AZ ORSZÁGOS SZÉCHÉNYI KÖNYVTÁR ÉVKÖNYVE 1959. Budapest (1961)

IV. Könyvtár- és művelődéstörténeti tanulmányok - Summaires

public in 1774. This news was received with great interest and praise by Klimó's admirers and friends both at home, and abroad. Though contemporary notices on this occasion mentioned also other dates for the event, the year, as figuring in the inscription, seems to be the most probable date. The other inscription is actually a regulation for the use of books in the library, the text being almost completely the counterpart of an inscription in the Vienna National Library. It is believed that this text originates from the printed rules found pasted into the books of Francesco Vargas Macciucca, an 18th century Neapolitan jurist and bibliophile. Kármán'

's letter to Count G. Festetics on the "Urania" I. KOSTYÁL One of the most important Hungarian periodicals in the age of enlightenment, the Urania was published during the years 1794 — 1795, in the final, most critical decade of the 18th century. The circumstances concerning the foundation, edition, publication and the cessation of the Urania had already been cleared up in detail by the thoroughgoing research of literary historians. The results had been summarized by R. Gálos in his monograph on J. Kármán, but there still remained some open questions or insufficiently supported statements. The author's aim is to solve some of these problems, on the basis of hitherto unpublished documents, found by him in the archives of the Festetics-£amily in Keszthely. An autograph letter by J. Kármán is of decisive significance; it is published in full length in this study. The facts of the letter are supported by quotations from letters of J. Péteri Takács, P. Balogh and J. Nagyváthy. The study volunteers very important new data testifying to the already accepted view that the Urania had really been edited by J. Kármán and G. Pajor; furthermore it proves that J. Kármán was the actual editor. The author also answers the up-to-now unsolved problem: who subsidized the periodical. As contrasted with the view of R. Gálos, the author holds that it was not the RäVay-family, but G. Festetics, who had very good reasons to keep his incognito. The author tries to evaluate the role of the freemasons and he ascertains that they must have exercised a great influence in the publication of the periodical. From J. Kármán's cited letter it seems obvious that above all J. Kármán's death caused the cessation of the Urania. The background of editing the works of Ferenc Ka^inc^y (1831—1960) On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of his birth M. BUSA In investigating the background of editing the works of Ferenc Kazinczv, interesting new data come to light reflecting upon the whole of the history of book-publishing in Hungary. The second centenary of the birth of the writer and translator Ferenc Kazinczy, who 408