Hoppál Péter

The Gradual of Szabéd
Péter Hoppál

There are twenty-five hand-written protestant graduals containing medieval Gregorian ceremonial chants translated into Hungarian know to date, six of which were used by the Unitarians of Transylvania. The previously unknown gradual with a slightly imperfect front and back cover comprising 31 folios that has been discovered recently int he small Rumanian village of Szabéd (©abed) in county Maros (Mureº) is considered special for several reasons. Under one of the hymns of the manuscript there is an inscription written by an unknown hand with a date from 1632 in it, which suggests that this is the oldest Unitarian gradual. The most substantial of the fifty-six titles the book contains are the compiled passion and the oratio (prayers) and the lamentation (laments) of Jeremiah. They are followed by a Te Deum reworded to reflect Unitarian dogmatic principles and – in line with the scheme of the ecclesiastical year – 23 responsories, 21 prose psalms, 6 hymns, 1 Benedictus and 1 Magnificat. The cursive Hungarian scoring of medieval origins uses no keys and is fairly legible but is incomplete at places. The gradual of Szabéd is all the more special because twelve of its fifthy-sixtitles contain responsories that do not appear in any other source. Unitarian graduals can be documented up to the 19th century-a study planned for the near future may even chalk out an isolated, independent tradition of late Hungarian Gregorian chant.