Kalla Zsuzsa: Beszélő tárgyak. A Petőfi család relikviái (Budapest, 2006)
Zsuzsa Kalla: The history of the Petőfi relics
they were passed to Mór Jókai, István Petőfi (the poet’s younger brother) and Soma Orlay Petries (his second cousin). It seems likely that Petőfi and his family took most of their belongings with them to Transylvania, Debrecen and later to Mezőberény in 1848-49. Most were probably lost, which accounts for the fact that the catalogue presents a miscellany of scattered, given away, abandoned objects rather than a unified collection. What happened to the Petőfi family belongings is intrinsically bound up with the fate of the manuscripts; contemporaries refer to both groups as ‘relics’. Various factors play a part when establishing authenticity, for example a hand-written note accompanying or concerning the object carries considerable weight. Another factor is the way a relic is reflected in the poetic works. Objects that were associated with the poems or with well- known biographical events had a greater chance of survival. The historical situation was also a determining factor in the fate of the relics. For a long time after the revolution no public commemorations were allowed; manuscripts were concealed or walled in, but the authorities saw no threat in keepsakes and they provided the opportunity for individual and family reverence. Petőfi’s friends and acquaintances had many memories of him. These they recalled and refined, their experiences became anecdotes, and the oft- repeated stories became true in the eyes of generations to come. This is where the famed scepticism of Petőfi researchers derives from regarding the ‘treasures’ of the Petőfi House. Petőfi died young, but his contemporaries lived to see the turn of the century - Mór Jókai died in 1904 but Sass Erzsébet, the Erzsiké of the poem A négyökrös szekér [The Cart with Four Oxen], took part in the inauguration of the Petőfi House in 1909 — and this served to restrain the fondness for fairy stories of those who were inclined to exaggerate and boast. The reason the Petőfi relics were never collected and never found their way into an institute was the divide in the literary community caused by camps of devotees and opponents of the Petőfi Society. Júlia Szendrey’s descendants, Mór Jókai, the great dynasties, and the Lauka, Sass, Szigligeti, Emich and Egressy families were in favour of the Petőfi Society, while István Petőfi, Orlay, Pál Gyulai (Petófi’s brother-in-law), the collector Károly Török and the literary historian Károly Szász donated their items to the Kisfaludy Society, the National Museum and the Academy of Sciences. Large families were able to help Zoltán Ferenczi and Gyula Kéry to collect relics that were scattered far and wide. In the family of the poet János Arany, it was primarily his son, László, who collected relics, his widow entrusting pieces associated with Petőfi to the Petőfi Society. Piroska Széli, on the other hand, donated her grandfather’s personal 1848 memorabilia to the Kisfaludy Society. Possibly the most authentic and least known group of objects, a few relics that had survived in Petőfi’s travel-box and were part of István Petőfi’s inheritance, went to the Manuscript Archive of the Academy of Sciences. It seems likely that István Petőfi had forgotten about this box, as he donated his brother’s papers to the Kisfaludy Society. In 1889 the box was sent to the Kisfaludy Society by Gáspár Geiszt, who had employed the poet’s brother as a steward on his Csákó estate. The contents of the box then lay untouched for forty years. In 1928, the relics belonging to the Kisfaludy Society were briefly described by Lajos Mikes in the magazine Lantos and two years later he mentions them again in a romantic Júlia Szendrey biography. A further sixty years were to pass before the objects were seen by museologists. István Petőfi made a point of collecting contemporary manuscripts and objects. We know, for example, that Sándor Teleki, writer and friend of the poet, gave him a desk for safekeeping. The will of the poet’s son, Zoltán, also stipulated that his father’s most important manuscripts should go to István, who had a large, leather box with a small brass plate made for his brother’s relics, and after his death, these went to the Library of the National Museum. He was also given many things by Júlia Szendrey and, as the material in the Academy suggests, by the Arany family. István Petőfi was very attached to the relics and probably only parted with a few items of lesser literary significance. His will, written in Csákó and dated 28th April 1880, is significant as it indicated who was to inherit the objects not listed in the inventory of estate: ‘My books and bookcase I leave to my relatives Árpád and Ilona Horváth. The portraits of my parents and brother I leave to Mr Soma Orlay, who also painted them. My rifles I leave to Mr Gyula T Geiszt as a token of remembrance. To Mr Gáspár Geist I leave three of my books, to be chosen freely by him, which choice may not be opposed by my relatives Árpád and Ilona Horváth. 192
