Absztrakt

This study examines a thus far hardly researched aspect of Hungarian book culture: the pre-1848 history of the libraries of village schools and private libraries of teachers. Important details about these libraries are presented through the examination of the visitation reports, inventories and other sources found in the Archive of the Transdanubian Diocese of the Protestant Church, which prove that teachers did indeed possess libraries of varying size in the 1820s and 1830s. The study distinguishes three types of teacher’s private libraries. The lowest category is the teacher’s reference library, which consisted of a dozen or two books specifically on teaching. A little more extensive is the teacher’s personal library, consisting of 25-50 volumes, mostly volumes of history, philosophy, classics and modern literary texts in addition to the pedagogical literature. Finally, an intellectual’s personal library consists of 50-100 volumes, which reflect the interests of the collector. These often contain sixteenth- and seventeenth-century books handed down through generations in the family. The majority of books published in Western Europe were brought to Hungary by students of theology studying abroad. The Enlightenment transformed the linguistic composition of the libraries: Latin, Greek and Hebrew books lost their dominance and their place was taken over by publications in modern European languages: French, German and, most importantly, Hungarian.