Bonum ut Pulchrum

“The idea for this book took shape several years ago, and not without knowing that Ernő Marosi – member and former vice-president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, former head of the Academy’s Research Institute for Art History and professor at Eötvös Loránd University-did not wish a Festchrift in his honour. In fact, we have acted against his wishes by expressing, in a potentially lasting form, our respect, admiration and affection for him as an outstanding member of our profession.

The Latin title of the book refers to the medieval interpretation of the rela­tionship between the good and the beautiful, and so to Ernő Marosi’s inquiries into art history and theory. It derives from a sentence by St Thomas Aquinas, quoting Pseudo-Dionysius: “... bonum laudatur ut pulchrum” (Summa theologiae I q. 5 a. 4 arg. 1). The choice was guided by the significance of the 13th-century philosopher’s work, which summed up major currents of medieval thinking, and by the realisation that “aesthetic” characteristics of perceptible qualities are essen­tially inseparable from the abstract concept of “good”.

Before the first three introductory studies, Ernő Marosi’s substantial and so far complete bibliography has been published in the volume. The introductory stud­ies cover various aspects of Professor Marosi’s work. The rest deal with the prod­ucts and problems of medieval art (from the 9th to the first half of the 16th cen­tury), one of his principal areas of interest. Most of the authors are Ernő Marosi’s former students, colleagues and friends. Here we remember that Sándor Tóth, his contemporary and university colleague, despite being one of the first to accept, was prevented from meeting our request. Professor Tóth proposed to elaborate on a paper he delivered in 2003 about the making of the Hungarian coronation man­tle. That paper was a laudation, presented at a ceremony held in the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, where Professor Marosi’s own study of the mantle received the Opus Mirabile award. Sándor Tóth’s talk was concerned with a gold-embroi­dered chasuble, part of a prelate’s vestment completed in 1031 and bearing an in­scription that shows it to have been made for the Provostal Church of the Virgin Mary in Székesfehérvár. It was commissioned by the royal couple most likely for the coronation ceremony planned for that year. “