Sign – symbol – decoration: the relationship of image and text in 16th–17th century Hungarian calendars

This study tries to give an overview of the varied connections between word and image in the calendars and other popular works (penny books, manuscript song collections) of the late Renaissance and Baroque. The author investigates the associations and influences from different fields of culture, considers ancient topoi and archetypes which underwent a great many transformations over space and time. In the first part of this paper are examined some non-traditional figures in the calendar for 1578 (Kolozsvár-Cluj, Heltai’s office) like mermaids/sirens in the role of Aquarius and Virgo, and the appearence of these figures on the painted furniture and ceiling panels of 18th -century Calvinist churches in Hungary. The second part of this article deals with some typical title pages of calendars, edited in different printing houses of Upper Hungary (by Lorentz Brewer in Lőcse/Levoča, the serie Calendarium Tyrnaviense, Nagyszombat/Trnava) from the second half of the 17th century, and with the calendars of David Frölich, published in Breslau (Wrocław, PL) between 1623 and 1646