The Puzzle of PAZL

Codex Fragments from Lambach in the National Széchényi Library

Abstract

The author, a member of the HAS‒NSZL Res Libraria Hungariae Research Group, while working on the database of codex fragments, which is being prepared for the Manuscripts Collection of the National Széchényi Library, became aware of a dozen parchment leaves of different ages, content and size. These all had been marked with a mysterious inscription: “PAZL 1671”, an abbreviation for Placidus Abt zu Lambach, Placidus Hieber, Abbot of Lambach (1640‒1678).
The library of the Benedictine Abbey in Lambach was enriched with books and manuscripts over the centuries. However, by the 20th century, the troubled historical circumstances and the financial difficulties of the Abbey had made it necessary for them to sell the majority of their books. A significant amount of these was acquired by the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University, where they came to be studied by Robert G. Babcock and Lisa Fagin Davis and became the subject of two monographs. A dozen Lambach fragments were brought to Budapest at the end of the 19th century as items in Elemér Varjú’s 114-pieces large palaeographical collection. He had probably found the manuscripts in the Batthyaneum Library in Gyulafehérvár (today: Alba Iulia, Romania). Most codex leaves were used as binding material for the books of Abbot Placidus’ library probably in Lambach in the 17th century. This is proven by two fragments, which originate from the same codices as some pieces in the NSZL, and whose host books, in the binding of which
they have been preserved, are known. One of them is preserved in Toronto, the other at Yale University. Both were printed in Munich in the 17th century.
The second half of the paper consists of the description of the twelve manuscript fragments, most of which originate from liturgical books from a monastic milieu. Nevertheless, some folia from theological works and classical authors make the collection more varied.