Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 100. (Budapest 2008)

Korsós, Z.: History of the Herpetological Collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum

THE FIRST ONE-HUNDRED YEARS The first inventory list of the vertebrate animals of the museum is called "Catalogus Reinventationalis Rerum Naturalium, et Artefactorum in Camera Naturae, &Artis Productorum Musei Nationalis Hungarici pr ae exist entium"

, and is now in the collection of the Hungarian State Archives (Fig. 3). It consists of several handwritten pages from the year 1821 (PAPP G. pers. comm.). There is a continuously numbered inventory book in the Mammal Collection from 1850 until 1898 (Fig. 4), which lists 1-2,397 items, recent and paleozoological as well. In the same collection there exists another - obviously handcopied - inventory list, which runs from 1821 until 1873 (Fig. 4). In the first few years they restarted the numbering every year, but from 1850, they used the same numbers as in the other list. This second inventory book - which is at its beginning a copy of the one kept originally in the Archives - only lists 1193 items, but incorporates later-added notes, explanations, and details - but only about the recent vertebrate material (thus the paleozoological entries are omitted). However, it contains the short " Consignatio Amphibiorum" (Fig. 5), which was originally mentioned on pages 257-258 of the "Catalogus", comprising only 37 specimens. This is the first documented list of the amphibian-reptile collection of the Hungarian National Museum (Table 1). Table 1. List of the first amphibians and reptiles, as enumerated in the first inventory book of vertebrate animals of the Hungarian Natural History Museum (1821) (see also Fig. 5) Name in the catalogue Present scientific name Original annotation Testudo orbiculata Emys orbicularis Testudo geometrica Testudo hermanni Etiam in Prot, benef. Anni 1822. sub No 1251 consignata Rana bufo (4 pes) Bufo bufo ist ausgestopft Rana viridis Bufo viridis ist: Bufo viridis, fehlt Hyla arborea Hyla arborea Rana bombyna (2 pes) Bombina bombina Abjecta Lacerta s. aquatica (2 pes) Triturus vulgaris ist: Triton punetatus Lacerta Salamandra (2 pes) Salamandra salamandra ist: Salamandra maculata Lacerta lacustris (5 pes) Triturus cristatus ist: Triton palustris Scincus pannonicus Ablepharus kitaibelii fitzingeri Lacerta agilis (5 pes) Lacerta agilis ausgestopft Coluber Natrix (2 pes) Natrix natrix Abject. Coluber Berus (4 pes) Vipera berus ist: Pelias berus Coluber austriacus Coronella austriaca Anguis fragilis (2 pes) Anguis fragilis Proteus anguinus Proteus anguinus Coluber Caspius (2 pes) Hierophis caspius sunt flavescentes