CHRONICLERS The oldest Hungarian Chronicles which have come down to us date from the thirteenth century and were written in Latin . The best known is the Chronide of King Béla's Anonymaus Scribe, which telis of the conquest of the country by the Hungar iaus in some detail but with littie vivacity. The age an d autborship of the book have been much discussed, for the writer does not state his name but merely describes bimself as the scribe or notary of King Béla, and as there were four kings of that name we are in doubt as to which of them is meant. It is proved that the unknown scribe lived under Béla IV. (died 1270), or, at the earliest, under Béla III (died u96). Th e first history in which a sense of style may be detected was the Chronide written in Hungarian by GASPAR- HELTAI in 1575, the deeds of Matthias Corvinus being remarkably well told. Heltai's roaterials were largely drawn from the Latin work of the Italian humanist Bonfini, who lived at the Court of Matthias. The best Hungarian historian of the eighteenth century was MICHAEL CSEREl (died 1756), who wrote the history of Trausylvania from 166 1 to 1712 in a vivid style, ánd with a somewhat moralising tendeney. The first of the more modern sch ool of Hungarian historiaus was STEPHEN KATONA (died 18u). He worked with astounding diligenec and a keen eritical sense for original sources and produced a history in forty-two bulky volumes, telling the story of Hungary from the earliest times. AU subsequent historiaus have u sed this work as the foundation for their own. It was BENEDICT VIRÁG (1752-1830), however, the distinguished writer of odes, who first wrote a history of Hungary in a refined and artistic style. He began, about the heginning of the nineteenth century, to write a popular s
