Gesta Hungarorum, or The Deeds of the Hungarians, is the earliest book about Hungarian history which has survived for posterity. Its genre is not chronicle, but gesta, meaning "deeds" or "acts", which is a medieval entertaining literature. It was written in Latin by an unidentified author who has traditionally been called Anonymus in scholarly works. According to most historians, the work was completed between around 1200 and 1230. The Gesta exists in a sole manuscript from the second part of the 13th century, which was for centuries held in Vienna. It is part of the collection of Széchényi National Library in Budapest.
First page of the manuscript written in Medieval Latin
The Gesta Hungarorum
An 11th-century copy of the Annals of Fulda—an important contemporaneous source of the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin
Statue of Anonymus, the author of the Gesta Hungarorum in Vajdahunyad Castle in Budapest. (Miklós Ligeti, 1903)
Anonymus (notary of Béla III)
Anonymus Bele regis notarius or Master P. was the notary and chronicler of a Hungarian king, probably Béla III. Little is known about him, but his latinized name began with P, as he referred to himself as "P. dictus magister".
Statue of Anonymus in the City Park of Budapest. Created by Miklós Ligeti in 1903.
The Gesta Hungarorum
