Rétfali Gábor (szerk.): A Szombathelyi Egyházmegyei Könyvtár ősnyomtatványainak és antikváinak katalógusa (Szombathely, 2006)
Az idézett művek jegyzéke
A historical overview The history of the Szombathely Diocese Library stirred the imagination only of few local historians. Their work is less known nationwide despite the fact that the Library played a substantial role in developing Szombathely’s general educational and cultural scene at the end of the 18th century. As our objective is not to provide a fully-fledged history of the Library therefore we give a brief outline only. Upon the second centenary of the foundation of the Library, it was Mr. Pataki, László who presented the first detailed history of the Library, based on the works of Mr Pálinkás, Géza and Mr Géfin, Gyula. Roughly 25 years after Mr. Pataki’s work Ms Dobri, Mária published another summarizing history of the Library. On the basis of their work one can point out the following milestones and phases I in the history of the Library. As the first bishop of the Szombathely diocese newly founded by Mária Theresia in 1777, Bishop Szily, János founded the Library in 1791 allowing its public use to be the second public library in Hungary. All of Szily’s successors contributed to the development of the Library. The most significant of them was the donation by Cardinal Herzan, Ferenc (1800- 1804) who bequeathed his 5000 volume private collection to the Library. The 19th century was the era of quiet growth. 1884 saw the opening of the new library hall built by Bishop Hidassy, Kornél to house further 10.000 volumes. In 1927 Bishop Mikes, János divided the Library into two, moving the Herzancollection to the episcopal palace. Although the devastating bombing of 4 March, 1945 spared the seminary, the building was used for other purposes rendering the normal working of the Library impossible. The immense piling up of the unprocessed volumes made the Library impossible to use. The Library employs a full-time librarian since 1987 whose competence and expertise is of invaluable help both for researchers and the public to gain access to the precious material. The Library stock has always been catalogued. The initial system was first updated in 1822 to include a more detailed, classified subject catalogue. In 1893 Pálinkás, Géza revised this classified catalogue in light of the changes happened in the meantime. Horváth, Ferenc finished the exploration of the Library by 1929. In 1948 a card catalogue was put in place to replace the previous volumes catalogue. The alphabetical volumes catalogue still in use was organized in the 1960s. The six volumes covering the entire Library stock is complemented by various indices. In the late 90s we started to record the data of the newly 22
