Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1998. Vol. 2. Eger Journal of English Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 26)

Studies - Lajos Szőke: Anglica vetera in the Archdiocesian Library of Eger

liturgy forced Latin to give up the position it had held for centuries and still held in many other countries. The gradual progress of English can be traced also in the way books were printed in the XVI-XVIIth century in England. Both in the humanities and the natural sciences there were scientists preferring Latin to English in their major works. They held to the view ihat Latin should have its status of a supemational language of scholarship in Europe preserved. This, of course, did not mean the cessation of English in printing but would have restricted the use of it to a limited area of literature. The dominant place taken by German, French and Italian books in the Library shows the cultural and economic position of the countries in Europe. The Eszterházy collection of the Archdiocesan Library of Eger is not a haphazard accumulation of printed material but the result of a very careful selective acquisition of all leading works in several scientific fields. Eszterházy and his supporter in Vienna, Giuseppe Garampi, the papal nuncio, had, of course, a decisive influence on the formation of the list of books to be bought in the educational and cultural centres of Europe (Antalóczy 1989. 26-27). Although both of them were representatives of Roman Catholic learning and educational tradition they could not be characterized as one-sided, rigid dogmatists. The books they procured exemplify people who wished to ensure contemporary knowledge for the students of the new university. This is especially revealing of the spirituality they took from Rome, which, though opposed to the materialism of the latest intellectual tendencies, was looking for new ways and means inside catholicism (Bitskey 1993. 89). That is the reason why almost all the important works referring to the Reformation and also to the Catholic polemics, reflecting various, sometimes very thorny questions for the Church, can be found in the Library. Theology - Philosophy The orientation described above can account for the fact that the majority of the English books in the collection represent the ideology of the Anglican Church, in Bible translations as well as in theological and pastoral works. On the other hand no less interest is paid to the works of English Catholics, Puritans, Presbyterians and Independents. The XVIth century witnessed the appearance of several Bible translations in England, but only some of them established themselves in later centuries. Although Coverdale's and Matthew's Bible-translations were granted royal licence and the Great Bible even authorization in 1539, all of them were superseded by the Geneva Bible (1560) and the Bishops' Bible (1568). 139