Mille anni di storia dell'Arciabbazia di Pannonhalma ed. by József Pál and Ádám Somorjai (review)

BOOK REVIEWS265 thor, but it is rewarding in giving one a comprehensive and continual narrative of the story of Western monasticism from the time of Benedict until the present . One can only hope that it will stimulate some contemporary monastic historians to produce a comparable study in English. Joel Rippinger, O.S.B. Marmion Abbey Aurora, Illinois Mille anni di storia dell'Arciabbazia di Pannonhalma. Edited by József Pal and Ádám Somorjai. (Rome and Pannonhalma: Accademia d'Ungheria in Roma and METEM. 1997. Pp. 233.) Since 1989 a growing number of Hungarian scholars have turned their attention to church history. The International Society for the Encyclopedia of Hungarian Church History (METEM) and the Archabbey of Pannonhalma have played an important role in the publication of a number of recent monographs on church history. The volume at hand was published to commemorate the Archabbey of Pannonhalma's millennium. Following the introduction, written by the Pope and the Archabbot, the essays are grouped in five sections. The first section deals with the history of the origins of the Archabbey, with special attention given to the missionary activities of St. Adalbert (Vojtech) (956?-997). These essays are based entirely on secondary sources by authors who are admittedly not specialists on the topic. The second section of the book consists of a series of essays on early extant documents found in the archives of the Archabbey. Three essays deserve mention : GáborThoroczkay's is a detailed historiographical essay about the diploma of King (saint) Stephen (1000-1038). It describes the controversies played out in the analysis of this fundamental document to the Archabbey's early history. László Veszprémy's essay is a study of the earliest extant (eleventh-century) inventory of the Archabbey's library,written between 1093 and 1095. Veszprémy shows that Pannonhalma, in contrast to contemporaneous European monasteries ,had a rather modest library. Edit Madas's is an essay about references to Saint Benedict in the sermons and legends of medieval Hungary. The author analyzes a number of hitherto unpublished sermons from the archives of the Archabbey. The third section consists of articles about the relationship between Italian and Hungarian Benedictines. The essay by Géza Mihályi is a memoir in which he sketches the foundation of the Liceum Dante Alighieri, which operated in the Archabbey between 1939 and 1948. The essay is based entirely on personal recollections (no sources cited), and leaves many topics unexplored. The fourth section consists of essays in praise of one of the monks, Geliert Békes, who contributes to this volume. Father Békes was the publisher of Vigi- 266book reviews lia, a periodical publication that played an important role in the community of Hungarian expatriates in the postwar years. These essays seem out of place in this volume. The fifth section contains an essay on the architecture of the monastery. Unfortunately , this essay suffers from its superficiality. The appendix contains good-quality photographs of some of the charters addressed in this volume and details of some parts of the monastic complex. The exact purpose of this volume remains nebulous to the reviewer. It is not a collection of scholarly works, though it contains some. It is not a collection of personal reminiscences. It is not a coffee-table book, despite the nice photographs and the glossy paper. The uneven caliber of the essays does little justice to the thousand-year history of the Archabbey of Pannonhalma. PONGRÁCZ SeNNYEY Bradley University Spazi efigure lungo la storia dei Servi di santa Maria (secoli XIII-XX). By Franco Andrea Dal Pino. [Italia Sacra: Studi e documenti di storia ecclesiastica , Vol. 55.] (Rome: Herder Editrice e Librería. 1997. Pp. xxx, 760. Lire 188.000.) Franco Andrea Dal Pino's historical research and publications on the Servite Order have extended over fifty years, making him the dominant Servite historian of the last half of this century. This volume, published in the Herder's "Italia Sacra" series, collects twenty-one of his more important writings on the history of the Servite Order. He first lists the twenty-one articles, indicating where they were first published, and he notes if any changes have been...