Berza László: Budapest története képekben 1493-1980 - Képkatalógus 1. kötet (1-31978. tétel, 1982)

ELŐSZÓ

PREFACE Budapest is one of the oldest settlements and at the same time one of the youngest capitals of Europe, hardly more than 100 years old. Its fate, after it became the capital, intertwined with the history of the country, not alone as its participant, but also as its determinant. In this role the rich and multicoloured past history of Budapest was followed up with a distinctive attention. People had always a live claim to learn the past of their residence. The historiography of the capital has had also initiators in every age. We know family-, or church chronicles from as far back as the Middle Ages, which guarded single fragments of the past of our capital for us. But the historiography of the town rose really high only after the unification of Buda, Pest and Óbuda. At the end of the 19. century Salamon Ferenc started to write the first work in this field with the claim of completion. This work remained a fragment, yet it was of a great importance, as it stimulated the researchers of the town's history to further work. More or less successful historical works of the town were published since, but a survey summarizing the complete history of the settlement during the millenia did not come to light. All the earlier town-historical writings and studies prove that single researchers, solitary scientists were unable to reveal alone the past of the town with an approximate completion. This circumstance and the ever increasing interest of the inhabitants of the capital in the history of Budapest, along with the increasing scientific and societal claims concerning the local history induced the Council of the Capital after the liberation to enlarge the conditions of the work carried on in the Public Collections of the capital significantly, by strengthening the Historical Museum of Budapest, the Archive of the capital and the Budapest Collection of the Szabó Ervin Library of the Capital to develop efficient workshops for the research of the town's history in them. This assistance gave the research new impetus. As a result of the planned work carried out during decades with an appropriate apparatus and a high scientific erudition nearly every chapter of the history of Budapest has been rewritten. This is proved by the recently published volumes of the "Antiquities of Budapest" and the series entitled "Studied on the past of Budapest", the numerous monographs dealing with various epochs and partial fields of the town's history, the multiple studies written on the results of the museal excavations and the research work, the publication of the archival sources and text collections, or the source-revealing activities of the Budapest Collection, among others the 7-volume "Bibliography of the History of Budapest", published in the years 1967-1974. As a natural continuation of the well harmonized research work the partial studies matured to a synthesis and in 1973 tha first and in these days the fifth volume of the scientific monograph entitled "The History of Budapest" could be published. The whole work becomes complete for the first time in our days in the course of the historiography of the town, giving a survey from ancient times to our days. The work performed in the public collection served not alone for meeting the scientific claims more completely, but it stimulated also numerous local initiations, rooted in the growing interest of the capital's population in local history. The enlivened interest in the history of the individual districts of the town resulted in the broadening of the movement "learning to know the homeland". This process increased the social significance of both the movement and the town-historical research, promoted the adaptation of the young age groups and the new arrivals to the town from the country, their commitment to the town, widening the active local patriotism. The local historical collection and research work has been going on for decades in Budapest. A whole series of works, which are of importance both scientifically and for the cultural education of the public were prepared in the quietly labouring workshops. A study, a monograph, a data store is created as a result of tenacious work of years and frequently of decades. The Council of the Capitals city Budapest has always sponsored - and so does it now - this work, performed with an assiduous zeal and great scientific care, among others the presently published picture catalogue entitled "The History of Budapest in Pictures". It is known that the pictorial presentations are documents of a source-value for the historians nearly as much, as the textual sources. The interest in the picture presentations of both the scientific and the pudlic educational circles is very great. This is why we regard the catalogue of the provenance of the picture material of nearly half a millenium since the first illustration of Buda as important. By its publication the town-historiography, science in general is enriched by a hardly overestimable, unprecedented store of instruments. The publication of the provenance of the pictures is of a special importance, because it creates, as an organical unit with the "Bibliography of the History of Budapest", published earlier in 7 volumes, an information base, which makes accessible for the research nearly every moment of the town's history and assists the increasingle complete knowledge of it past centuries and its present. Additional data bases are also being prepared in the Budapest Collection, e.g. catalogue of biographies and portraits of noted personalities connected with the town, or the bibliography entitled "Budapest in the