Rózsa György (szerk.): The Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 1826–1976.

I. Historical outline

scientific body only, - unlike similar institutions in most countries —, but he had in mind the establishing of a large scientific library of universal character. The foundation deed gave a special character to the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, as well as to the whole library system in Hungary remaining operative up to the present, i.e. in Hungary three institutions — complementary to one another the National Széchényi Library, the Eötvös Loránd University Library of Budapest and the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences have jointly served as a central large library complex of general scope. The Learned Society started its activities in 1831, while the Teleki-library was given over to the Society only in the 1840s. On its first premises rented in the Deron-house on the site of what today is Gresham-palace at Roosevelt Square, the Academy did not have enough room to shelve its 30 000 volumes, therefore the Teleki-collection remained in the palace of the family at Szervita Square (today's Martinelli Square). The other part of the Library, which was increasing rapidly by means of donations, acquisitions, subscriptions and exchanges, was shelved in the Deron-house. Greater donations of the first decade were those of Count József Teleki. It was he who bought — among others — the so-called Kresznerics-collection of books and coins. In 1835 Livius Marczibányi gave the Academy part of his father's, István Marczibányi's library. Considering the quantity of books, an important acquisition was when the library was presented with 30 000 volumes of Gusztáv Batthyány's library in Rohonc; a smaller but precious collection was the present of his brother, Kázmér Batthyány which consisted of 2 660 volumes and contained the books of archbishop József Batthyány. In 1845 the Academy acquired István Sándor's library which was still extant. He left his collection of books, paintings and coins to the Academy to be founded by will in 1814, and at the same time an endowment of 10 000 forints for the purposes of the Institution. The Academy's members also added works of high value to the Library, e.g. István Széchenyi, Farkas Bolyai, Ferenc Kazinczy, János Irinyi, Mihály Vörösmarty, András Fáy, Pál Bugát, Ferenc Toldy, Gergely Czuczor, Antal Reguly etc. Others, besides them, - people of all social strata — presented the Library with books. Thus was it that the Library happened to acquire part of contemporary scientific works, although this kind of accidental acquisition was not to replace a systematic and regular one. In the 1830s the Academy could purchase domestic and foreign publications only on an annual budget of 100 to 300 forints. Deposit copies of Hungarian books flowed in from 1837 under a royal priviledge and under copyright acts after 1840, except the 1850s when the Academy was deprived of this way of acquisition. From the beginning the Society was keen on acquiring the most important scientific periodicals, it subscribed to 7 in 1831, to 17 from abroad and to 8 in Hungary in 1841, and the number of subscriptions continued to rise. International exchange relations were particularly important sources of acquisition both in quantity and in quality. The first ones were established in 1832-33, and the first partner was the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia.