Albert Szenci Molnár: Psalterium Ungaricum. Small Catechism
Herborn, 1607.
Accompanying essay by Judit P. Vásárhelyi
Facsimile edition after the copy at Ráday Library
Bibliotheca Hungarica Antiqua, 66.
NSZL–Balassi Publising House, Budapest, 2017.
526 pages + 54 pages of the essay
ISBN 978 963 456 016 6 facsimile
ISBN 978 963 456 017 3 essay
The facsimile edition of the Psalterium Ungaricum or One Hundred and Fifty Psalms of Holy King David and Prophet was published jointly by National Széchényi Library and Balassi Publishing House for the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. The song book of the Reformed Church, still in use today, was first published in Herborn, in 1607, as its title page says, “translated and commissioned by Albert Molnár Szenci into Hungarian verses, following the manner of the French notes”. In addition to the psalms, the volume contains anther work by Szenci: the Small Catechism.
In the accompanying booklet of the facsimile, an essay of renowned specialist Judit P. Vásárhelyi presents the genres of psalm and psalm paraphrase, the history of psalm translations, the French original, Albert Molnár Szenci’s oeuvre and this present translation, the afterlife of the 150 psalms and the Small Catechism.
Bibliotheca Hungarica Antiqua
The Bibliotheca Hungarica Antiqua series was founded by Béla Varjas (1959-1985) who remained its editor until his death. It is a series of facsimile editions of 16-17th century Hungarica prints, completed by explanatory essays, in some cases with English (German) summaries. From 1986, the series editor has been Péter Kőszeghy. Although the original goal was to make works of literary or typographical importance, sometimes with only one copy remained, available for research, many of these bibliophile publications can be of interest for the wide public. After the first 12 volumes published in the edition of Béla Varjas, the series reached a total of 44 volumes by 2014. NSZL has been its co-publisher from 2000, and in 2014 also the library of Hungarian Academy of Sciences has joined.
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