Hausner Gábor szerk.: A Hadtörténeti Múzeum Értesítője = Acta Musei Militaris in Hungaria. 6. (Budapest, 2003)

ÉRTEKEZÉSEK, TANULMÁNYOK - R. VÁRKONYI ÁGNES: A múzeum gondolata a felvilágosodás korában és a reformkorban

THE ORIGINS OF THE MUSEUM CONCEPT IN THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENÍVIENT AND THE REFORM ERA The study starts from the principle that the museum is a European concept; therefore, from a historical point of view, its appearance in Hungary should also be examined as part of the long-range process of universal cultural structures. The study establishes that the concept of the museum appears in Hungarian texts in the first third of 18th century and has different meanings. In Hungary, as in other parts of Europe, the museum had developed from collections and thus gained its present sense, i.e. a place for collecting, preserving and exhibiting objects of artistic, historical or scientific value. The author outlines the significance of the ancient and medieval church collections, and demonstrates that the museums of the modern times had evolved from the material accumulated in the treasuries of renaissance rulers, as well as the noble, civic and bourgeois collections. In Hungary, the letters of the travelling students and the reports of the travel diaries give account of the pre-museum phenomenon and the collections. Comparing the reports on the European collections from the end of the 17th century and those from the second half of the 18th century, the study introduces the decisive change. It lays down as a fact that Mihály Bethlen visited all the European collections from Sweden to Italy according to a plan at the end of the 17th century, and rendered an outstandingly detailed account of the their arrangement, composition and their function of representing the organised cults. The reports of the two counts, József and Sámuel Teleki, reflect the decisive change in the maturing process of the museum concept. Instead of accumulating rarities, the emphasis was laid on the scientifically qualified and systemised material, the collection libraries, the planned representation of mechanical devices and minerals, and the collection of selected historical memories, medals, manuscripts and artistic works. Surveying the development in Hungary, the study states that wars and show trials had decimated the consciously assembled royal, princely and noble collections of high standard. Taking into account the conscious collection founding intentions and initiatives of the princes of Transylvania, the author underlines József Teleki's up-to-date statement: the collections disseminate knowledge and culture that are essential for the welfare of the country. In the spirit of the thought 'I build a museum, therefore I am', the author introduces the aristocratic, noble, bourgeois and intellectuals' collections of the 18th century, and declares the main message of the study: with the establishment of the Hungarian National Museum, Count Ferenc Széchényi summarised the values of the collection movement of the previous era, and gave national form and meaning to a European concept in a universal sense. DIE GENESIS DES MUSEUMSWESENS IN DER ZEIT DER AUFKLÄRUNG UND DES REFORMZEITALTERS Die Studie über das Museumswesen in der Zeit der Aufklärung und im Reformzeitalter geht von dem Grundsatz aus, dass das Museum ein europäischer Gedanke ist, und infolgedessen seine Etablierung in Ungarn vom geschichtswissenschaftlichen Aspekt auch im langfristigen Prozess der allgemeinen kulturellen Strukturen untersucht werden kann. Die Studie stellt fest, dass der Begriff „Museum" in den ungarischen Texten erst im ersten Drittel des 18. Jahrhunderts aufscheint, und unterschiedliche Bedeutungen trägt. Seinen heutigen Sinn, dass ein Museum der Ort der Sammlung, Aufbewahrung