The Treasures of the National Széchényi Library [antikvár]

he National Széchényi Library is taking part in the series of celebrations held to mark the 1100th anniversary of the Magyar Conquest with this exhibition of "Treasures of the National Széchényi Library".The "treasures" in the title refer to the fact that our library's collections include items of inestimable value making it a veritable treasure house. The oldest manuscripts and the earliest printed books in particular include many priceless items for which librarians use the term cimelia (sing, cimelium).Cimelia comes from the Greek word keimélion meaning anything stored up as a valuable. The word is used, especially in German (Zimelie) for the finest items in libraries and church treasuries, of antique and mediaeval origin, decorated with gold, silver, precious stones or ivory. Cimeliarch is used to designate the place where such treasures are kept.In library usage, the cimelium is close both to the book that is beautiful in the bibliophilic sense and to the book of exceptional source value. Apart from its antiquity, the cimelium owes its value either to the artistic execution or its historical significance. In the ideal case, the aesthetic and historical values together make the object a cimelium. The exceptionally richly illustrated Picture Chronicle, for example, which is at the same time one of the earliest works of Hungarian history, can deservedly be regarded as one of the greatest treasures in our collection of cimelia.However, the artistic element often predominates to such an extent over the historical that the cimelium becomes more an art object than a book. In such cases the cimelium can be regarded as a book object. An example is the Philostratus Corvina where the text becomes almost of secondary importance beside the aesthetic effect of the gilded double title page. Many richly illuminated manuscripts and incunabula with decorative sheets, ornamented borders, initials, miniatures and splendid bindings also belong in this category.In other cases, the historical element is so much stronger than the artistic that the text alone makes an undecorated book a cimelium. Items which are of importance from the textual point of view have only a plain appearance compared to