Dénes Dienes: History of the Reformed Church Collég in Sárospatak (Sárospatak, 2013)
FOREWARD
6 The authoritative monograph of Sárospatak has not yet been written and we ourselves, with this book, would like, at most, to lay the foundations for such an academic summation. Nonetheless, the research and studies of different chapters of the history of the town and the College have achieved significant advances in the recent past (Katalin Péter, András Szabó, Mihály Détshy, Erzsébet Kézi, József Ködöböcz, Dániel Kováts, Ákos Bartha and perhaps also the author of this book). We have now arrived to the point where a summary synthesis of the new aspects and newer results is able to be assembled. The changing of the historical framework of the College is not without significance, either, it having been restituted to a certain degree ever since 1989 in a continuous manner. The secondary school is once again in church hands, the Theological Academy began operations anew in 1991 and the Reformed Church elementary school was launched in 2004. The nature of developments which have taken place in the life of the institution are of such a nature that it is both worthwhile and necessary to order and organize the values of the past. This book does not aspire to convey academic novelty in all aspects nor to thoroughly and critically examine every observation and conclusion of the professional literature. Nonetheless, the authors obviously did do this within their own field and timeframe of research, but their foremost purpose was to present the near five centuries of history of the College in a unified way. We have no intention of clarifying every disputed question, many of which we do not even mention. And similarly will remain those questions to which we supply no answer, despite it being perhaps possible to provide answers after having undertaken thorough archival research. This book was written for a broader audience with the aim that the work fall within a category which would inspire the furthering of academic awareness. The authors gained important experience in the process, for they were able to discover empty patches whose clarification will require long years of thorough investigation. In spite of this, we do hope that the distinguished reader will find the history of the College in Sárospatak as riveting and edifying as we found it to be during the course of our work of the past years. The direct initiative for the preparation of this book came from alumnus and long-time advocate of the College, Robert Halmi, resident of the United States of America, when he generously ensured through a donation the costs of publication. The trompe I’oeil ceiling simulating the inside of a cupola of the Great Library painted by József Linzbauer
