Ungarn als Bollwerk des Abendlandes und der Türkenkrieg zur Zeit von Johannes Hunyadi und Matthias Corvinus

AbstractAs far as concerns 15th-century Hungary, there is a rhetorical closeness in the literary writings of Italian Humanists such as Enea Silvio Piccolomini, Francesco Filelfo, Antonio Bonfini or Sicilian Pietro Ranzano. Their panegyrics of John Hunyadi and his son King Matthias Corvinus give the exalted portrait of these rulers as Christian warlords and defenders of the Faith against Turks. Hungary is currently identified as bulwark of the Western Christendom opposed to the expansion of the Ottoman Empire. This topos is also echoed by Pope Sixtus IV and his Chancellery and also by late Scholastic chronicler János Thuróczy. The Hungarian bulwark image was, thus, spread among European sources starting from the 16th century. Hungarian superiority at the head of European powers was, thus, assured through this propagandistic theme.