British Library Slavonic and East European Collections
The British Library Slavonic
and East European Section acquires material across the spectrum
of the humanities and social sciences. It is responsible for
obtaining and making available material published in the countries
of Central and Eastern Europe, and for material in the languages
of those countries published anywhere in the world.
This page provides an overview of the Hungarian Collections,
illustrated by specific examples.
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Copyright © 1997, The British
Library Board
King Matthias of Hungary, from János Thuróczy's
Chronica Hungarorum,
printed in Augsburg by Erhard Ratdolt in 1488 [I.B.6663]
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Contents
An overview of the Hungarian
Collections | Catalogues, printed guides
and other resources | Hungarian material
elsewhere in the British Library | Further
information
Collections
In the following text, codes which appear in square
brackets after references [C.38.e.14] indicate
British Library shelfmarks.
The exact size of the Hungarian holdings is not known, since, like
other country/language holdings, they have no separate catalogue
and are dispersed within the rest of the collections. There are
approximately 18,000 titles in Hungarian in the current catalogue
(which covers items acquired since 1975).
The systematic collection of Hungarian books in the British Library
started in the early 19th century and although at times restricted
by inadequate funds, the acquisition of Hungarian material has continued
ever since that time.
Although overshadowed by Panizzi, the man more closely responsible
for Hungarica in the British Museum Library was his assistant, Thomas
Watts (1811-1869). He was intimately acquainted with the Hungarian
language and culture. For his critical articles on Hungarian literature
and language, Watts was elected an Honorary Member of the Hungarian
Academy. The Hungarian collection which took shape under his keepership
was one of which he was particularly proud. His successors have
since tried to emulate and maintain Watt's tradition of intelligent
selection.
With the acquisition of the István Nagy Collection
in May 1870, the purchase of the largest number of Hungarian
books ever to enter the Library at one time was completed. The collection
contains 60 16th-, 98 17th-century imprints and many other works
on Hungarian ecclesiastical and local history, geography, genealogy,
medicine, natural history, literature, linguistics and publishing
history. Eleven of these are still the only recorded copies. The
British Library's earliest printed book with an entirely Hungarian
text is a partial translation of the Bible: Epistolae Pauli
lingua donatae (Cracow, 1533) [C.37.b.22].
Among the unique works is a narrative poem by the 16th century Hungarian
dramatist Mihály Sztárai, celebrating the life and
martyrdom of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, printed in
Debrecen in 1582 [C.38.e.14].
In 1873 a second large collection of Hungarian material was acquired.
It was the library of László Waltherr (1788-1865),
enthusiastic collector of books and ephemera. It consisted of some
4000 miscellaneous folio, quarto and octavo pamphlets, broadsides,
playbills and manuscripts, dated mainly from 1770 to 1863. The larger,
printed section is kept together under the special shelfmark starting
with the letters Hung.
Since the acquisition of the main collections listed above, where
resources have allowed, the Library has endeavoured to build on
these solid foundations and has aimed to reflect the ideals of comprehensiveness
of the 19th century. Its holdings of the publications of the Hungarian
Academy of Sciences, the National Museum and Library are very nearly
complete. Most Hungarian authors are represented by their standard
collected edition and many of the first edition of their single
works.
Coverage in the first half of the 20th century - a lean period
of acquisitions, disrupted by world wars and a shortage of funds
- was rather patchy. From the 1950s, however, Hungarian publications
of research value in the humanities and social sciences and the
history of sciences have been received on a broad scale through
purchase and exchanges with principal Hungarian libraries. The 1956
Revolution caused temporary disruption in our acquisitions programme.
In difficult circumstances, the Library nevertheless succeeded in
adding many contemporary publications relating to events in Hungary
in the Autumn of 1956. Some of these were issued by the Forradalmi
Bizottmány. The publications of the newly founded 1956-os
Intézet, comprising a reappraisal and full documentation
of the 1956 anti-Communist revolution are also finding their way
into the Collections. The British Library is a unique repository
of the literature of the Hungarian Diaspora, represented by outstanding
authors like Gyõzõ Határ, László
Cs. Szabó, György Faludy, Béla Szász as
well as younger members of the generation '56.
One of our more recent acquisitions pays tribute to Endre Ady,
with the purchase of 25 first editions of his works. Latterly the
complete published work of the poet János Pilinszky was donated
to the Library. This includes monographs of poetry and prose works
in Hungarian or in translation as well as critical and biographical
material.
Rising book prices and a shrinking budget in the 1980s has forced
a reduction in antiquarian acquisitions in favour of current material.
Through contacts with the antiquarian book trade in Budapest we
have, however, been able to add a number of significant early imprints
to the Collections.
Since the political changes of the late 1980s, additions to the
Library's collections have included printed ephemera, independent-spirited
popular journals such as Hitel, Reform, Liget, Kapu, Hungarian
Observer and works in Hungarian or of Hungarian interest printed
in neighbouring Romania, the Former Yugoslavia, the Slovak Republic
and Ukraine.
Official publications are acquired on exchange with the Library
of the Hungarian Parliament. They include The Legislation of
the Hungarian Parliament [S.423/23] in English
and extensive runs of statistical and legal material in Hungarian.
Our present intake consists of approximately 1000 periodical titles,
900 monographs and 10 newspapers.
Catalogues and printed guides
- The Hungarian National Bibliography of Books 1976-1991
on CD-ROM can be consulted in the Humanities - Floor 1 Reading
Room.
- Hungary 1956: a catalogue of British Library holdings,
compiled by Bridget Guzner and Ildiko Wollner (London: British
Library, 1997) [2725.g.2748] Updated
on-line version
- The László Waltherr Collection of Hungarian
Pamphlets in the British Museum, a catalogue compiled by
L.G. Czigány (London: Szepsi Csombor Kör, 1969) [2725.g.2318]
- Short-Title Catalogue of Hungarian Books printed before
1851 in the British Library, compiled by Geoffrey Arnold
(London: British Library, 1995) [2725.e.2977].
Other resources
Hungarian material available elsewhere
in the British Library
Further information
Hungarian Collections
European Collections
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London NW1 2DB
United Kingdom
e-mail: slavonic@bl.uk
