THE COLLECTION OF BOOKS
The collection of books, some of them hundreds of years old, has existed since the 17th century, and there are over 650 valuable volumes that bear witness to the interest in learning shown by churchmen and laymen alike. The books in the collection prove that the priesthood in the Baroque age was highly cultured, and although the majority are in Latin and German, there are several precious examples of early Hungarian printing among them. The collection comprises missals, scriptures, evangelical commentaries, and lives of the saints, along with several volumes of history: Bonfini’s historical work, and a biography of Saint Stephen printed in Kassa (today Košice, SK) in 1767. There is also a Latin, German and Greek dictionary from 1658.
Other important volumes include the collections of announcements about the workings of the parish, diocese circulars, and archiepiscopal missives and other correspondence, which are of particular value in understanding how the local parish and the diocese functioned through the ages. Also of great significance are many of the other documents preserved here, such as last wills and testaments, marriage certificates, and official letters written by bishops and archbishops.
