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

Bibles from theological considerations up to our times, it gives a good opportunity to the student of historical linguistics to follow the changing language and the alteration of translation principles and techniques. The majority of course books and grammar books of the English language in the Archdiocesan Library were published in the XVIIIth century. Accordingly, the language described in them reflected the state of the contemporary English language. Some of these books, however, were based on earlier Latin grammars and used Latin grammatical categories and terminology to describe the English language which sometimes led to confusion. The dictionaries of the XVIIth century, judged by modern standards, did not really embrace the whole functional vocabulary of the language. Those of the late XVIIIth century, were more detailed, satisfying even the needs of natural sciences. A serious drawback both of the dictionaries and the grammar books was that they, in accordance with the methodological principles of the time, concentrated not on the speech but on the written language. Students using these dictionaries and course books could hardly acquire good pronunciation as usually neither stress, nor pronunciation were marked in them. The main purpose of studying English, at that time, was not to become proficient in the language but competent enough to read books in English. (The only exception was the director of the observatory, Paul Tittel, who had personal contacts with the Greenwich observatory). The dictionaries and grammar books, in spite of their deficiencies, rendered sufficient help for reading theological literature (rarely other material). The XVI-XVIIIth c. English stock of the Archdiocesan Library of Eger formed the basis for the developments of the XlXth century when the proportions changed to the advantage of English literature. Acquisitions of English books in this time outnumbered many times those of the previous period and made up for the neglect of literature. Decline in the enrichment of the English stock can be observed only in the XXth century, after the World Wars, as the result of the deteriorating general economic and social conditions. The number of English books given by Ferenc Albert in 1867 by and large corresponds to the result of our investigations. The differences may come from the different approach as F. Albert did not discuss the linguistic material. On the other hand, the number of volumes given by the 1867 study differs considerably. It well may be that Ferenc Albert overlooked or did not take into consideration Shakespeare's twenty volumes. It is highly improbable that English books of the period under discussion could have got into the Library after 1867 as part of the bequests. The comparison of the 145