Fekete Gézáné (szerk.): Örökségünk, élő múltunk. Gyűjtemények a Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Könyvtárában (A MTAK közleményei 37. Budapest, 2001)

ABAFFY CSILLA: Magyar nyelvemlékek és másolataik az MTA Könyvtárának Kézirattárában

84 Abajfy Csilla ABAFFY, CSILLA Early Records of the Hungárián Language and Copies of them in the Library's Department of Manuscripts The originál mission statement of the Academy indicated the cultivation of the national language as its most important task. The first way to achieve this was to compile a dictionary. At the beginning the aim was the collection and analysis of old linguistic records for the purposes of the dictionary and an associated grammar, but research in the history of language came to be emphasized more and more. The Library's Hungárián codices from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are mostly copies of prayers — meant for nuns — legends, lectionaries, and portions of the Bible. The first translations and their later variants — written in countless copies — have largely perished in the course of history. Thanks to the research work of members of the Academy as well as of others devoted to our national culture, almost all of the linguistic records known to this day were discovered in the first half of the nineteenth century. Out of 46 registered Hungarian-language codices, eight were generously donated to the Academy's Department of Manuscripts. The Academy strove to collect the text of all the other known linguistic records. Our collection thus preserves 46 copies of 38 codices. These have served as the source material for editions of the texts. The Academy's published series of linguistic records started in 1838 when Gábor Döbrentei began editing the Régi Magyar Nyelvemlékek (Old Hungárián Linguistic Records). Almost all volumes of the Nyelvemléktár (Collection of Linguistic Records) were edited by György Volf. After one volume of the Új Nyelvemléktár (New Collection of Linguistic Records) and eight of the Codices Hungarici, the text editions in the current series of Régi Magyar Kódexek (Old Hungárián Codices) contain facsimiles as well. The latest volume of this series — No. 25 — has just appeared.