Ave Tyrnavia!

History has referred to Trnava (Nagyszombat) as „Little Rome” with all the reason, as it once was the border fortress of Hungarian Catholicism where the Hungarian language was chiseled by the intellectual effervescence of the contemporary theological debates, and where also the term obecná slovenčina (common Slovaks) first appeared. Its university founded in 1635 contributed greatly to the conservation of the culture and unity of the dismembered country, mostly by the publications of its printing presses after 1648, especially the Jesuit academic workshop, a result of the efforts of Péter Pázmány.

The university and its printing press became the intellectual center of Catholic culture ready to use the national languages, keeping the tradition of the order, protecting the cult of  Virgin Mary and the local saints, and praising the ancestral legal system of the nation and its historical past, with special regard to hungarus patriotism.

In spite of the fact that the printing press of the Jesuit order was not explicitly meant to serve the education of the ethnic nations (as the clergy, the aristocracy and the well-off nobility all used Latin), the works of the Trnava typography clearly reflected its relations to the highlands until the relocation of the university to Buda. Especially from 1712, books in Slovak were published in significant numbers together with books in Hungarian. It was only in the Buda period when the volume of publications in German exceeded the ones in Hungarian and Slovak. During the 18^th century, the books were sold by commission agents in Banská Bystrica (Besztercebánya), Prešov (Eperjes), Esztergom, Győr, Košice (Kassa), Komarno (Komárom), Levoča (Lőcse), Pécs, Bratislava (Pozsony), Rožňava (Rozsnyó), Banská Štiavnica (Selmecbánya), Sopron, Skalica (Szakolca) and Trenčín (Trencsén). Distribution expanded as far as Oradea (Nagyvárad) in the east, and Osijek (Eszék) in the south, but there were commission agents also in Vienna, Prague and Graz.

The Jesuit University and its printing press saw the first signs of change at the end of the fifties of the 18^th century. The question of relocation to Buda was first raised in a 1769 reform project, and realized in 1777.

Ave TYRNAVIA! After celebrating the 375th anniversary of the foundation of the university, we now pay tribute to the town and the 365th anniversary of the typography set up in 1648. We explore the intellectual treasure accumulated during the centuries in Trnava with the tools of the science of bibliography. The present work is the result of the cooperation between renowned participants of the current Hungarian and Slovak academic scene: National Széchényi Library, Trnava University, Esztergom Theological College and Saint Adalbert Foundation for Central and Eastern European Studies. The project was supported by the present Archdiocese of Esztergom.