Imagine și text în opera lui Pál Baranyi

In the Romanian scholarship, Pál Baranyi (1657–1719) is known as one of the most important personalities of the religious union of the Romanians from Transylvania. His literary activity was much less studied, although his manuscripts and edited works are closely connected to the Jesuit mission in Transylvania. This devotional, religious literature used consciously the force of image. This study presents the modalities of using image and text as devices of mission, persuasion and spiritual strengthening. The most representative book analysed in this paper is the Viaticum spirituale (1695), which has 23 gravures and offers an interesting way to understand text and image together. Another book of great importance for the subject is the Imago vitae et mortis. Életnek és halálnak képe (1712 – I, 1719 – II). Although the book comprises no image, the text appeals to the imagination, constructs images with the power of words. This study intends to be a brief overview of Baranyi’s works too – including usuality, policy and devotion in Transylvania during the 17th and 18th centuries.