Vig Károly: Zoological Research in Western Hungary. A history (Szombathely, 2003)

Historical survey 15 Hungary came from Western sources has been altered considerably by more recent research findings.

22 The centre of Catholic scholarship in the western parts of Hungary that were not under Ottoman rule was Nagyszombat (Trnava), where a scientifically minded primate, Cardinal PÉTER PÁZMÁNY (1570-1637), established in 1635 a university that was the forerunner of today's Loránd Eötvös University of Sciences in Budapest. Meanwhile in the eastern parts of the country, the predominance of Protestantism remained in the 17th century. Good examples are the influence of JOHANNES COMENIUS AMOS (1592-1670) and Sárospatak College

23 and the work of JÁNOS APÁCZAI CSERE (1625-1659) at Kolozsvár (Cluj) College. THE SPREAD OF ZOOLOGICAL RESEARCH AFTER THE TURKISH PERIOD The first published entomological work by a Hungarian author was Disputatio Physica de Insectis, by ANDRÁS REGÉCZI HORVÁTH (dates unknown), which appeared in 1637.

24 Then in 1702 came a work in Hungarian

25 by GÁSPÁR MISKOLCZI (1628-1696).

26 Later, JÁNOS MOLNÁR (1728-1

804)

27 and ISTVÁN GÁTI (17491843) also published natural histories in Hungarian.

28 However, natural history 22 See SZABÓ 1979, 1992, 1994 and 1995. 23 RÉVÉSZ, I. 1948. Társadalmi és politikai eszmék a magyar puritanizmusban (Social and Political Ideas in Hungarian Puritanism). Budapest. 24 TÓTH, L. 1938. 300 éves az első magyar tudományos rovartani munka (First Hungarian work of scientific entomology is 300 years old). Természettudományi Közlöny, Pótfüzetek 70:34-6; SZÉKESSY, V. 1939. Horváth András az első magyar entomológus élete és munkája (Life and work of AH, the first Hungarian entomologist). Mathematikai és Természettudományi Értesítő 58:755-70. 25 MISKOLCZI, G. 1702. Egy Jeles Vad-Kert, Avagy az oktalan állatoknak öt könyvekbe foglaltatott tellyes históriája (An excellent game park. Or: The Full History of Brute Animals in Five Books). Lőcse (Levoca). Further editions appeared in 1767 and 1983 (Budapest: Magvető Kiadó), the latter with an afterword by JÁNOS STIRLING. However, MISKOLCZI'S book, completed in August 1691 but only published eleven years later, was actually a translation of História Animalium Sacra by the German Lutheran theologian WOLFGANG FRANTZE (FRANZIUS FARKAS), with considerable added information and observations. 26 ALLODIATORIS, I. 1961. Miskolczi Gáspár. Élővilág, 1961(4):55-8. 27 MOLNÁR, J. 1783. A természet három országának rövid ismertetése, kezdet gyanánt (Short Account of Nature in Three Lands, as a Beginning). Magyar Könyv Háza 1:175-232. MOLNÁR, incidentally, coined the Hungarian words állat (animal), növőtény (növény—plant) and ásvány (mineral), introducing them as technical terms in natural history. He had previously written Physiologicon Complexum Históriáé Naturalis Régna, 78 pp., 1780. Budae (Buda). 28 GÁTI, 1.1792. Természet históriája (History of Nature). N. p.; GÁTI, 1.1795. A természet históriája, mellyben az ásványoknak, plántáknak és az állatoknak három világát azoknak meg-esmértető bélyegeivel, természetekkel, hasznokkal, hazájokkal, rendbeszedve és a gyenge elméhez alkalmaztatva, mind egygyütt magyar nyelven botsátja-ki (History of Nature, in which are the Three Realms of Minerals, Plants and Animals, with their Distinguishing Marks, Natures, Uses, Homes, Ordered and Adjusted to Weak Minds, all Offered in the Hungarian Language). 309 pp. Pozsony: Wéber S. (Another edition appeared there in 1798, 300 pp.)