Jesuit libraries and popular Jesuit literature in Kingdom of Hungary in the 17th century. Interconnection between Hungarian and Polish Jesuit book culture

Abstract

The authors present the characteristics of Jesuit libraries in the Kingdom of Hungary in terms of their content, with special focus on works by the most influential Jesuit authors, which were among the most numerous ones in Hungarian Jesuit libraries. The authors also draw attention to the most popular titles published by the Hungarian Jesuits in the 17th century, which can be considered bestsellers of Baroque Catholic literature not only in the Kingdom of Hungary, but also abroad. Many of them also found their readers in Poland and were translated into Polish. Furthermore, the authors point to the interconnection between Hungarian and Polish Jesuit book culture and the Jesuit Polonica in Hungarian Jesuit libraries and typographies of the 17th-18th century. The Hungarian book culture does not mean the book culture of contemporary Hungary, but of Kingdom of Hungary. This paper focus on the Jesuits from the Slovak territory, which was a part of Kingdom of Hungary for 800 years (from 11th century to 1918). The essential research sources are the international educational program Ratio Atque Institutio Studiorum Societatis Jesu and catalogues of Hungarian Jesuit libraries, located in Slovakia, from the years 1632–1782.