Sebastian Tinódi. He was not only a patriotic minstrel, but also a reliable eye-witness, who related historical events in all their details; contemporaries, it is well known, are much more interested in details than are historians when writing of past ages. He visited the battlefields of which he sang, in order that he might give a faithful account of the conflicts they had witnessed. He was much more accurate, but much more prosy too, than most of the historians who were his contemporaries. The technique of his versification is primitive and his language is as monotonous as his rhymes. His poems may be divided into three groups. The first treats of the political events of the day, the constantly renewed attacks by the Turks, and the defence of the fortresses by the Hungarian leaders. The subjects of the second are taken from the Old Testament, and in that part of his work he clearly showed the influence of the Reformation, which made the Bible known to a far wider circle than it had been before. Typical of this class is his Judith. In the remainder of his work the influence of the Renaissance may be clearly traced, for he turns for his subjects to the classical world, choosing from its mythology such topics as those contained in his Chronicle of Jason and Medea.
The most prominent poet in the second half of the sixteenth century was Valentine Balassa (1551–1594). He himself was a picture in miniature of the times in which he lived—warlike, unhappy, and wild. Like the youthful Sophocles at the rejoicings after Salamis, he first attracted attention by his stately dancing. At the coronation of the Emperor and King, Rudolph II., he was chosen to lead the Hungarian national dance. The fact is mentioned in the Latin chronicles of Istvánffy
