The letter was issued by János Szapolyai

03/2007

The signer of the letter, János Szapolyai was born in Szepesvár in 1487. His parents were Palatine István Szapolyai and Hedvig, Duchess of Teschen. For the sake of accession to the throne he proposed marriage to Anna Jagiello, the daughter of Ulászlo II King of Hungary twice, but she married Ferdinand of Habsburg in the end. The very ambitious Szapolyai was kept away from the Hungarian royal court and this effort resulted in his appointment as the Voivode of Transylvania in 1511. Szapolyai played a leading role in the suppression of György Dózsa's peasant uprising. In 1526 he stayed away from the fatal battle of Mohács where King Lajos II died. Right after he claimed for the throne. On 10th November 1526 he was elected to a king by the parliament of Székesfehérvár and crowned by the Bishop of Nyitra the following day.
The letter  is an interesting contribution to the education and culture of King János's court. Due to the continuous warfare the monarch couldn't built up a magnificent royal court but several well-known humanist dedicated their works to the court. Among others István Brodarics, István Werbőczy, Ferenc Frangepán and Antal Verancsics worked in his court. On the basis of the letter the number of persons who were in connection with the king has grown by one. The addressee is Paulus Iovius, who was one of the most recognized scholar of his time. Iovius learnt philosophy at the University of Padua while he took his medical degree in Pavia. He had good connections with Pope Leo X, Adrian VI and Clement VII, who entrusted him with various diplomatic services. In 1528 Pope Clement VII appointed him Bishop of Nocera but he didn't leave lasting mark on his church. His scholarly activities were more successful: he wrote several historical works and established a museum in Como, where a portrait gallery of famous people was exhibited.
The letter was written by two persons. (Three, if we count Szapolyai's signature.) The first handwriting belongs to a clerk who wrote the lines of welcome to Iovius. It was put down on the parchment on 10th December 1533. The letter written in Latin was completed with comments in Italian by a second handwriting after the death of King János. It gives a brief summary of the reign of Voivode "Zapolia". The author knew János Zsigmond too. He wished to obtain the Hungarian throne but became "only" Prince of Transylvania in the end.