Between School Exercise and Self-Representation: Student Authorship and Identities in a Graduation Anthology of the 1636/37 Poetica Class at the Jesuit Gymnasium of Trnava

Abstract

This paper investigates the authorship, social status, and national identities within the Parnassus Bimons, a 1637 Neo-Latin graduation anthology published by the poetica class of the Jesuit Gymnasium (i.e., grammar school) of Trnava. The volume celebrates the graduation of the first bachelors of the University of Trnava, while also commemorating the passing of the university’s founder, Archbishop Péter Pázmány, and the beginning of the imperial reign of Ferdinand III.

The study argues that the texts were the product of a collaborative writing process supervised by teachers and served both as a platform for the self-representation of the institution and its students. Furthermore, the paper contrasts the makeup of the 1636/37 poetica class with the identities of the volume’s sixteen authors, specifically regarding the natio and the social status of the students as recorded in the matriculation register.

An analysis of matriculation records reveals a highly multiethnic class with roughly equal proportions of Ungarus and Slavic students. However, as the examination of the data shows, the selection of students to contribute to the volume was probably not based entirely on the excellence of their texts; rather, it disproportionately favored students of the Ungara and Germana natio, alongside those of high social status.