 12.12% Romanians , and 1.73% Roma . At the 2021 census , Biharia had

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4420-531: The completion of the Gesta . They say that the first " Hungarian Chronicle " was completed in the second half of the 11th century or in the early 12th century. The existence of this ancient chronicle is proven by later sources. One Ricardus's report of a journey of a group of Dominican friars in the early 1230s refers to a chronicle, The Deeds of the Christian Hungarians , which contained information of an eastern Magna Hungaria . The Illuminated Chronicle from 1358 refers to "the ancient books about

4505-412: The confirmation of the hereditary right of Álmos's descendants to rule and the right of his electors and his electors' offspring to hold the highest offices in the realm. In the seventh chapter, Anonymus writes of the Hungarians' departure from Scythia and their route across the river "Etil" and " Russia which is called Suzdal " to Kiev . The next four sections of the Gesta describe the fights of

4590-417: The conquering Hungarians known from sources written around 900, but he wrote of the Hungarians' fight against rulers unknown from other sources. According to a scholarly theory, he used place names when naming the opponents of the Hungarians. Although the Hungarians , or Magyars , seem to have used their own alphabet before adopting Christianity in the 11th century , most information of their early history

4675-460: The council. Through Isidore's influence, this Council of Toledo promulgated a decree commanding all bishops to establish seminaries in their cathedral cities along the lines of the cathedral school at Seville, which had educated Isidore decades earlier. The decree prescribed the study of Greek, Hebrew, and the liberal arts and encouraged interest in law and medicine. The authority of the council made this education policy obligatory upon all bishops of

4760-463: The deeds of the Hungarians" in connection with the pagan uprisings of the 11th century . The earliest "Hungarian Chronicle" was expanded and rewritten several times in the 12th–14th centuries, but its content can only be reconstructed based on 14th-century works. The work exists in a sole manuscript . The codex is 17 by 24 centimetres (0.56 ft × 0.79 ft) in size and contains 24 folios , including two blank pages. The first page of

4845-438: The election of Álmos as "the leader and master" of the Hungarians, mentioning a blood-mingling ceremony . In this section, Anonymus states that the Hungarians "chose to seek for themselves the land of Pannonia that they had heard from rumor had been the land of King Attila " whom Anonymus describes as Álmos's forefather. The next chapter narrates the oath that the leaders of the Hungarians took after Álmos's election, including

4930-416: The extant manuscript is a copy of the original work. For instance, the scribe wrote Cleopatram instead of Neopatram in the text narrating a Hungarian raid in the Byzantine Empire although the context clearly shows that the author of the Gesta referred to Neopatras (now Ypati in Greece ). The history of the manuscript up until the early 17th century is unknown. It became part of the collection of

5015-436: The first volume of the series Scriptures rerum Hungaricarum in 1746 by Johann Georg von Schwandtner . Matthias Bél wrote a preface to this first edition. Professors of the Universities of Halle and Göttingen soon raised their doubts about the reliability of the Gesta , emphasizing, for instance, the anachronistic description of the Rus' principalities. The Slovak scholar Juraj Sklenár dismissed Anonymus's work in

5100-533: The gabbling song of minstrels ". All the same, stylistic elements (including formulaic repetitions which can be found in his text) imply that he occasionally used heroic songs. According to Kristó, the legend of Emese 's dream of the "falcon that seemed to come to her and impregnate her" was one of the motifs that Anonymus borrowed from oral tradition. Anonymus, as Macartney says, claimed to "rely solely on written sources, as alone trustworthy" when writing his work. Among his sources, Anonymus explicitly mentioned

5185-453: The heresy of Arianism and completely stifled the new heresy of Acephali at its outset. Archbishop Isidore strengthened religious discipline throughout his see. Archbishop Isidore also used resources of education to counteract increasingly influential Gothic barbarism throughout his episcopal jurisdiction. His quickening spirit animated the educational movement centered on Seville. Isidore introduced his countrymen to Aristotle long before

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5270-426: The large popularity his works enjoyed during the Middle Ages and the founding role he had in Scholasticism —would be less a brilliant thinker than a Christian gatekeeper making etymologies fit into the Christian worldview. "[H]e prescribed what they should mean," asserts D'Onofrio. Researcher Victor Bruno has countered this argument. According to him, it was not the meaning of the Etymologies , or of Isidore's work as

5355-454: The memory of the most important historical events. The Illuminated Chronicle explicitly stated that the "seven captains" who led the Hungarians during the Conquest "composed lays about themselves and sang them among themselves in order to win worldly renown and to publish their names abroad, so that their posterity might be able to boast and brag to neighbours and friends when these songs were heard". The Gesta Hungarorum , or The Deeds of

5440-420: The opponents of the conquering Hungarians—for instance, the Bulgarian Salan , the Khazar Menumorut and the Vlach Gelou —were mentioned in other sources. According to Györffy, Engel, and other historians, Anonymus either invented these personalities or listed them anachronistically among the conquering Hungarians' opponents. Martyn Rady and László Veszprémy explicitly describe the Gesta Hungarorum as

5525-433: The outward trappings of Roman culture. Arianism meanwhile took deep root among the Visigoths as the form of Christianity that they received. Scholars may debate whether Isidore ever personally embraced monastic life or affiliated with any religious order, but he undoubtedly esteemed the monks highly. After the death of Leander of Seville on 13 March 600 or 601, Isidore succeeded to the See of Seville . On his elevation to

5610-510: The parts where he makes the dubious claim that the Hungarian leader Almos was descended from Attila. Deletant further concludes that the cases for and against the existence of Gelou and the Vlachs simply cannot be proven. Martyn Rady , the translator of the first English version of the Gesta, states that "It is at best to project contemporary conditions backwards." Isidore of Seville Isidore of Seville ( Latin : Isidorus Hispalensis ; c.  560  – 4 April 636)

5695-462: The peoples inhabiting the Carpathian Basin on the local Slavs' oral tradition which was preserved in the early 12th-century Russian Primary Chronicle . The latter source described the Slavs as the first settlers in the Carpathian Basin and mentioned that they were conquered by the "Volokhi" before the Hungarians arrived and expelled the Volokhi . According to Györffy, Kristó and other historians, Anonymus misinterpreted his source when identifying

5780-529: The period ( full stop ), comma , and colon . Since the early Middle Ages, Isidore has sometimes been called Isidore the Younger or Isidore Junior (Latin: Isidorus iunior ), because of the earlier history purportedly written by Isidore of Córdoba. Isidore was born in Cartagena, Spain , a former Carthaginian colony, to Severianus and Theodora. Both Severian and Theodora belonged to notable Hispano-Roman families of high social rank. His parents were members of an influential family who were instrumental in

5865-411: The political-religious manoeuvring that converted the Visigothic kings from Arianism to Chalcedonian Christianity . The Catholic and Orthodox Churches celebrate him and all his siblings as known saints: Isidore received his elementary education in the Cathedral school of Seville. In this institution, the first of its kind in Spania, a body of learned men including Archbishop Leander of Seville taught

5950-432: The presence of the [Vlachs] in Transylvania in the 10th century, because if [Vlachs] had indeed arrived there in the 12th century, his readers would not have believed this assertion". Györffy says that the Vlachs, Cumans, Czechs and other peoples whose presence in the late-9th-century Carpathian Basin cannot be proven based on sources from the same period reflects the situation of the late 13th century. The Gesta contains

6035-431: The so-called Exordia Scythica ("Scythian Genesis"), a 7th-century abridgement of a work of the 2nd-century historian, Justin . Anonymus used Regino of Prüm's Chronicon , that he mentioned as "the annals of chronicles" in his Gesta . He accepted Regino of Prüm's view when identifying the Scythians as the Hungarians' ancestors. Sometimes, he misinterpreted his sources. For instance, he wrote of "the boundaries of

6120-404: The spurious tales of peasants who have not forgotten the brave deeds and wars of the Hungarians" even to his time. However, he did not conceal his scorn for oral tradition, stating that it "would be most unworthy and completely unfitting for the so most noble people of Hungary to hear as if in sleep of the beginning of their kind and of their bravery and deeds from the false stories of peasants and

6205-602: The then-recently constructed Basilica of San Isidoro in León . Today, many of his bones are buried in the cathedral of Murcia , Spain. Contemporary researchers have criticized Isidore. Specifically, the point of contention is his work in the Etymologies. Historian Sandro D'Onofrio has argued that "job consisted here and there of restating, recapitulating, and sometimes simply transliterating both data and theories that lacked research and originality." In this view, Isidore—considering

6290-559: The tidal wave of barbarism that threatened to inundate the ancient civilization of Hispania . The Eighth Council of Toledo (653) recorded its admiration of his character in these glowing terms: "The extraordinary doctor, the latest ornament of the Catholic Church, the most learned man of the latter ages, always to be named with reverence, Isidore". This tribute was endorsed by the Fifteenth Council of Toledo , held in 688. Isidore

6375-543: The trend towards abridgements and summaries that had characterised Roman learning in Late Antiquity . In the process, many fragments of classical learning are preserved that otherwise would have been hopelessly lost; "in fact, in the majority of his works, including the Origines , he contributes little more than the mortar which connects excerpts from other authors, as if he was aware of his deficiencies and had more confidence in

6460-410: The turn of the 9th and 10th centuries mentioned more than a dozen persons who played an important role in the history of the Carpathian Basin at the time of the Hungarian Conquest. Anonymus did not mention any of them; he did not refer, for instance, to Emperor Arnulf of Carinthia , Boris I of Bulgaria , and Svatopluk I of Moravia . On the other hand, none of the persons whom Anonymus listed among

6545-445: The upper courses of the river Tisza . For instance, he mentioned a dozen places—settlements, ferries and streams—in the former region, including "a small river that flows through a stone culvert" to Óbuda. He did not write of the southern and eastern parts of Transylvania . Minstrels and folk-singers reciting heroic songs were well-known figures of the age of Anonymus. He explicitly referred to "the gabbling rhymes of minstrels and

6630-536: The wake of the Second Vienna Award of August 30, 1940, the territory of Northern Transylvania (of which the town of Biharia was part) reverted to the Kingdom of Hungary . Towards the end of World War II , the town was taken back from Hungarian and German troops by Romanian and Soviet forces in October 1944 , during the initial stages of the Battle of Debrecen . Following the administrative reform of 1950,

6715-553: Was a Hispano-Roman scholar, theologian, and archbishop of Seville . He is widely regarded, in the words of 19th-century historian Montalembert , as "the last scholar of the ancient world". At a time of disintegration of classical culture, aristocratic violence, and widespread illiteracy, Isidore was involved in the conversion of the Arian Visigothic kings to Chalcedonian Christianity , both assisting his brother Leander of Seville and continuing after his brother's death. He

6800-449: Was influential in the inner circle of Sisebut , Visigothic king of Hispania . Like Leander, he played a prominent role in the Councils of Toledo and Seville. His fame after his death was based on his Etymologiae , an etymological encyclopedia that assembled extracts of many books from classical antiquity that would have otherwise been lost. This work also helped standardize the use of

6885-496: Was of use to the Christian scholar had been winnowed out and contained in one handy volume; the scholar need search no further". The fame of this work imparted a new impetus to encyclopedic writing, which bore abundant fruit in the subsequent centuries of the Middle Ages . It was the most popular compendium in medieval libraries. It was printed in at least ten editions between 1470 and 1530, showing Isidore's continued popularity in

6970-508: Was one of the last of the ancient Christian philosophers and was contemporary with Maximus the Confessor . He has been called the most learned man of his age by some scholars, and he exercised a far-reaching and immeasurable influence on the educational life of the Middle Ages. His contemporary and friend, Braulio of Zaragoza , regarded him as a man raised up by God to save the Spanish peoples from

7055-656: Was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1722 by Pope Innocent XIII . Isidore was interred in Seville . His tomb represented an important place of veneration for the Mozarabs during the centuries after the Arab conquest of Visigothic Hispania. In the middle of the 11th century, with the division of Al Andalus into taifas and the strengthening of the Christian holdings in the Iberian peninsula, Ferdinand I of León and Castile found himself in

7140-460: Was recorded by Muslim , Byzantine and Western European authors. For instance, the Annals of Fulda , Regino of Prüm 's Chronicon , and Emperor Constantine VII 's De administrando imperio contain contemporaneous or nearly contemporaneous reports of their conquest of the Carpathian Basin at the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries. Among the Hungarians, oral tradition—songs and ballads—preserved

7225-546: Was the first Christian writer to try to compile a summa of universal knowledge, in his most important work, the Etymologiae (taking its title from the method he uncritically used in the transcription of his era's knowledge). It is also known by classicists as the Origines (the standard abbreviation being Orig .). This encyclopedia —the first such Christian epitome —formed a huge compilation of 448 chapters in 20 volumes. In it, Isidore entered his own terse digest of Roman handbooks, miscellanies and compendia. He continued

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