Lea Ráskay

Lea Ráskay (early 16th century, sometimes also spelled "Ráskai", IPA2|'leɒ 'ra:ʃkɒi) was a Hungarian Dominican nun living in the monastery of the Hare Island (today Margaret Island, Budapest). She was highly learned and well read, and is famous for copying several Hungarian codices that without her work would not survive.

Life

Ráskay was likely a descendant of that old Hungarian aristocratic family which got its name after the village of Ráska, and until the end of the 16th century, held important positions in the courts of the Kings of Hungary. She designated her life to writing in the scriptorium of the monastery, and was the librarian of the facility, possibly between 1510 and 1527, according the her notes in specific codices. She also worked as a secretary, as a manuscript written in the name of Ilona Bocskay is known from her. With her collaborators, Ráskay was working on more books simultaneously. In 1529, when the monastery was evacuated because of the danger of the Ottoman forces, she also escaped, but took the most important codices to a safe place.

Works

All the below works were written in Hungarian.
*Legend of Saint Margaret (1510; copied from a lost codex of the 14th century)
*parts of the Codex Cornides (1514-1519
*Codex Domokos (1517)
*parts of the Codex Jordánszky (1519)
**parts of the Old Testament
**The Gospels
*Codex Horvát (1522)

References

* [http://www.c3.hu/~nyelvor/period/1282/128208.pdf Haader Lea: A Nyulak szigeti scriptórium mint műhely]

ee also

*Legend of Saint Margaret
*Margaret Island
*Hungarian literature

[Category:Hungarian writers]