Gergely Pál: Pápai Páriz-album a Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Könyvtárában (A MTAK kiadványai 21. Budapest, 1961)

The Pápai Páriz All)unh in the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences One of the unique items of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences is the Transylvanian Pápai Páriz family's album, dating from the beginning of the 18th century and including, among other entries, the Latin lines written by Newton and Halley as well as their signatures. This bulky little book by in leather binding was bought by the Manuscript Department of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1881, but up to the present nobody has thought of reviewing it. On its cover there is the exlibris of the former owner Sámuel F á y, Senator of Debrecen, himself a 'peregrinus Hungaricus' who had made a tour of Western Europe in his day. It was Ferenc, Pápai P áriz. Junior who had travelled all over the world with the coloured album in embossed leather binding. His father, the medical scholar, who was more famous than he, had attended the Swiss and German universities in the 1680's, then, as the family doctor of Mihály Apafii, Prince of Transylvania, had been an envoy to the Danish and Dutch courts and to Switzerland. Several of his medical, philosophical, and theological works were published abroad, it was P á p a i P á r i z, Senior who brought home the famous printer, Misztótfalusi Kis, from the Netherlands. It was with the help of the Prince that he embarked on his artistic typographical work at Kolozsvár. Pápai Páriz, Senior sent his son, who was also a doctor (he had two more brothers), to West European colleges for several years, giving him special instructions to collect money for the reconstruction of the ancient College of Nagyenyed (Transylvania) which bad been sot on fire during the War of Independence led by Rákóczi. Through his son he sent his English acquaintances several copies of his great Latin-Hungarian dict ionary, just then published at Lőcse. Collections in English churches through several years resulted in £ 10.000 with the help of which the College of Nagyenyed was rebuilt. In about the one third of Pápai Páriz, Junior's travel-album comprising 477 pages wo find entries dating from 1711—1726, i.e. about the period of his numerous journeys abroad. Among the entries are those of thirty-three Hungarians who were living and studying abroad at that time, through which the album furnishes important particulars for Hungarian cultural history. The series of entries is opened by Prince Apafi II, who resided in Vienna and his secretary, Mihály B a 1 k 11, moreover Miklós Bethlen the Chancellor of the old Prince and a well-known memorialist. The Latin lines by Apafi read as follow: "Omnia perficies constante labore, nec ullum difficile est illi, qui bene pergit, opus. Generoso Juveni Domino Francisco Pariz Papai, in memóriám sui, et Symbolum benevoli affectus, apposuit . . . Apafi". In addition to the signatures and lines written in the album by many Transylvanian priests, professors, and the four Counts Teleki (Mihály, Sándor, Pál, and János), supporters of the Pápai Páriz family, there is also a large number of ent ries by Hungarians abroad, such as István V a r g h a, a professor at London, János C o v a t c h, professor of theology at Cambridge, professors István Partus of Regensburg and Dániel Gajdé of Leyden. Of the 'peregrini' some names are known to us from the literature of philosophy and theology, e.g. Samu Kaposi who, having taken his doctor's degree in England, came homo and became the Rector of the College of Gyulafehérvár; János Csúzi Cseh who graduated at Frankfurt, then came home to spend his life as a doctor at Komárom and later Győr . . . János Csécsi lectured for years at the University of Utrecht, then came home to the College of Sárospatak where he took over his father's chair. Here he taught not only ecclesiastical history, but also the Greek, Latin, and Hebrew languages, philosophy, and natural science. János Lukács Borosnyay was first a tutor to Bet hlen'sons, then, as an old student, attended the Universities of Utrecht, Frankfurt, and Leyden, finally to become Rector of the College of his native town, Nagyenyed. He, too, was a polyhistor, but also a devotee of Transylvania. 8