Kaján Imre (szerk.): Zalai Múzeum 20. (Zalaegerszeg, 2012)
Tanulmányok Asbóth Sándorról - Kurucz György: Az Asbóth család és Keszthely: Asbóth János keszthelyi tanári és uradalmi tiszti tevékenysége, 1801–1818
22 Kurucz György Ährenlese des Georgikons im Druck erscheinen. Drey Zöglinge des Georgikons wurden einer rigorosen Prüfung aus der Ökonomie und deren Hülfswissenschaften untezogen, und erhielten ökonomische Diplome. Einer derselben. Johann Petrovics, las eine Dissertation über den wichtigen Einfluss der Chemie auf die Vervollkomung der Landwirtschaft. ” Intelligenzblatt der Jenaischen Allgemeinen Literatur-Zeitung, 12. (1815) 50. sz. 393-394. 107 „Pro solemnibus diebus quibus productiones habentur invitandi erunt etiam alii viri litterati...” MOL Festetics Lt P 237 16. cs. VIII. 2. f. 226v. 108 Festetics György a Zur wahren Eintracht bécsi szabadkőműves páholyban 1778-ban elmondott Versammlungsrede der R.C. des alten Systems című beszédének egyik példányát Br[uder] Heliconusként szignálta. Ez a példány fellelhető az egykori Festetics családi könyvtár, a mai Helikon Könyvtár állományában. 109 MÓL Festetics Lt P 237 15. cs. ff. 42-43. Festetics megbízásából Seiner Kaiserl. Königl. Hoheit dem Erzherzog Johann, von Georgikon zu Keszthely, den 30 Aug. 1809. címmel tíz versszakos köszöntő verset írt. A Festetics költségén megjelentetett, As- bóth tollából származó alkalmi értekezések, ismertetők: Oratio qua novum cursum oeconomicum ... in Georgico Keszthelyiensi... Sopronii 1802., Oratio de fide ruricolarum felicitatis et privatae ... Pestini 1807., Oratio de nobilitate ex agricultura. ..die 20ma Maji Keszthelyini 1816., Oratio de nobilitate ex agricultura...die 20ma Maji Keszthelyini 1817. 110 Kazinczy Ferencz levelezése. Szerk. Váczy János. XVI. kötet Budapest, 1905. 349. „Ausser Asbóth kam noch vielleicht nicht ein einziger Mann gut mit ihm heraus.” Kazinczy Ferenc levelezése, i.m. VI. köt. 1895.468. 111 MOL Festetics Lt P 279 107. cs. f. 780 112 BIERBRUNNER Gusztáv: A Bács-szerémi ág. hitv. ev. egyházmegye monográfiája. Újvidék, 1902. 42. Asbóth haláláról Göttingenben is megemlékeztek. János Asbóth and Keszthely: Professor and Chief Steward of the Festetics Estates János Asbóth (1768-1823) came from a family of Lutheran ministers of noble descent. He was educated in the Lutheran Grammar School of Sopron, Western Hngary, then he went on to read theology in the University of Göttingen founded by Georg August, Elector of Hanover, King of England, in 1734. This university was regarded as one of Europe’s most modem institutes of higher education in the second half of the eighteenth century owing to its special curricula and ethos of rational attitude to the complex treatment of sciences and humanities. On returning to Hungary, Asbóth was employed by the Lutheran Grammar School of Késmárk, Northern Hungary, but he subsequently accepted the invitation of Count György Festetics (1755-1819) in 1801 to take the post of Professor of Economics in the Georgikon, the first Hungarian agricultural college founded by Festetics in 1797. It was Asbóth that worked out a new curriculum for the College as well as implementing the principal ideas of rational husbandry devised by his predecessor Ferenc Pethe (1763-1832) on the basis of the practice of contemporary English farming. Asbóth soon became instrumental in working out several other projects of extending the different fields of practical training in Keszthely and substantially contributed to the promotion of the College abroad by nurturing relations with foreign learned societies, primarily in Germany. He was shortly promoted to the post of Chief Inspector of Count Festetics’s estates mainly responsible for capitalizing on the agricultural boom of the early nineteenth century on account of the Napoleonic wars. Festetics was undoubtedly an enlightened aristocrat with a vision of investing into education thereby promoting public interest, but if it had not been for Asbóth, his schemes and projects would not have been so efficient, let alone having had such a lasting influence on professional training in Hungary. Asbóth spent over a decade in Keszthely, then he moved to Southern Hungary and took the post of Director of Crown Estates in Zombor. However, he had a substantial influence on contemporary educational and cultural life in the small town, and it was him that worked out a project of transforming the small town into a literary centre of Western Hungary as provided by Festetics in the late 1810s in order to organize the so cal led Helicon Festivities, an annual event for contemporary men of letters. His two sons who subsequently fought for Hungary in the war of independence of 1848 and 1849 were also bom in Keszthely.
