Bálint Balassi and Computerised Literary Research

Horvath, Ivan

On the occasion of the 450^th anniversary of the birth of Bálint Balassi, the lecture deals with the poet's plan of a secret renaissance as reconstructed in an e-book edition today. In 1964 the literary critic, Rabán Gerézdi, expressed the hypothesis that the 'Balassa Codex' manuscript including Balassi's poems bears the traces of conscious editing, and that Balassi actually planned three cycles composed of 33 poems. It was assumed, that all distortions were caused by the supposed 'primary copier' who copied Balassi's poems in his book in 1589-1590, but did not understand the composition of the volume and corrupted it in the best places. In the 1990s it was discovered that no text distorting 'primary copier' existed. The artistic structure of the poems, preserved in the 'Balassa Codex', were, so to speak, spoiled by Balassi himself. The basic structure of the volume is defined by the poet's lyric autobiography. In this we find interpolated a sub-series of religious poems and one casting a dubious light on his love.
The new reconstruction of the volume of poems is included in the critical edition of Balassi's works published on the Internet. The combinatorial possibilities of the e-book were inspired by renaissance and baroque bibliographical works of art.

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