Epistulae.

The volume under review is the result of a cooperative effort undertaken by the Polish and the Hungarian Academies of Science, initiated by the late Tibor Klaniczay, and by Lech Szczucki. The latter is one of the editors of the volume, but is also known for his excellent monograph on Jacobus Palaeologus and Christian Francken (1980).

Volume I of the Epistulae, published in connection with the four-hundredth anniversary of Andreas Dudith's death, includes 204 of his letters. However, this is just a minor part of his extant correspondence which numbers about two thousand items. The years 1554-1567 cover the period Dudith spent in Italy, the beginnings of his ecclesiastic career, and his diplomatic mission to Poland in the service of Hungary.

The editors' plan is to publish the first complete edition of Dudith's correspondence. The material, collected from over forty libraries and archives, will give us Dudith's private, theological and diplomatic correspondence, unflawed by the theological and political bias which had characterized the earlier publications.

Andreas Dudith (1533-1589), was born in Buda, the son of a Croatian father and an Italian mother. His education was supervised by his uncle, Augustinus Sbardellati, bishop of Vac, who, following the family's pro-Habsburg tradition, first sent him to study in Breslau (Wroclaw). For his more advanced education Dudith moved to Italy (Venice and Padua), but he also studied in Paris (it was there that he first contemplated quitting the Catholic church), and in 1555 he took a trip to England as a member of Cardinal Reginald Pole's entourage. By 1560 Dudith returned to Hungary, and helped by his family's contacts, he was soon made bishop of Knin (Dalmatia); in 1563 he was nominated for the episcopal see of Csanad. He participated at the Council of Trent (1562 - 1563), representing the Hungarian church. It was after the Council of Trent that Dudith parted ways with the Catholic church. He first embraced Calvinism, then Socianism, and, eventually, Lutheranism. As is known, Basel and Geneva remained, even after the death of Erasmus, a haven for the Paduan free thinkers (Lelius Socinus, etc.). Thus it was not an accident that the best educated Antitrinitarians and, as of 1571, Andreas Dudith among them, were also Erasmists. (As a matter of fact, Dudith was frequently referred to as the Hungarian Erasmus. However, that phase of his career belongs to the next volume of the Epistulae.)

Dudith left Trent, and as bishop designate of Pecs, he became Emperor Maximilian II's envoy to the Polish court. During that period of his life - after much hesitation and soul searching - Dudith finally decided to leave the Church. In 1567 he secretly married a young Polish noble woman, Regina Straszowna, causing a scandal both in royal and in ecclesiastic circles, and ending his diplomatic career for the next five years.

Author of Orationes duae and of Sententia de calice laicis permittendo (the latter also popular in Protestant circles), Dudith was a well-known and highly respected humanist with significant international contacts. Throughout his colorful career, Dudith's corresponding partners were famous scholars and thinkers, dignitaries of the Church, and some of the most powerful rulers of Europe, such as Ferdinand I and Maximilian II of Austria, and Sigismund II Augustus of Poland. One of Dudith's closest friends, with whom he exchanged a large number of letters, was Paolo Manuzio (1512-1574), son of the founder of the Aldine press, a man who - under the patronage of the Papacy - devoted himself to the publication of classical authors, especially to the works of Cicero. Dudith also corresponded with Ludovico Beccadelli and Antonio Graziani, while in Cracow he enjoyed the company of Copernicus and Rheticus, and devoted much time to studying astronomy and mathematics.

The majority of letters included in this volume are written in Latin (159) and in Italian (46). Copious footnotes, a thorough name index, and another one for geographical names, complete this thoughtfully edited and beautifully printed new contribution to Central European Renaissance studies.

Marianna D. Birnbaum UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES