Addenda to the Anti-Ottoman Oration of Franciscus de Frangepanibus

Abstract

In 1541, King Ferdinand I of Hungary, being unable to raise a force capable of withstanding the army of Suleiman the Magnificent on his own, sought military assistance from his brother, Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire, as well as from the Imperial Estates. As his envoys to the Imperial Diet convened at Regensburg, he dispatched Ferenc Frangepán, Archbishop of Kalocsa, together with Tamás Nádasdy, Ferenc Batthyány, Tamás Kamarjai, and Mátyás Brodarics, with the mission of securing support for the struggle against the Ottomans. At the session held on June 9, Franciscus de Frangepanibus presented the matter of Ottoman aggression before the German Estates. The Archbishop of Kalocsa delivered a speech of such rhetorical power and conviction that the assembly ultimately voted to allocate funds to pay two thousand cavalry and ten thousand infantry in aid of King Ferdinand I. Franciscus de Frangepanibus’s speech is noteworthy not only for its immediate political effect but also for its broader circulation: it was published in the same year in both Latin and German, and subsequently appeared in Italian in 1542. Interest in his oration was rekindled in the 1590s, leading to its republication; another edition appeared as late as 1616.
In this study, I examine two primary questions: how the 1541 printed version of the speech compares with its later editions, and in what ways the intervening historical developments may have shaped the reception and interpretation of the oration.