Monumenta Ritualia Hungarica
(MRH) Series Practica
Liturgy was probably the most universal communal factor of medieval and early modern Europe. It was the most important source of spiritual life for medieval man and its treasure of texts, melodies and gestures formed the basic knowledge that intellectuals acquired from their childhood and transmitted later to the illiterates.
However, this phenomenon, equally rich in texts, melodies and ceremonies, is currently hardly accessible by the modern man, partly because it is unedited, partly because it cannot be fully reconstructed even with the use of the available editions. Similarly to the Monumenta Ritualia Hungarica (MRH) – a sub-series of the Bibliotheca Scriptorum Medii Recentisque Ævorum (BSMRÆ) – the Monumenta Ritualia Hungarica (MRH) Series Practica is based on strict scholarly principles, but strives to serve a practical purpose, namely to present the medieval liturgical books of Hungary in an easily accessible and understandable form. It will make it much easier to apply this material within the context of research, education, musical interpretation or even everyday ecclesiastical practice. From an educational viewpoint, sources and critical editions will be handled more reliably by a student trained in practical editions. A long-term goal of this series is to provide a starting-point for a revival of the Hungarian Church’s peculiar heritage.
Psalterium Strigoniense 1.
Pars nocturnalis
The most ample and characteristic ceremony within the liturgical life of the European Middle Ages was the Divine Office. This regular service determined the daily rhythm of life for clerics and laymen alike. Its vast textual and melodic content made up the basic material of medieval learning.
The aim of the Monumenta Ritualia Hungarica (MRH) Series Practica I–II is to reconstruct and present the Psalter (making up the bulwark of the Divine Office) from the best sources of the Use of Esztergom in a bilingual edition. In Hungary there is a noteworthy tradition of Gregorian chant translated into the native language, stemming mainly from Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was after the Second Vatican Council that almost all the texts of the Psalter were translated into Hungarian, and the Gregorian melodies were perfectly applied to them with great musical skill, for the reinvigoration of the medieval Esztergom Use.
The Pars nocturnalis contains the nighttime services (matins) of the everyday canonical hours.
The Psalterium Strigoniense is compiled, edited and introduced by liturgical historian and Latin philologist, Miklós István Földváry (1978), senior lecturer of the Latin Department of the Faculty of Humanities at Eötvös Loránd University, leader of the Research Group of Liturgical History of the Centre for the Study of Religion at the aforementioned Faculty, and member of the Department for Sacred Music at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music (Budapest).
Psalterium Strigoniense 2.
Pars diurnalis
The most ample and characteristic ceremony within the liturgical life of the European Middle Ages was the Divine Office. This regular service determined the daily rhythm of life for clerics and laymen alike. Its vast textual and melodic content made up the basic material of medieval learning.
The aim of the Monumenta Ritualia Hungarica (MRH) Series Practica I–II is to reconstruct and present the Psalter (making up the bulwark of the Divine Office) from the best sources of the Use of Esztergom in a bilingual edition. In Hungary there is a noteworthy tradition of Gregorian chant translated into the native language, stemming mainly from Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was after the Second Vatican Council that almost all the texts of the Psalter were translated into Hungarian, and the Gregorian melodies were perfectly applied to them with great musical skill, for the reinvigoration of the medieval Esztergom Use.
The Pars diurnalis contains the daytime services (lauds, prime, tierce, sext, none, vespers, compline) of the everyday canonical hours.
The Psalterium Strigoniense is compiled, edited and introduced by liturgical historian and Latin philologist, Miklós István Földváry (1978), senior lecturer of the Latin Department of the Faculty of Humanities at Eötvös Loránd University, leader of the Research Group of Liturgical History of the Centre for the Study of Religion at the aforementioned Faculty, and member of the Department for Sacred Music at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music (Budapest).
Psalterium Strigoniense 3.
Liber tonarius
The most ample and characteristic ceremony within the liturgical life of the European Middle Ages was the Divine Office. This regular service determined the daily rhythm of life for clerics and laymen alike. Its vast textual and melodic content made up the basic material of medieval learning.
The aim of the Monumenta Ritualia Hungarica (MRH) Series Practica III is to reconstruct and present the recitation tones of the Psalter (making up the bulwark of the Divine Office) from the available sources of the Use of Esztergom. However, this source material is actually non-existent: everything that can be used in a reconstruction is based on some late medieval and early modern data of the Pauline Order, the liturgy of which is closely related to the Esztergom Use. Any missing information was taken from 20th century liturgical publications of the Gregorian chant, established mostly by the school of Solesmes.
The Liber tonarius is compiled, edited, introduced and commented by liturgical historian and Latin philologist, Miklós István Földváry (1978), senior lecturer of the Latin Department of the Faculty of Humanities at Eötvös Loránd University, leader of the Research Group of Liturgical History of the Centre for the Study of Religion at the aforementioned Faculty, and member of the Department for Sacred Music at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music (Budapest), with the scholarly advisement of Ágnes Papp, researcher at the Institute for Musicology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
