Specialists from the National Széchényi Library (OSZK) created a decorative copy of the first coherent Hungarian language monument, the Pray Codex, which contains the text of the Sermon on the Death and the Supplication, created at the end of the 12th century, as a gift to the Government of Hungary for Pope Francis, who is visiting our country for the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress.
The priceless collection of manuscripts was donated to OSZK by the Bratislava chapter in 1813, and was named by the literary historian Ferenc Toldy (1805–1875) after the Jesuit historian György Pray (1723–1801), who first reported on it in 1770. The Pray codex is one of the most important documents of 12th-century Hungarian church culture. In the Latin-language liturgical codex, after the sacramentarium edited for use in Hungary - i.e. the book containing the prayers of the priest celebrating mass - the texts of certain ceremonies outside the mass (marriage, laying the foundation stone of the church, funeral) follow. The Mortuary Oration and Supplication, our earliest coherent text in Hungarian, can be read at the end of the funeral service, in its appendix, accompanied by a slightly longer funeral speech in Latin, on letter 136 of the codex.
in addition to several other ceremonial and ecclesiastical texts (such as the Esztergom synod decisions of Kálmán Könyves) its source. Precious data from the time of the founding of the state include, among others, the year of the death of Prince Géza, the coronation of King István and the consecration of Gellért as bishop.
In the codex, we can also see the early memories of Hungarian book painting with the influence of Salzburg, five colored pen drawings, which depict the crucifixion, entombment, resurrection and glorification of Christ. The manuscript is also important from the point of view of music history, as one of the earliest pieces of the Hungarian application of the medieval "Hungarian notation" and line system reform notation in Hungary.
The Pray codex was photographed in the digitization center of the national library in the presence of a restoration specialist and under strict data protection regulations. Since the original binding of the Pray codex has not survived, and the traces found on the parchment sheets can only be deduced from the method of lacing, it was made based on the results of research into the history of binding and production techniques carried out over several decades in the OSZK's workshop, which was awarded the Hungarian Heritage Award in 2017, and taking into account international analogies the contemporary design and then execution of the binding of the decorative copy. When choosing the raw materials used for the binding, the restorers went back to the materials suitable for the monastery bindings of the time.
The body of the book is protected by eight-millimeter-thick beech boards, which are covered with alum-tanned, undyed goatskin. The copper buckles and buckles, like the knitting, were made based on contemporary patterns, with meticulous work, using hand tools. The volume was placed in a box built according to his own designs, covered with black leather and lined with burgundy caterpillar silk, which is also decorated with a hand-painted copy of one of the pen drawings illustrating the codex - the crucifix.
Specialists involved in the preparation of the decorative copy.
Source: OSZK
