Zoltán József: Budapest történetének bibliográfiája 1. Általános rész - A legrégibb időktől 1686-ig (Budapest, 1967)

ELŐSZÓ - PREFACE

PREFACE The section Budapest Collection of the Municipal Library (henceforth abbreviated Budapest Collection) tried since several decades to collect the literature about the capital, and diverse publications, uncompleted repertories, unrealized plans bear the marks of this. The arranging of a bibliography on a larger scale could commence only in 1954, when the Council of the Capital entrusted the Budapest Collection with this task. The operations were directed by József Zoltán, who was the leader of the Budapest Collection till the spring of 1963 when he died suddenly. With his varied, indefatigable working he rendered imperishable services. Local history research animates more and more inquirers, especially in the capital, where one fifth of the population of the country is living. The two, properly three sister cities were in close connection from the beginning of the Middle Ages with the most important, the significantest events of the history of the country. In their development and adversities the fate of the country, of the whole Hungarian people is more reflected than in those of any other city. This rich past attracted worthily attention of researchers and writers, and there accumulated during the development of the capital in several centuries large quantities of literature concerning it. The richness of the material necessitates its collecting and systemizing in a lucidly arranged way. With this bibliography we wish to help not only the researchers' work, but also that of all those who show interest in whatever question of detail of the capital's past. It takes in consideration the foreign interest too. The effort to meet the manifold claims justifies the unusually great extent. Its antecedents were: Antal Bodor's often criticized but very useful local bibliography, assortments of local history literature issued on the pages of large monographs or as independent volumes, the only published I. volume of Aladár Ballagi's work: Buda and Pest in the world literature 1473 —1711, (which remained unfortunately incomplete) running till 1600, and the earlier publications of the Ervin Szabó Municipal Library

; the literature of Aquincum and of the baths and public bath matters of Budapest, the contemporary literature of Buda's recapture in 1686, or the bibliographies concerning the part the city played in the revolution and war of independence in 1848—1849. Similarly much used bibliographies are Budapest in the time of the Soviet Republic, Labour movement of Budapest 1919 —1945, and The socialist development of Budapest 1945—1959. We may also refer to foreign examples, to the continously published current bibliography of the Stadtbibliothek (City Library) of Berlin, capital of the German Democratic Republic, and to the (Vienna-) bibliography of Gustav Gugitz, which was published in several volumes. In its extent and with regard to its purposes the latter is mostly corresponding to our ideas, but its collecting of materials, the order of publication and its other characteristics served in many cases only as a negative warning. The Viennabibliography called our attention to the fact that for such a large-scale and far reaching work the efforts of a single person are insufficient. This can only be solved by a duly guided team. We produced a bibliography of local history, up to the creation of Greater Budapest in 1950, which gives the literature concerning the city, but we give neither the history of the development since 1950 nor the biographies of the notable persons of Budapest, respectively the literature about their activities. (We wish to publish these latters in a bio-bibliography.) The occurring material was so large that its cataloguing (treatment) with the claim to completeness would have made our work infinitely long, boundless in mass and confused. Our programme was to collect within a set scope all important things and to give material for all questions. Concerning the extent of the catalogued material and the methods of cataloguing József Zoltán explained in two articles his ideas. (See Zoltán József: Plan of the bibliography of the history of Budapest. —