Poetry of Politics: Lorenzo Monaci's Carmen (1387)

Carmen seu historia Carolo II cognomento Parvo
Rege Hungariae is a medieval account on the
political troubles under the reign of Queen Mary
(1382-1395), the only queen who ever ruled Hungary
in the Middle Ages. It is a 560-line Latin
hexametric epic, written in 1388 by the Venetian
poet, notary and chronicler, Lorenzo Monaci, who
fulfilled diplomatic missions in Hungary on multiple
occasions.
Both the poem and the dedicatory letter prefacing it
have been extensively used by scholars as historical
sources; no one, however, has ever analyzed it as a
literary product. This thesis deals with Monaci
Carmen as a literary construct. As such, the image
it conveys about Queen Mary, as well as about late
fourteenth-century Hungarian events, have been
contextualized and carefully deconstructed.
The book explores three different contexts: Monaci s
Venetian bias; Hungarian-Venetian diplomatic and
political relations; and the problems of female rule
in Angevin Hungary. The analysis deconstructs the
contrastive images of Queen Mary and her rival,
Charles of Durazzo in the Carmen, an outstanding
Gesamtkunstwerk of medieval historical literature.

Autorentext

Ilona Ferenczi was born in 1983 in Marosvásárhely. She completed an MA in English Language and Literature at the Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest and another Masters degree in Medieval Studies at Central European University, Budapest. Currently the author lives in Hungary. She teaches, translates and is working on new publications.

Klappentext

Carmen seu historia Carolo II cognomento Parvo Rege Hungariae is a medieval account on the political troubles under the reign of Queen Mary (1382-1395), the only queen who ever ruled Hungary in the Middle Ages. It is a 560-line Latin hexametric epic, written in 1388 by the Venetian poet, notary and chronicler, Lorenzo Monaci, who fulfilled diplomatic missions in Hungary on multiple occasions.Both the poem and the dedicatory letter prefacing it have been extensively used by scholars as historical sources; no one, however, has ever analyzed it as a literary product. This thesis deals with Monaci' Carmen as a literary construct. As such, the image it conveys about Queen Mary, as well as about late fourteenth-century Hungarian events, have been contextualized and carefully deconstructed. The book explores three different contexts: Monaci's Venetian bias; Hungarian-Venetian diplomatic and political relations; and the problems of female rule in Angevin Hungary. The analysis deconstructs the contrastive images of Queen Mary and her rival, Charles of Durazzo in the Carmen, an outstanding Gesamtkunstwerk of medieval historical literature.