Déri Balázs (szerk.): Missale Strigoniense 1484 - Monumenta Ritualia Hungarica 1. (Budapest, 2009)
Introduction
INTRODUCTION XXVII sertion of marginals into the main text,126 or similar minor changes. At this point it is not clear—perhaps the study of foreign parallels could shed some light on this work process—how and in which phase of editing the mandate was issued to repeat the recurring items (including the lengthier pericopes). Was it done at the request of the commissioners in Esztergom who wished to exploit the new advantages of the recently invented technology? Is it possible that the typographer, perhaps with the help of an intermediary bibliopola unknown to us, offered the repeated printing of the easily locatable texts? In the age of manuscript production such repetitions were not too economical, and in addition to the power of human recollection, users could mostly rely upon indications to earlier occurances within the same text (require) or to exact folio numbers. Nevertheless, we cannot rule out the possibility that certain manuscript editions had already afforded themselves the “luxury of abundance and voluminosity”. In the 1484 Missal we might be able to detect the ease of applying a new technology, yet there is probably no question of a consistent guiding principle determining which texts are repeated and which ones are only briefly indicated in the customary manner (also found in later Vatican editions).127 This overall inconsistency in methodology and lack of thorough deliberation may be indicative of a certain undue haste. Moreover, knowing the membership within the collegiate chapter of Esztergom, it can be stated with a high degree of probability that even if there had been any real demand for proper textual criticism of a humanistic sort,128 there was only one suitable candidate among them for such a task.129 This does not mean, of course, that in possession of proper—albeit not humanistic—language skills, they could not have undertaken the correction of certain mistakes. As to the need for corrections: even the medieval “prototype”, the Missale Notatum Strigoniense ante 1341 (see above) may be said to have been a very carefully compiled 126 See footnote n. 194. 127 E.g. the pericope H 11,33—39 occurs four times in its full extent (116r_v Fabianus et Sebastianus, 132v—133r Vitus, Modestus, Crescentia, 139r Septem fratres martyres, 169r-v de martyribus), while in the rubrics it is referenced six times by the incipit Sancti perfidem (133v Decem milia militum, 140 Andreas et Benedictus, 142r Abdon et Sennen, 154v Mauritius cum sociis, 157v Dionysius cum sociis, 158r Undecim milia virginum). 128 See footnote n. 109. 129 In 1480 (and the situation was not any different four years later either) “In the collegiate chapter of Esztergom there were no dignitaries of humanistic erudition and university education who would have possessed the adequate intellectual and financial authority, or the necessary means to sway the official decisions of the chapter. In the 1480s [Peter] Garázda was the only member of the chapter who had been educated according to humanistic standards but at that time he was only an archipresbyter (vicar forane) of Nyitra. Being the only one of humanistic learning and having only a meagre income, he could not have possessed an important voice among his fellow canons. Most of the canons with university degrees had studied law.” KÖRMENDY: Studentes extra regnum ... pp. 149-150.