Egyháztörténeti Szemle 14. (2013)
2013 / 1. szám - SUMMARIES IN ENGLISH - Kádár Zsófia: The Publishing and Distribution of Books in the Marian Congregation of the Jesuit College in Pozsony - Ittzés Gábor: From the Commentarius to the Liber. Melanchthon on the Soul's Immortality
Summaries in English Summaries in English The Publishing and Distribution of Books in the Marian Congregation of the Jesuit College in Pozsony Kádár, Zsófia Despite the new results of the last decades, the research of Baroque congregations in Hungary has only made its first steps. This study tries to correct and complete the results of the only comprehensive monograph published up to now on the Hungarian congregational publications in regard to the Marian congregation of the Jesuit college in Pozsony (today Bratislava, Slovakia): Knapp Éva: Pietás és literatúra. Irodalom kínálat és művelődési program a barokk kori társulati kiadványokban. (’Piety and literature. Literary offer and cultural program in the congregational publications from the Baroque age’.) Budapest, 2001. (Historia litteraria, 9.) By using new sources, the album (1637-1745) and the diaries of the congregation (1709-1781) in comparison with the so far known 16 congregational publications, it was possible to identify 62 cases of gift book distributions, and altogether 47 editions of 37 works. (See tables 1 and 2.) According to the historia congregationis notes of the album, from 1677 on, the congregation distributed books as New Year presents (xenium) for a certain donation for the more affluent students and its patrons. Usually, students received minor works of Hungarian authors printed in Nagyszombat (today Trnava, Slovakia) or in Pozsony, typically prayer books and religious calendars. At the same time, external patron gentlemen (domini externi, aristocrats, national and city leaders, officials, local canons, etc.) were given the theoretical or ascetical books of foreign authors edited in Nagyszombat or in Vienna. Around 1710-1730 4-5 different books were distributed to 100-110 students and 20-30 gentlemen yearly. By 1735, this practice had become rather unprofitable, so it was given up. Hereafter every year several piety books were distributed for usage to the school classes, which were required to be given back to the congregational library by the end of the school year. The approximately six decades long practice of xenia- distribution shows well the duality of Baroque religiosity: on the one hand, book-donation promoted personal devotion, on the other one, it was also an act of public representation. From the Commentarius to the Liber. Melanchthon on the Soul’s Immortality Ittzés, Gábor In the last chapter of his commentary on Aristotle’s De anima, Melanchthon subjected the question of the immortality of the human soul to systematic investigation. This paper first reviews the printing history of this seminal work - one of the greatest publication successes of the 16th century — then it offers a close reading of the immortality chapter in its two major versions from the Commentarius (1540) and the Liber de anima
