Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 100. (Budapest 2008)
Korsós, Z.: History of the Herpetological Collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum
DELY maintained an international relationship with most of the best herpetologists abroad (ADLER et al. 2007); a few of these relationships were already established during the collection's reconstruction period after 1956. In 1981, still amidst difficult political circumstances, he organised the First Herpetological Congress of the Socialist Countries in Budapest. The 47 participants were from the USA, France, West Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Finland, United Kingdom and Austria - in addition to six East European countries. This congress became - contrary to its title - an East-West meeting; many herpetologists from both sides mention it even today that it was the first time they met someone who they knew before only by his/her papers, because the political boundaries divided them (there were 12 participants from the Soviet Union, too). The 1981 Budapest conference was essential in building friendships and understanding that led directly to the organisation of World Congress of Herpetology in 1982 and to its first congress in Canterbury, UK, in 1989, which has been to this day the largest international herpetological meeting ever held. Another result of this breakthrough event was that exactly ten years later, in 1991, on the 6 th Ordinary General Meeting of the European Herpetological Society (Societas Europaea Herpetologica), organised in Budapest by the author of this paper, DELY was elected the honorary president of the conference. DELY liked to tell the story how he had met with ROBERT MERTENS, one of the greatest herpetologists of all time, and how he admired him. He visited him twice in the Natur-Museum Senckenberg, Frankfurt am Main, at first in 1968, then in 1972 for a bit shorter time. At their first encounter, MERTENS introduced DELY to his collection, explained the material, then at the end of the visit he stopped him in front of a terrarium in his room, and pointed with demonstrated expectation to the living lizard-like reptiles in it. Fig. 40. DELY and his wife in North Korea, 1977 (courtesy of Á. DELY-DRASKOVITS)
