The historian, Dániel Cornides (1732–1787) was appointed to the University of Pest in 1784 as a teacher of historical auxiliary sciences and guardian of the university library. Although he took courses at the University of Göttingen the following year, from 1785 until his death he worked in the University Library and taught at the university. From 1767 he was in the service of József Teleki as secretary, and a close relationship developed between them. In view of their friendship, after the death of Cornides, Teleki bought his legacy of valuable manuscripts and books, which was later transferred to the manuscript archive of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences together with the Teleki library. However, the valuable correspondence between Cornides and Pray can still be found in the manuscript archives of the University Library, as well as the 16th-century Hungarian-language codex named after him, which was copied by the Dominican nun, Lea Ráskay.

Cornides codex: https://edit.elte.hu/xmlui/handle/10831/10540

The Accessible library team of the K21 Quality Management Coordination Comittee has compiled a guide for librarians.

With the help of this guide our staff can support the use of libraries and the acquisition of information by readers with special needs. The document is available to the University Library Service’s librarians in the EDIT repository.

In 2021, the Archives was expanded with the legacy of two prominent university professors.

Ottó Süpek (1928-1995) was a literary historian, former lecturer and head of the Romanesque Institute , at the heart of his work was the oevre of François Villon. István Szerdahelyi (1924-1987) gained a reputation as an Esperantist and linguist. In 1966 he was commissioned to organize the teaching of Esperanto at the university. The legacies of both eminent scholars are already available in the Archives. A description of the legacies can be found in our repository guide: Ottó Süpek and István Szerdahelyi.

The Foundation for the University Library purchased workchairs and tables by utilizing the National Cooperation Fund grant for the Restoration and Bookbinding Workshop in the Eötvös Loránd University Library and Archives.

We replaced some outmoded and outdated worktables and chairs (on the right of the photo). The newly acquired special workchairs with adjustable seat height and support for foot comfort (on the left of the photo) ensure a proper and healthy posture for everyday activities. The height of the worktables can be changed to perform binding and restoration tasks according to the needs of the staff. By utilizing the grant of the National Cooperation Fund and the Bethlen Gábor Fund Management Ltd. under the management of the Prime Minister's Office, we could highly improve the working conditions of our colleagues.

Our first special educators studied and practiced in the field of teaching deaf children in Vienna, the institute for deaf-mute people operating since 1799. The first special education institutions in Hungary were established in the 1800s, called „philanthropic” institutions.

Facilities were set up in 1825 for the blind, in 1875 for the mentally and multiply disabled, in 1891 for the stutterer and others with speech impairments. Special teacher training has become increasingly urgent, so special training courses were organized in the 1890s for the helper of deaf, stuttering, blind, and low-minded. Later, in 1900 the trainings were merged and included in a decree. This is how the two-year Special Education Teacher Training Course started in Vác (from 1904 in Budapest) as the legal predecessor of the Gusztáv Bárczi Faculty of Special Education. We keep in our archives the minutes of the school’s first teachers’ meeting. 

István Ádám, an Annie Fischer scholarship student of the Ministry of Human Resources, gives a guitar concert in the University Library and Archives of Eötvös Loránd University at 6.00 p.m. on the 18th of February 2022.

In 2020, Ádám István was awarded the third prize at the XIV. International Guitar Competition in Montenegro. In 2021, he received the Fischer Annie Music and Performing Arts Scholarship and the Audience Award of the Budapest International Guitar Competition. In 2022, he was awarded the New National Excellence Programme Scholarship. At the concert he plays on the master instrument provided by the Eötvös Music Foundation.

Márton Girincsi, a scholarship holder of the National Talent Program in 2019 and 2020, will also take part in the guitar evening. He has participated in artists’s master classes such as Lukasz Kuropaczewski, Gabriel Bianco and David Russell. Both of the performers are students of Dr. József Eötvös, Liszt Prize-winning guitarist at the Liszt Academy of Music. The detailed program is available here. More information can be found here and on our Facebook page. All visitors are welcome!

Wiley will be running a training session on the 15th of February. The Training starts at 10 am (CET) and lasts about an hour. The session is free to attend but registration is needed.

Registration

Author Workshop: How to publish in Wiley Open Access Journals - EISZ

• What is Open Access and what are the benefits?
• Author workflow: how to submit a manuscript to an Open Access journal and getting the APC covered through an existing agreement with your institution
• Publication tips for authors:
  • Why publish?
  • Submission and review: what to expect?
  • Writing tips
  • Tools for authors: Author Services and Wiley Editing Services

There will be also time for Q&A at the end of the session.

Object of the month  – The flag of the ELTE Trefort Ágoston Practice High School

Our school – then known as the Royal Hungarian Institute for Teacher Training – was founded in 1872 with the aim of providing teacher candidates with pedagogical and methodological knowledge under the supervision and guidance of the head teachers during their teaching practice and study of school life. It was the first school of its kind in Europe and has continued to play its role in teacher training ever since.

The First World War wreaked great havoc, leaving few artefacts from the first four or five decades of the school's history. The flag shown here was probably made between 1925 and 1927. On one side is the inscription of the Royal Teacher Training College of Budapest and the Hungarian coat of arms, and on the other side is a beautiful embroidery depicting the Virgin Mary as the Great Lady of the Hungarians. We do not know where the flag was displayed or exhibited for two decades, or on what festive occasions and how it was used. It is thought that the last director before the communist dictatorship, Sándor Újhelyi, hid the flag in a secluded corner of the school's coal cellar in the late 1940s. He was removed from the school in 1950, mainly because of his openly professed religious beliefs.

We don’t know when, maybe in the sixties, but no later than around 1970, the school’s caretaker found the flag. Presumably, however, due to the depictions on it, it was not re-used, as the communist ideology did not want to display either the historical Hungarian coat of arms or religious images. We know that for the school’s centenary celebration in 1972, the flag was displayed in the school building as a historical object and then re-placed in the basement. The caretaker worked at the school even in the years after the change of regime. ,He once mentioned the flag Gábor Lénárd (appointed director in 1992), who was very surprised to discover a national flag measuring 114x158 cm, decorated with beautiful embroidery. He had the flag restored (the restorer judged it to be in very good condition) and placed it in a dignified setting in the central part of the first floor. In 1993, together with Mrs István Kiss, an eminent researcher on the history of the school, he also created the surroundings for the flag, with a plaque commemorating József Eötvös on the left and Ágoston Trefort on the right.

Since then, the flag has been the most decorative motif of the school's most important celebrations, and has continued the traditions of the past, in the presence of the whole school community, reinforcing the sense of belonging to each other and the nation among its members, the students and the teachers.

Péter Mohay

Exclusive guided tours, library tours, recollections and many other interesting events await all former ELTE students who join our group.

After a quick registration on the ELTE Alumni website, you can join our group in the directory menu. 

Frigyes Dési, the meteorologist and university professor was born 110 years ago, on the 11th of January 1912.

Frigyes Dési completed his doctoral studies in mathematics and physics at our university in 1944. During the Second World War he served as a member of the professional staff of the Hungarian Royal Air Force. From 1950 he was appointed as the commander of the National Meteorological Institute, and from 1953 he became its director. In 1970 under his leadership, the Institute was transformed into the National Meteorological Service as known today. The meteorological news and data service was modernized and the Marczell György Observatory was built in Pestlőrinc on his initiative. Thanks to his outstanding work, the National Meteorological Service has been admitted to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). On the 1st of September 1953 he was appointed as university professor, and became head of the Department of Meteorology until 1970. Frigyes Dési’s name is associated with the development of modern meteorological training. Furthermore, he has organized research in the field of meteorology. In addition to his scientific career, he also served as a member of the Parliament. Frigyes Dési died in 1978.  

The picture shows the certificate of Frigyes Dési’s doctoral degree obtained in 1944.