Repertorium hymnologicum medii aevi Hungariae

The Fragmenta et codices in bibliothecis Hungariae series by the HAS-NSZL Res Libraria Hungariae Work Team is now complemented by the new Subsidia subseries, the first wolume of which is the so far unpublished repertory of Piarist teacher and scholar Béla Holl. It contains the entire source material of the Latin language liturgical poetry of medieval Hungary, together with an index of 816 items of sources and liturgical festivities.

Piarist teacher and literature historian Béla Holl (1922. április 21. – 1997. március 12.) would have celebrated his 90th birthday in 2012, the year when this volume was published, but he passed away 15 years ago. In 1950, a young monk, he was forced to leave his order, and lived under difficult circumstances. Later, however, he had the opportunity to become a scholar of areas closely related to his vocation, and an indispensable expert for the secular world. For decades, he was a member of the NSZL Old Prints Work Team, and contributed to the first three volumes of the Old Hungarian Prints series. As a contributor of the HAS Institute for Literary Studies, Holl arranged for the press the critical edition of 17th century Catholic liturgical songs within the Old Hungarian Poets series, and in the meantime he wrote a number of essays on book and literature history that were selected and published after his death (Holl Béla, Laus Librorum. Edited by István Monok and Edina Zvara Bp., 2000). Nevertheless, it is a loss for the Hungarian medieval studies that his most significant individual work, the new and critical edition of medieval hymn poetry in Hungary on which he was working for almost twenty years, remained unfinished. In 1989, Holl was allowed to return to the monastic quarters of the Piarist order in Budapest. After his death, his legacy, including the material of Hymnarium medii aevi Hungariae organized in seven boxes, was moved to the Central Archives of the Hungarian Province of the Piarist Order.

His research of the medieval sources of old versed songs and prayers in Hungarian turned Holl’s attention to the Latin language liturgical poetry in medieval Hungary. As during his work he would often find that manuscript sources were not properly explored, from the early 1980s he started compiling a new critical edition of medieval liturgical poetry in Hungary. He finished gathering data at the end of the 1980s, and was working on the elaboration and the editing when he passed away. Therefore the work of editing, proofreading and completing the material was finished by Kinga Körmendy.

Our publication is not only a useful tool to facilitate individual research, but also a guide to the entire legacy of Béla Holl on hymnology still in manuscripts. It reflects the volume of his respectable work, and urges a critical edition in line with new methods. The present edition of the Repertorium marks the double anniversary paying tribute to the author and his work.