Körmöczi Katalin szerk.: Historical Exhibition of the Hungarian National Museum 3 - From the End of the Turkish Wars to the Millennium - The history of Hungary in the 18th and 19th centuries (Budapest, 2001)

ROOM 13. Culture and National Consciousness at the End of the 18th Century and in the First Half of the 19th Century (Eszter Aczél)

40. Medal to commemorate the moving of the University of Nagyszombat (Trnava) to Buda and the issuing of the Ratio Educationis, 1780 (See previous page) 1777, she issued the Ratio Educationis, a decree which regulated education comprehensively. An important development in the history of Hungarian education was the transfer to Buda of the university founded in Nagyszombat (Trnava) in 1635 by Péter Pázmány (1570-1637). A silver medal was struck to commemorate the moving of the university to Buda and the Ratio Educationis; exemplars were distributed on the occasion of the festive inauguration in Buda in 1780 (Fig. 40). With the transfer of the university and the setting up of new faculties, PestBuda became the centre for new cultural and political endeavours. Of Hungary's schools in the 18th century, the Protestant boarding schools deserve special mention. In the achievement of technical findings in Hungary, an important role was played by Selmecbánya's (Banská Stiavnica's) School for Mining Officials, which had been founded by Maria Theresia and which was raised to the rank of an academy in 1770. A Department of Physics operated at the Péter Pázmány University of Arts and Sciences from 1777 onwards. Its deed of foundation and its textbooks proclaim the setting up of the Institutum Geometricum (in operation between 1782 and 1850), the world's first civilian technical college. The publishing of Hungarian-language books began in the specialist sciences and in literature, and the first Hungarian journals appeared. The beginnings of instrument-making are indicated by a spirit-level and by a device for measuring sugar and alcohol. A chronometer made in 1814 was bequeathed to the Hungarian National Museum by its maker, János Hillrich. Lasting mementos of the age are the works by leading literary figures during the Enlightenment and the portraits which recall their personalities. Visitors can glimpse a number of literary works and journals, which represented the beginnings of the Hungarian Press. The books and journals are accompanied by portraits of the authors. Next to them is a portrait of Count György Festetics, founder of Keszthely's Georgikon, one of the first agricultural colleges in Europe. FREEMASONRY IN THE 18TH CENTURY During the 18th century, rich in political changes and intellectual initiatives, organization of a secret movement began in Hungary: freemasonry. Its ideology amalgamated ideas from the Enlightenment and the French Revolution with elements of mediaeval mysticism, deism, classical culture and the Jewish religion. These elements received symbolic expression in the items and language used by freemasons - for example, masons s aprons and certificates of mastership (Fig. 41). In the work of masons, importance was attached to charitable activity, philanthropy and the encouragement of culture. By means of a painting, visitors can glimpse the inner life of the lodges. "Admission at a Vienna Lodge" shows the admission ceremony around 1786, at which Miklós Esterházy (1714-90), several Hungarian royal noble bodyguards, and - at the very right of the painting Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart can be seen among the members. The Hungarian National Museum preserves Mozart's travelling clavichord,