The Research Group of Liturgical History and the publishing house Argumentum have released a new Hungarian language volume entitled Telegdi, Mossóczy, and the Agendarius: Rites, Vernacularity, and Pastoral Care in Late 16th-Century Hungary. 

The organisation of the conference held in the autumn of 2022, and the editing of the volume were carried out by Orsolya Lenyó and Richárd Tóth, who have since earned their doctoral degrees at ELTE. The foreword to the volume was written by Miklós István Földváry, head of the research group, and the clean, elegant layout and typesetting are the work of Balázs Horváth.

The authors of the volume examine the end of the 16th century, which was critical in terms of denominations, liturgical change, and the history of Hungary in general. The study of rituals as a book genre is a distinctly interdisciplinary field: by examining baptisms, weddings, and funerals, we gain insight into the cornerstones of human life, and through prayers of blessing and deliverance, we learn about the most precious assets and the greatest fears of the societies served by rituals, themes that are enriched by further beliefs and practices at the level of popular religiosity. The changes in the liturgical books illustrate the changes in the spirituality, theology, and tastes of the editors and publishers, ministers, priests, and bishops. The studies by Richárd Tóth, Balázs Horváth, Orsolya Lenyó, Katalin Suba, Borbála Lovas, István Bartók, Dániel Bárth, and Antal Molnár use new syntheses and methods to present the complex mechanisms of liturgical reforms and the pastoral practices, achievements, and concerns of the 16th century.

The book will be presented on January 26 at the conference From Scribe to Programmer: A Conference on Digital Methods in Mediaeval Research organized by the MTA-ELTE Lendület Liturgical History Research Group, and will be available for purchase during the event.