{{Short description|Croatian-Hungarian poet}} {{Hungarian name|Csezmiczei János}} [[File:Portrait de Janus Pannonius.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Pannonius, from a codex of Plautus]] '''Janus Pannonius''' ({{langx|hu|Csezmiczei János}} or {{lang|hu|Cesencei János}}, {{langx|la|Ioannes Pannonius}}, {{langx|hr|Ivan Česmički}}; 29 August 1434 – 27 March 1472) was an influential intellectual in the Kingdom of Hungary, a Latinist, poet, diplomat and Bishop of Pécs. He was the most significant poet of the Renaissance in the Kingdom of Hungary and one of the better-known figures of humanist poetry in Europe.
==Life== Born in Slavonia,{{sfn|Birnbaum|1981|p=10}}<ref name="Makkai">Ádám Makkai, [https://books.google.com/books?id=6WSiAjJBUoEC&dq=janus+pannonius+father&pg=PA41 ''In quest of the 'miracle stag': the poetry of Hungary : an anthology of Hungarian poetry in English translation from the 13th century to the present in commemoration of the 1100th anniversary of the foundation of Hungary and the 40th anniversary of the Hungarian Uprising of 1956''], University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 41</ref> Janus's father's social status and relation to the nobility is unclear.{{sfn|Birnbaum|1981|p=18}} His mother, Borbála Vitéz, was the sister of John Vitéz.
Pope Pius II wrote that Pannonius was of Slavonian origin (''de origine Slavonica''). His biographer and friend Vespasiano da Bisticci said that he was of Slavic nationality. According to Ronsano of Palermo, he was from Dalmatia (''di natione Dalmata''). M. Franičević, in citing Ronsano, notes that many Italians saw all “Croats” as Dalmatians. Ludovik Tuberon Crijević, writing of Pannonius, says that he was born a Slav (''genere itidem Sclavenum'') in that part of interior Dalmatia that lies between the Sava and Drava rivers.{{sfn|V. A. Fine|2010|p=147}}thumb|Modern statue of Pannonius in Pécs|leftPannonius was brought up by his mother; in 1447 his uncle sent him to Italy for a humanist schooling. He attended the School of Guarino da Verona at Ferrara, where the pupils were educated in Latin and Greek authors under the guidance of a noted teacher of the Italian Renaissance. The boy was considered the brightest pupil of his generation by both his teachers and fellow-students. He wrote poetry according to the rules of classical prosody; he was around thirteen when he wrote his first epigrams. His higher education was completed at the University of Padua in canon law.<ref name="Jugoslovenski književni leksikon">{{cite book |author=Milorad Živančević |editor = Živan Milisavac |date=1971 |title=Jugoslovenski književni leksikon |trans-title=Yugoslav Literary Lexicon |publisher=Matica srpska |language=sh |location= Novi Sad (SAP Vojvodina, SR Serbia) |page=70 }}</ref> After making an educational tour of Rome, he returned to Hungary in 1458, the year of Matthias's accession to the throne.
For a time, he worked at the Royal Chancery, and soon was appointed as the Bishop of Pécs and later Vice-Chancellor of the country. Janus Pannonius was an influential intellectual in the kingdom; he kept his connections with some of the leading philosophers of his time. He also collected a significant library of humanist works (probably dispersed in 1526).<ref name=staikos2012>{{Citation |isbn = 9781584561828 |publication-place = New Castle, DE |publisher= Oak Knoll Press |year= 2012 |title = History of the Library in Western Civilization: From Petrarch to Michelangelo |author = Konstantinos Staikos }}</ref>
He served as the Ban of Slavonia in 1469.{{sfn|Bietenholz|Deutscher|2003|p=234}}
He died in the Medvedgrad castle near Zagreb.<ref name="Jugoslovenski književni leksikon"/>
János Zsambóky (Johannes Sambucus)<ref>''Jani Pannonii episcopi quinqueeccles: illius antiquis vatibus comparandi, recentioribus arte anteponendi, quae usipam reperiri adhuc potuerunt omnia opera Joannis Sambuci'', ed. Johannes Sambucus (János Zsámboky), Vienna 1569.</ref> and Count Sámuel Teleki<ref>''Ianni Pannonii Poemata quae uspiam reperiri potuerunt omnia'', ed. S. Teleki, Utrecht 1784. A facsimile edition: ''Jani Pannonii Opera omnia'', ed. P. Koőszeghy et al., Budapest 2002.</ref> prepared the first editions of the poet’s opera omnia.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sánchez |first=Alfonso Lombana |date=2024-12-20 |title=Sámuel Teleki and Janus Pannonius |url=https://ejournals.eu/czasopismo/terminus/artykul/samuel-teleki-and-janus-pannonius |journal=Terminus |language=pl |volume=2024 |issue=Tom 26, Zeszyt 3-4 (72-73) 2024 |pages=295–309 |doi=10.4467/20843844te.24.017.20394|doi-access=free }}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Sources== {{Commons category|Janus Pannonius}} * {{cite book | editor-first1 = Peter G. | editor-last1 = Bietenholz | editor-first2 = Thomas Brian | editor-last2 = Deutscher | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=hruQ386SfFcC | title = Contemporaries of Erasmus: A Biographical Register of the Renaissance and Reformation | chapter = Janus Pannonius | publisher = University of Toronto Press | year = 2003 | pages = 233–234 | isbn = 978-0-8020-8577-1 }} * {{cite book | title = Janus Pannonius, poet and politician | first = Marianna D. | last = Birnbaum | publisher = Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts | year = 1981 | series = Works of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts philology department | volume = 56 | oclc = 461824985 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=YsUGAQAAIAAJ }} * {{cite book | last=Sánchez | first=Alfonso Lombana | title=Un libro sobre Janus Pannonius | date=2023 | isbn=978-84-19782-33-5 | language=es}} * {{cite book|last=V. A. Fine|first=John Jr.|title=When Ethnicity Did Not Matter in the Balkans: A Study of Identity in Pre-Nationalist Croatia, Dalmatia, and Slavonia in the Medieval and Early-Modern Periods|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wEF5oN5erE0C&pg=PA147|year=2010|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=978-0-472-02560-2}}
==Works== * [http://real-r.mtak.hu/170/ Opera], Basel, 1555
{{Croatian literature}} {{Hungarian literature}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pannonius, Janus}} Category:1432 births Category:1472 deaths Category:15th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Hungary Category:15th-century writers in Latin Category:15th-century Croatian poets Category:15th-century Croatian nobility Category:Hungarian male poets Category:Hungarian people of Croatian descent Category:Baranya (region) Category:History of Baranya (region) Category:People from Čazma Category:Bishops of Pécs Category:Royal treasurers (Kingdom of Hungary) Category:Chief justices of Hungary Category:Hungarian book and manuscript collectors Category:Croatian male poets Category:15th-century Hungarian poets