Mennyei Korona (Heavenly Crown): On the Miraculous Images of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Mennyei korona az az az egész világon lévö csudálatos Boldogságos Szűz kepeinek rövideden föl tett eredeti
A verified public-domain excerpt for this text is still being set. The folio is catalogued and linked below; an original Sub Rosa rendering will follow.
What it is
Published by Prince Pál Esterházy in Nagyszombat in 1696 (RMK I 1496), this 812-page work catalogues and meditates on 1,300 miraculous images of the Blessed Virgin Mary from across the world, following the Jesuit Atlas Marianus tradition of Wilhelm Gumppenberg. Esterházy compiled legendary, oral, and historical accounts, accompanied by 116 copper-engraved illustrations in the first edition. As Hungary's Palatine, Esterházy fused his political and devotional roles, using this encyclopaedic Marian atlas to consolidate Catholic identity in the kingdom after the Ottoman expulsion.
Why it still matters
As a treasury of Marian apparitions and shrine histories still venerated today — including many Central European pilgrimage sites — this atlas remains a reference for Marian devotees tracing the history of specific images.
Kept alongside
Az Boldogságos Szűz Mária Szombatja (Saturdays of the Blessed Virgin Mary)
Az boldogságos Szüz Maria szombattya az-az minden szombat napokra valo aetatossagok
Written and published by Pál Esterházy, Prince Palatine of Hungary, in Nagyszombat (Trnava) in 1691, this devotional work provides meditations, prayers, and devotional exercises for every Saturday of the year — all 52 Saturdays — focused on the seven aspects of the Blessed Virgin Mary and her role in salvation history. It reflects the princely Esterházy household's intense baroque Marian piety, which was expressed through chapel foundations, commissioning of Marian art, and personal authorship of devotional texts. A revised edition appeared in 1702 with a new title page.
Kempis Tamásnak Krisztus Követéséről Négy Könyvei (The Imitation of Christ in Hungarian)
Kempis Tamasnak Christus koeveteseruel négy koenyvei
Pázmány's masterly Hungarian translation of Thomas à Kempis's De imitatione Christi, published in Vienna in 1624 by the printing house of Matthaeus Formicaeus. Pázmány valued both exactness of meaning and elegant vernacular style, producing what scholars regard as a landmark of early Hungarian prose. The translation was among the devotional works that directly supported the conversion and formation of Hungarian noble families — Pázmány's translation of Kempis alongside his sermons is credited with bringing some thirty noble families back to the Catholic Church. The Esterházy household, converted through Pázmány's direct ministry, almost certainly used this text for formation of their children.
Keresztyéni Imádságos Könyv (Christian Prayer Book)
Keresztyéni imádságos könyv
Published in Graz in 1606, this is the first major Catholic prayer book written in Hungarian, composed by Pázmány while teaching theology at the Jesuit college in Graz. Organised in ten chapters, it contains meditative expansions of the Lord's Prayer and Hail Mary, the seven penitential psalms, prayers for every hour and occasion, and explanations of church ceremonies. It went through 27 editions between 1606 and 1885, making it the most widely read Hungarian-language devotional text after the Bible. Count Miklós Esterházy — directly converted to Catholicism by Pázmány — and the broader Esterházy household embraced Pázmány's devotional writings as a pillar of their re-Catholicised family piety.