A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve: Studia Historiae Literarum et Artium, 4. (Szeged, 2004)

Lengyel András: A bibliofil Szalay József

VÁSÁRHELYI JÚLIA 1962 A „literátus főkapitány". = Magyar Nemzet, aug. 1. [VÉR GYÖRGY] (V. GY.) 1939 A literátus főkapitány könyvei a kalapács alatt. = Délmagyarország, okt. 31. 3-4. The bibliophile József Szalay András Lengyel József Szalay (1870-1937) was an interesting personality of the intellectual life of Szeged, endowed with great talents. A police official by profession, he became superintendent of the city of Szeged and then, from 1919, of the whole Szeged Police District. His significance, however, is related not so much to this function as to his love for books and literature. He himself produced writings and chaired the Dugonics Society, an organization of Szeged writers, over a long period of time. His most remarkable contribution, however, was the collection of an exceptionally rich stock of manuscripts and books. He collected rare old books and writers' manuscripts, letters, and photos, and he also maintained a rich collection of printed matter. Grangerized items of his collection represented an exceptional value: they were unique owing to the fact that he had manuscripts from authors, their photos and small printed matters bound in the otherwise precious volumes. A strength of his collection was the Hungarian materials from 19th century classicism and items of Hungarian literature from the 20th century. Another asset worth the mention was his collection of 19th century West-European (predominantly German) materials. The study presents a history of the collection and provides a description of the collection itself. 99