Cséfalvay Pál - Ugrin Emese (szerk.): Ipolyi Arnold emlékkönyv (1986)
Summary
SUMMARY On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Arnold IPOLYI’s death (1823-1886) the Christian Museum of Esztergom held a commemorative meeting. Ipolyi was a great personality of the 19th century in Hungary. He spent his career within the Church: at first he served as curate, than as house-chaplain educating children of count families, as village parish priest, as canon in the diocese of Eger, as bishop first of Besztercebánya, later of Nagyvárad. He published works in numerous fields of science in Hungarian language and had a lion’s share in organizing the Hungarian Association for History. He did a gigantic work in the field of the protection of ancient monuments, of the history of Hungarian art and of the auxiliary sciences of history: diplomatics, sigillography, mythology, geneology. At the same time he was one of the most important art collectors: the bigger part of his collection became the property of the Christian Museum of Esztergom. We publish now this volume after we had collect the material of the commemorative meeting held on the 12th December 1986, with the reproductions of the most precious works of his collection. The studies were complied by outstanding experts in this field. Dr. János FABIAN, canon and vicar of the diocese Esztergom presents Ipolyi as scientific prelate. In the formation of his intellectual career played an important role his father, Ferenc Stummer, county employee, lower noble and his high-born mother Arzénia Szmrecsányi Asignificant influence exerced on him in Viena the Pazmaneum Institute with his intensive Hungarian mentality and his educational activity in the Mednyánszki and Pálffy families. His parish work in the Slovak village Zohor and his episcopal activity in Besztercebánya, inhabited mostly by Slovak people, prove his real human attitude in the problems of national minorities. Ferenc ROTTLER, university lecturer, general secretary of the TIT (Association for the Popularisation of Sciences) describes the historical theory of Ipolyi. He points out that Ipolyi was one of the outstanding personalities of the bourgeois historiography who had directive ideas in the history of civilization and in the relationship between the Hungarians and the national minorities. Dr. József TÖRÖK, head of the ecclesiastical history section on the Budapest Pázmány Theological Academy carried out a basic work describing Ipolyi’s sources in the field of ecclesiastical history. He didn’t separate Patria and Ecclesia. Dr. Andor GUTHY the chairman of the Szent István Társulat (St. Stephan Association) made known the activity of Ipolyi as excellent chairman of this Association in the past. He was, who organized the compilation of the scientific catholic source-material and also the edition of schoolbooks. Mihály HOPPAL ethnographical collaborator of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences determined the place and the value in the history of the Hungary civilization of Ipolyi’s first mainwork, the „Hungarian Mythology”. He was the founder of the study of the comparative mythology and his work became indispensable source for the present and future folklorist researchers. Agnes KOVÁCS, the sometime collaborator at the Ethographic Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences is treating Ipolyi’s collection of folk-tales wich can be considered as a special field of mythological researches. Dr. Géza ENTZ, art historian, former director of the Institute for the Protection of Historic Monuments (Országos Műemléki Felügyelőség) presents Ipolyi as the first art historian, as the scientist who made effort to instituting the protection of historic monuments. He didn’t only stimulate the scientific elaboration of the historical Hungarian relics, but he also wrote the 234
