Unpublished 1782 manuscript “Catalogue of the Library for Hungarian Students."
[Manuscript] / [Bibliography]. Catalogus Bibliothecae conditioni Studiosoru[m] Hungaroru[m] accomodatae Historico Criticae sive Historia Literaria. S.l. [Hungarian lands]: colophon dated 10 September 1782. 8vo [19.0 x 12.6 cm], [119] ff., [7] ff. blanks. Bound in contemporary mottled calf, red sprinkled edges, shelfmark label inside upper cover. Binding much rubbed, with edge wear, worming, losses to extremities of spine, short separation of joints at extremities, but structurally sound, child’s drawings inside lower cover. Internally well preserved, neatly written and legible throughout, a few early ownership inscriptions to front flyleaf and at end of text.
Unpublished 18th-century Latin bibliographical manuscript, a “Catalogue of the Library adapted to the needs Hungarian Students,” based on the holdings of the Reformed College in Debrecen, Hungary.
The work is an annotated bibliography on “Literary History,” i.e., theological literature, which begins with comments about collecting and reading (“De libris colligendis et legendi”) and a list of books about books (other bibliography). Discussed are books on dogmatic theology (Protestant and Catholic), symbolic theology, polemical theology (anti-Judaism, anti-Islam, etc.), moral theology, exegetical works, hermetic and mystical books, parabolic theology, prophetic literature, sacred physic, sacred math, Jewish antiquities, Greek antiquities, sacred geography, scriptural interpretation, Biblical commentaries (arranged by Biblical book, both Old and New Testaments), homilies and sermons (by nation), church history, and ecclesiastical jurisprudence.
Entries generally include information on a book’s format, number of volumes, place of publication, etc.
No author of this manuscript is explicitly given, but in the last pages of the text, the writer remarks that “my father, the son-in-law of Paul Ember,” gave a certain manuscript by Ember to “Lampius,” who edited it, unfortunately omitting the original preface. The author of our manuscript is thus István Szatmári Paksi (1719-1791), a professor at the Debrecen Reformed College, who was the son of Mihály Szatmári Paksi (1681-1744), a pastor in Tokaj. István Szatmári Paksi’s maternal grandfather was Pál Ember (1660-1710) of Debrecen, the founder of Protestant church historiography in Hungary. “Lampius” is the theologian Friedrich Adolph Lampe 1683-1729. (“Pater deinde meus, gener Pauli Ember, manuscriptum eius ad Lampiu[m] transmisit, qui et edidit. Egre v[er]o[?] fecimus, quod Cel. Lampius Praefa[ti]onem A[uct]oris omiserit, quae plane necessaria fuisset, & quod non satis emendate edi curaverit. Manuscripta illa extant in B[iblio]theca Collegii Debrecinensi. Oportet deinque si possis habere.”) (See, Ágnes Ritoókné Szalay, “Debreceni Ember Pál egyháztörténetének kéziratai,” Magyar Könyvszemle, vol. 89, nos. 3-4 [1973], p. 370, who recognized this fact from another manuscript copy of the Catalogus.)
István Szatmári Paksi’s colophon is preserved in our Catalogus manuscript, and it states that he began his work on 9 December 1772 and finished it on 10 December 1775 (he adds “S. D. G.,” i.e., “Soli Deo Gloria!”). There follows a note, written in the same hand as the main text, stating that the writing out of this copy was finished on 10 September 1782. Another note, in a different ink, states that the copy was commissioned (“curavit”) by Stephanus Baka, a minister from Fegyvernek (“Fegyvernekiensis”). Baka also stated his ownership of the book by writing his name in 1782 on the front free endpaper of the manuscript; below that inscription are the names of subsequent owners, Joseph Obernyik and Laurentz Molnar, the latter of whom dated his inscription from Debrecen in 1829.
*Ágnes Ritoókné Szalay, “Debreceni Ember Pál egyháztörténetének kéziratai,” Magyar Könyvszemle, vol. 89, nos. 3-4 (1973), pp. 364-376.