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The "Ferneza" Book
The name "Ferneza" seems to have been the result of an error in copying
made somewhere along the way. Three possible corrections of the name have
occurred to the editor: (1) the Italian name Farnese; (2) the Latin form,
Ferreus, of the Hungarian name Vas; (3) the Hungarian name Pernezy. As
for Farnese, there were ties between that family and the Gonzagas in Italy,
and both Vincenzo and Ferrante Gonzaga were involved in the history of
Hungary and Transylvania in Smith's day;
branches of the Farneses, no Francisco has been found for the period 1580–
1630, nor has any other Farnese been located who is known to have been in
the war zone where Smith was active. On the other hand, a Ferenc Vas
Báthory. Also, Vas had been educated in Italy, though no book by him
seems to have existed, or at least survived. The name Pernezy is introduced
merely because it could easily have been miscopied "Ferneza," and because
there were marriage ties between at least one Pernezy and Zsigmond
Báthory.
Along with these uncertainties, Edward Arber, the industrious editor of
Smith's works in Queen Victoria's heyday, took up the Ferneza problem
with Don Pascual de Gayangos y Arce, the distinguished Spanish bibliographer
then attached to the British Museum, and reported: Don Pascual
"has seen a printed Spanish translation of this Italian history, rendered into
Spanish by a Montalvo."
failed, and although Gayangos may have erred in some detail in his report
to Arber, that he should have invented a bibliographical "ghost" is close to
being out of the question. As for the way in which the "Ferneza" book
reached Purchas's hands, it can hardly be doubted that Smith himself had
it. Smith returned to Transylvania after his escape from slavery and found
greatly. István Bocskai, Báthory's uncle, was endeavoring to pull the country
together by cooperating with the Ottoman Empire. Though an old-time
adherent of Báthory's might not be welcome, Smith could hardly have been
forgotten — especially with the tales he could tell of the Turks. It thus seems
to be ever so little romancing to suggest that "Francisco Ferneza his Storie"
was put together there by Smith and "Ferneza," not only to take back to
England, but more immediately to have handy when "at last he found the
most gracious Prince Sigismundus, with his Colonell at Lipswick in Misenland."
In summary, then, the editor submits that Purchas did surely have
some manuscript book pertinent to Smith's experiences written by someone
who knew him, but which was "edited" here and there to fit Purchas's, and
Smith's, subject: Smith's travels and adventures.
To turn, then, to the details of the "Ferneza" account. The "losse of
Caniza" (Nagykanizsa) is a recorded fact. It was surrendered to the Turks
on October 22, 1600, about the time of Turkish activity by the akinci (cavalry
raiders) in the direction of Styria (Steiermark).
by north of Nagykanizsa stood the fortified town of Lendava (Smith's
"Olumpagh"; German, Limbach; Latin, Olimacum). Stiff akinci attacks on
"Olumpagh" are recorded in 1600, 1601, and 1603. The raid that Smith
helped to thwart was evidently that of 1601.
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