János Vitéz (archbishop) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

János Vitéz was the Hungarian

Kingdom of Hungary

The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...

archbishop of Esztergom

Archdiocese of Esztergom

The archbishopric of Esztergom was a historical diocese created in 1000 under Stephen I of Hungary largely on the territory of Upper Hungary. After the Treaty of Trianon, its territory was reduced to its present-day extent and it became the Archdiocese of Esztergom-Budapest on 31 May 1993...

and a prominent humanist

Renaissance humanism

Renaissance humanism was an activity of cultural and educational reform engaged by scholars, writers, and civic leaders who are today known as Renaissance humanists. It developed during the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centuries, and was a response to the challenge of Mediæval...

, diplomat

Diplomat

A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...

, Latinist, mathematician

Mathematician

A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....

, astrologist and astronomer

Astronomer

An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...

.

Vitéz was born in Sredna

Sredna

Sredna is a village in the municipality of Gotse Delchev, in Blagoevgrad Province, Bulgaria....

near Križevci, in a Croatian

Croats

Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...

family which was already influential at the Hungarian court

Kingdom of Hungary

. His father was the secretary of the regent

Regent

A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...

John Hunyadi

John Hunyadi John Hunyadi (Hungarian: Hunyadi János , Medieval Latin: Ioannes Corvinus or Ioannes de Hunyad, Romanian: Iancu (Ioan) de Hunedoara, Croatian: Janko Hunjadi, Serbian: Сибињанин Јанко / Sibinjanin Janko, Slovak: Ján Huňady) John Hunyadi (Hungarian: Hunyadi János , Medieval Latin: ...

, "The White Knight", from 1446 to 1452. Vitéz became a prothonotary

Prothonotary

The word prothonotary is recorded in English since 1447, as "principal clerk of a court," from L.L. prothonotarius , from Greek protonotarios "first scribe," originally the chief of the college of recorders of the court of the Byzantine Empire, from Greek protos "first" + Latin notarius ; the -h-...

in his government.

Vitéz studied in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, where he graduated law and became knowledgeable in physics, astronomy and alchemy

Alchemy

Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base...

due to frequent contacts with other humanists. In the chancery of King Sigismund

Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor

Sigismund of Luxemburg KG was King of Hungary, of Croatia from 1387 to 1437, of Bohemia from 1419, and Holy Roman Emperor for four years from 1433 until 1437, the last Emperor of the House of Luxemburg. He was also King of Italy from 1431, and of Germany from 1411...

, he probably met the excellent Italian humanist Pier Paolo Vergerio

Pier Paolo Vergerio

Pier Paolo Vergerio was an Italian religious reformer.-Life:He was born at Capodistria , then part of the Venetian Republic and studied jurisprudence in Padua, where he delivered lectures in 1522. He also practiced law in Verona, Padua, and Venice...

. For a while (around 1437) he was the canon

Canon (priest)

A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....

in Zagreb

Zagreb

Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...

. In that period, he helped strengthen the relations between the Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

n capital and the thriving Italian cultural and scientific centers. Then he left for Hungary

Kingdom of Hungary

, where he was to play a major role in the development of cultural and scientific institutions.

He was one of the educators of Hunyadi

John Hunyadi

's son Matthias, who would become the king Matthias Corvinus of Hungary

Matthias Corvinus of Hungary

Matthias Corvinus , also called the Just in folk tales, was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1458, at the age of 14 until his death...

. He became the bishop of Oradea

Oradea

Oradea is the capital city of Bihor County, in the Crișana region of north-western Romania. The city has a population of 204,477, according to the 2009 estimates. The wider Oradea metropolitan area has a total population of 245,832.-Geography:...

in 1445 and turned it into a humanist centre, where he invited a number of Polish and German humanists, such as Gregory of Sanok

Gregory of Sanok

Gregory of Sanok left his home at age twelve and went to Kraków, the Polish capital, in which German was the language of the city's urban patriciate. Gregory thus travelled to Germany to learn the language....

. He built an excellent library there. Both his court and the library moved from Oradea to Esztergom in 1465, when he became the primate

Primate (religion)

Primate is a title or rank bestowed on some bishops in certain Christian churches. Depending on the particular tradition, it can denote either jurisdictional authority or ceremonial precedence ....

of Hungary, or the archbishop of Esztergom

Archdiocese of Esztergom

- one of the two bishoprics in Hungary.

In the government of Matthias Corvinus, he fulfilled many positions. First of all, due to his earlier practice, he was an excellent diplomat to the king. In 1458 he was sent to Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

to George of Poděbrady

George of Podebrady

George of Kunštát and Poděbrady , also known as Poděbrad or Podiebrad , was King of Bohemia...

to redeem the king and then he (according to Bonfini

Antonio Bonfini

Antonio Bonfini was an Italian humanist and poet who spent the last years of his career as a court historian in Hungary with King Matthias Corvinus....

) welcomed the king when he entered the kingdom. He served the king in a few diplomatic missions, especially to the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III

Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor

Frederick the Peaceful KG was Duke of Austria as Frederick V from 1424, the successor of Albert II as German King as Frederick IV from 1440, and Holy Roman Emperor as Frederick III from 1452...

. After 1464 he became active in the highest and secret chancellor

Chancellor

Chancellor is the title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the Cancellarii of Roman courts of justice—ushers who sat at the cancelli or lattice work screens of a basilica or law court, which separated the judge and counsel from the...

(together with Stephen Várdai), but did not take many actions in the position. During the late 1460s he became estranged to the king and in 1471 he led a plot against the ruler.

Vitéz, who spoke and wrote in excellent Latin, had a major role in the international circle of humanists

Renaissance humanism

at Corvin's court, some of whom were prominent scientists, such as Regiomontanus

Regiomontanus

Johannes Müller von Königsberg , today best known by his Latin toponym Regiomontanus, was a German mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, translator and instrument maker....

, Bylica, Peuerbach, Dorn. He was especially interested in natural sciences and promoted their study. He founded the academy and library in Oradea

Oradea

(moved to Esztergom) and the Universitas Istropolitana in today's Bratislava

Bratislava

Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...

. He promoted astrologic

Astrology

Astrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...

and astronomic

Astronomy

Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...

research, had astronomic instruments of his own, and founded the observatory in Esztergom. He is sometimes referred to as the Father of Hungarian Humanism.

As the initiator of a rebellion against the king (1471-1472), he lost his privileges and estates. Soon after, he fell ill and died in Esztergom

Esztergom

Esztergom , is a city in northern Hungary, 46 km north-west of the capital Budapest. It lies in Komárom-Esztergom county, on the right bank of the river Danube, which forms the border with Slovakia there....

.

His nephew was the great Latin humanist Janus Pannonius

Janus Pannonius

Janus Pannonius was a Croatian and Hungarian Latinist, poet, diplomat and Bishop of Pécs.He was the only truly significant poet of the Renaissance in the Kingdom of Hungary and one of the better-known figures of Humanist poetry in Europe. He was born in a small village near the Drava river in a...

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