Dr. Kubassek János szerk.: A Kárpát-medence természeti értékei (Érd, 2004)
Dr. Miklós Kázmér: Dr. Edward Browne's visit in the mining towns of Lower Hungary in 1669
Cf)v. ^ÂÙÂ/oa JGfamié'* — o A SCIENTIFIC TRIP TO LOWER HUNGARY 'hortly after his arrival in Vienna, in a letter of 26 November 1668 Edward Browne offered his services to HENRY OLDENBURG, secretary of the Royal Society of London, to wrote accounts on the gold mines at Cremnitz, on the silver mines in Brunswick, and other natural curiosities in Germany, Bohemia, and Austria. 5 The reply written in three weeks contained detailed instructions on observations to be made in the mining regions of Hungary. The questions probably derived from ROBERT BOYLE.6 The answers regarding the copper mine in Herrengrund (Hungarian Úrvölgy, Slovakian Spania dolina) were published in the Philosophical Transactions (BROWNE, I67O). The curious statements in the article were supported by minerals from the mine, later reposited in the Museum of the Royal Society (Grew, 1681), 7 and in private collections (WOODWARD, 1729). Specimens of the latter collection are preserved in the Sedgwick Museum of the University of Cambridge (KÁZMÉR, 1998; KÁZMÉR & PAPP, 1999). BROWNE' papers in the Philosophical Transactions and his Travels (1673) are among the first publications on Hungary of scientific character in the modern sense. The diary is an important source of information on the living and travel conditions in Hungary during the last decades of Turkish occupation. y y gather beautiful, colourful, shiny minerals. We cannot find such specimens in Browne's collection. Bone turqoise, gold ore, native copper and several types of copper ores, and vitriol were gathered and given to collectors back in Britain. Among BROWNE'S specimens - as reconstructed from printed catalogues (GREW, 1881; WOODWARD, 1729) and his letters - there were bone turquoise, gold ore, native copper and copper ores, vitriol, and specimens from the Ciment, a process yielding copper from acidic mine waters. Seeing some of the original specimens in the Sedgwick Museum of Cambridge (PRICE, 1989; KÁZMÉR, 1998) one cannot avoid to think that Browne was not attracted to beautiful minerals. Rather, his choice of specimens reflects something else than THE MINERAL COLLECTOR hich minerals did Browne collect and why? Today's amateur collectors
