Adalékok a Belsősomogyi Református Egyházmegye Tudományos Olvasó Társaságának megalapításához (1829–1830)

Hudi, József Attila (2023) Adalékok a Belsősomogyi Református Egyházmegye Tudományos Olvasó Társaságának megalapításához (1829–1830). In: Hagyomány, Identitás, Történelem 2022. Reformáció Öröksége (10). Károli Gáspár Református Egyetem Hittudományi Kar Egyháztörténeti Kutatóintézet, Budapest, pp. 125-143.

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Abstract

There were nearly 500 various societies in Hungary and about a 100 in Transylvania in the decades prior to 1848. Historians estimate the number of their members at one hundred thousand. Readers’ societies founded by clergymen and schoolteachers formed part of them, although they have gained little attention from church historians so far. The Transdanubian Reformed Church District consisted of nine church counties in most of which readers’ societies were organized between 1810–1820 so that church employees with modest income also had access to the latest culture-historical and church historical literature and belles-lettres. Based on archival documents, contemporary press, culture-historical and church historical literature, the present study describes the foundation and functioning of the readers’ society in the Inner-Somogy Church County, which was founded in 1829 and accepted its statutes in 1830. It was Bishop Ferenc Tóth (1768–1844) and Dean Pál Budai (1771–1854) who established the Readers’ Society. In 1830, 21 ministers out of 60 joined the Readers’ Society and were willing to contribute one Gulden a year as a membership fee. The main objective of the association chaired by the dean was to deepen their theological knowledge and to practice the methods of educated conversation and exchange of ideas. To this end, they subscribed to several German theological magazines (Allgemeine Kirchen Zeitung, Allgemeine Literatur Zeitung, Theologisches Literaturblatt) and also to a Hungarian scientific magazine (Tudományos Gyűjtemény). Since all clergymen learnt Latin, the majority spoke German, some of them read theological literature in English and French, the intermediary language became German in modern cultural transfer. They had the periodicals bound and placed them together with the books purchased or received as a present in the library of the Reformed Grammar School of Csurgó. Ministers, who did not join the society, could also borrow these works for a weekly fee. From his private library of about 550 volumes of works in French, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Hungarian, and German, the dean regularly lent books and periodicals to ecclesiastical and secular intellectuals. He bequeathed his library to the Grammar School of Csurgó. The author gives a detailed description of the stock of books in the library by using an inventory made in 1855.

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