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

The most important period for the collectors was, undoubtedly, the reign of Henry VIII, which at the same time represented the birth of the Anglican Church and a special situation for catholicism in England. History, Church, theology and literature are sometimes inseparable inside one work, therefore Thomas More's works might as well be listed in all these chapters. Belles-lettres Belles lettres do not belong to the domains collected by pontificial libraries in the XVIIIth century. The most outstanding works of English literature, however, were purchased by the Library even if much later and many times not in the original language. The only exception in this situation is Shakespeare, whose works in 20 volumes represent English literature. Into this select collection belong the two translations of Alexander Pope's Essay on Man (1733-34): Az embernek próbája (1772, translated by Bessenyei György), and its German version: Versuch über den Menchen (1783). The popularity of this work among Catholic theologians must be explained by the philosophical thoughts Pope develops in his essay and which takes its source from St. Thomas of Aquinas. It should also be noted that Pope represented the exceptional and difficult fortune of Catholics in England. Fest in his substantial study of the the influence of English literature in Hungary, complains that John Milton is well known as a defender of the Anglican religion (Pro populo anglicano Defensio contra Salmasii Defensionem regiam, London, 1651.- in Eger) but hardly anyone knows his Paradise Lost (Fest 1917. 11). For the general Hungarian reader this might have been true but the collection of the Eger Library with four editions of it in French, German and English shows a different attitude to it among Catholic intellectuals. Natural sciences The pontificial libraries in XVIIIth century Hungary preferred, understandably, humanities to natural sciences. In the hierarchy of sciences after theology came history, law and philosophy and books on natural sciences occupied only the last places. Eger, due to the well equipped observatory (1776) and the planned medical faculty of the university, was an exception . Medical books in the collection of the Library are in Latin (Browne, Joan. Myographia seu Musculorum Corporis humani descriptio,... Londini, 1684.), on astronomy, however, we can find books in English too. As the completion of the astronomical instruments and books were done by 143