Dénesi Tamás (szerk.): Collectanea Sancti Martini - A Pannonhalmi Főapátság Gyűjteményeinek Értesítője 3. (Pannonhalma, 2015)
I.Tanulmányok
84 SZENDE LÁSZLÓ, RÓMER FLÓRIS TUDOMÁNYOS MUNKÁSSÁGA László Szende The Scholarly Activity of Flóris Rómer in the Department of Coins and Antiquities of the Hungarian National Museum The scholarly activity of the excellent Hungarian archaeologist, Flóris Rómer is connected to the Hungarian National Museum in many ways. The present paper primarily examines the period when he was a member of the institution’s staff as the custodian of the Department of Coins and Antiquities Rómer became the head of the department on 1 July 1869, his appointment was initiated by Ferenc Pulszky, Director-General having been appointed in February 1869. This decision was in favour of the collections beyond doubt. Rómer knew the Museum thoroughly: he was a member of the committee of the institution’s reformation, on the one hand, and he frequented the institution as a researcher, on the other hand. He was also recommended by the fact that he was one of those who took part in selecting the objects for exhibition in the Paris Expo of 1867, and his role in public life was significant as a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Rómer had to face many challenges. Although his predecessor, János Érdy was an expert but he was engaged by many administrative tasks during the years of absolutism. The appropriate way of exhibiting the Roman stone monuments appeared as a serious problem whose solution was regarded a personal issue by Rómer. Rómer started his new work energetically, he regularly promoted fundraising in the Archaeological Gazette , and published detailed reports about the common events of the Department of Coins and Antiquities. He surveyed the countryside with keen eyes, and acquired many important relics of the past in the Carpathian Basin. He entered the acquired objects studiously in an inventory, then praised the scholarly significance of these items in publications. One of his most important merits is represented by his picture-guide of the Department of Coins and Antiquities, and the other one is that he reorganised the exhibitions and show cases due to the great number of new acquisitions. When Rómer started working in the Museum, the collections belonging to him came to the front of international research. The most significant event from the point of view of Hungarian archaeology and that of the National Museum was the 8th International Congress of Prehistoric Archaeology and Anthropology in Budapest in 1876, in whose success he took an active part, and the programme also included a large-scale exhibition displaying Hungarian items, as well. “One thing remains certain that after the congress Hungary is not unknown any more for the specialists in prehistoric archaeology” – announced a contemporary weekly. Rómer handed over the Department of Coins and Antiquities to József Hampel, a former student and colleague of his on 27 November 1877. He moved to Nagyvárad, where he was primarily concerned with the distant past and monuments of Bihar. Rómer died in 1889, and the Hungarian National Museum erected a stele to his memory in the Museum Gardens.
