The Essential Marosi: a Review of His Collected Essays

Abstract

The publication to be presented here is highly significant in itself; nevertheless, it is relevant in another sense: the author, Ernő Marosi, aged 81, died a few months ago. Professor Marosi (18.04.1940 – 09.07.2021) was unquestionably the most significant Hungarian art historian of the last half century, and one of the most prominent medievalists. He graduated from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest in art history and literature and started to teach there at the Department of Art History in 1963. A professor from 1991, he educated generations of art historians—practically almost all the present-day Hungarian art historians are his former students. He was invited in 1974 to the Institute for Art History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, where he acted first as vice-head and later director (1991–2000). In 1993 he was elected corresponding member of the Academy, and in 2001 he received full membership. He acted as vice president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences between 2002 and 2008. He also participated in the foundation and work of the Medieval Studies Department of Central European University with his advice, lectures, and seminars. He gave the last public lecture at the department on the Budapest campus of CEU just before teaching went online in early 2020 (this paper was published in HSCE 1, no. 1, pp. 3–27). But beside all his positions and prizes, he was an excellent scholar. As a medievalist, he switched easily between philology and philosophy, but primarily he was an art historian. The present publication is a summary of his oeuvre. When Professor Marosi was 70, he was honored by a Festschrift.1 Thus, the approaching anniversary of his eightieth birthday needed to be celebrated in a