The National Széchényi Library [antikvár]

NATIONAL SZÉCHÉNYI LIBRARY: HISTORY AND SCOPE The National Library of Hungary was founded in 1802. It owed its establishment to a Hungárián aristocrat of high patriotic feelings, Count Ferenc Széchényi, and its existence during a long period of time was due to the generosity of the progressiveminded members of Hungárián society. The comparatively late date of the establishment of the Library has its particular historical reasons. As a matter of fact, intellectual life in Hungrary attained a high stage of development calling for the establishment of a representative national book collection much earlier than at the turn of the i8th and igth centuries. In Hungary writing and collecting books have a very long history going back as far as the nth century. An organic continuation of the mediaeval book culture of the monasteries and royal chancelleries was, in the middle of the i5th century, the world-famous library of King Matthias (1458-1490), the Bibliotheca Corviniana, and beside it several other rich book collections of dignitaries of the church (János Vitéz, Janus Pannonius, Domokos Kálmáncsehi, Orbán Dóczy de Nagylucse, Péter Váradi), competing with the kings. The fact that the establishment of our first royal library was preceded by a long cultural development is proved alsó by the magnificent treasure of our library, the Picture Chronicle written in the court of King Louis I the Great (1342-1382). Beside of the codices the foundation of the first Hungárián universities in Pécs (1367) , in Óbuda (1389) and in Pozsony (today Bratislava in Czechoslovakia) (1467) as well as the earliest Hungárián printing shop opened by the royal court (printer of the Chronicle of Buda in 1473) refer to a flourishing mediaeval culture in Hungary. This court culture, which could have förmed the basis for the establishment of a national library and a national museum, was, however, destroyed by the invasions of the Turks after 1526, and by the negligence of the Habsburgs, who came to occupy the throne of Hungary. From that time for nearly 400 years the maintenance and the promotion of culture was the task of society. It was due to the towns, to the Churches, and to their respective aristocratic and noble benefactors, that during the centuries of the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation-connected with the spread of school-education-a network of scholarly and school libraries was established. The most outstanding of these were at Nagyszombat (today Trnava, Czechoslovakia; this is the predecessor of the University Library of Budapest and was established by the Catholics) and at Debrecen, Sárospatak, Kolozsvár (today Napoca, Rumania) and Nagyenyed (today Aiud, Rumania), founded by the Protestants. At the end of the i8th century after an evolution of three centuries, time was ripe enough for the collection and preservation of the intellectual values of the country. This step was taken by a prominent aristocrat, in the spirit of enlightenment, in accordance with the wishes of the progressiveminded circles of Hungárián society. Ferenc Széchényi (1754-1820) searched in the whole country for old booktreasures, and with an enormous financial generosity, he united them into an organic collection and put them to public use.