The ELTE University Library and Archives will be closed on 13 December 2025 (Saturday) due to an event.
From Monday (15 December 2025), we will be open as usual.
Thank you in advance for your kind understanding!
Due to technical reasons, the Reading Hall and the Community Space opening from the lobby will be available to readers at the ELTE University Library and Archives on 12 December 2025 (Friday) from 12:00 p.m.
The other reading rooms will be temporarily closed during the aforementioned hours, and storage services will also be suspended.
Thank you in advance for your kind understanding!
School libraries belonging to the ELTE library network can consult their documents in various databases. While maintaining these systems, the ELTE University Library and Archives developed a common search interface in 2011 within the framework of the TÁMOP-3.2.4/09/1/KMR-2010-0021 project, which can be accessed directly at https://gimikatalogus.elte.hu. It is also possible to access it from the common catalogue of ELTE libraries by clicking on the marked menu item:
The records of the libraries in the database:
The conversion of school library databases is done at regular intervals. Once a year, usually in November, the data are updated to reflect changes (additions and deletions) from the previous year.
As part of the Hungarian Science Festival series of events, on November 20, 2025, the ELTE Bárczi Gusztáv Faculty of Special Education commemorated the life and work of Dr. Flóra Kozmutza (1905–1995) with a conference and exhibition dedicated to her work.
The exhibition entitled "Kozmutza Flóra – the faces of the special needs teacher" focused on the diversity of her roles as a scientist, muse, school founder, and researcher. Each role was presented on separate posters created by different teachers. The display cases contained documents and photos related to each role, while the desk in the exhibition space held Gyuláné Illyés's personal belongings and books dedicated to her by her students. The documents used and presented in the exhibition, together with Dr. Flóra Kozmutza's other manuscripts, original typescripts, and books, were added to the Faculty's Special Education History Collection in 2024.
The scientific material was illustrated with drawings depicting Gyuláné Illyés, created by children studying at special education schools bearing her name.
The exhibition is open to visitors between 23 February and 14 May 2026. For further information, please visit the website of the Faculty Library and Special Education History Collection.
The ELTE–NFI University Film Club screening and discussion series continues. We welcome university members from all ELTE faculties.
Péter Tímár, a perennial favorite with audiences, parodies the grotesque duality of the 1960s with lots of music and insert songs, in addition to nostalgia. It is August 1962, cinemas are showing La dolce vita, and the radio is churning out catchy hits. The Communist Youth League is organising a talent contest. The winning performance will get to participate in the World Youth and Student Festival in faraway Helsinki. Since the Finnish capital is in the coveted West, the call for entries fires the imagination of many. Péter Tímár plays with the well-known hits of the era, while reinterpreting the meaning of the lyrics. The scenes associated with the songs are not only funny, but also critical. The effect is twofold, as we can laugh nostalgically at the kitschy world of socialism. Dollybirds does not paint a realistic portrait of the era, but rather captures a bittersweet mood. We not only laugh at the bumbling heroes, but also immediately close them to our hearts.
Date: 10 December 2025, 6:00 p.m.
Venue: University Square Campus (1053 Budapest, University Square 1-3, ground floor, A/1 practice room, corridor next to the cloakroom)
Director, screenwriter: Péter Tímár
Writer: Gyula Márton
Cinematographer: Péter Szatmári
Editor: Péter Tímár
Music (among others): Tamás Deák, István S. Nagy, Szabolcs Fényes, András Bágya, Júlia Hajdú, András Lovasi, Kispál és a Borz, Gábor Závodi, Tamás Cseh, Júlia Majláth
Main roles: Gábor Reviczky, János Gálvölgyi, Judit Pogány, Piroska Molnár, Natália Nagy, Béla Fesztbaum.
Our guest in the post-screening discussion: Béla Fesztbaum, Jászai Mari Award-winning actor, who plays Ede, the little drummer boy, in the film, and Dr. Hajnalka Kovácsné Magyari, social historian, women's history researcher, and author of the book Trendy Woman in Socialism.
Preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2p6aqkrW9g
Due to limited seating, advance registration is required: https://www.ajk.elte.hu/content/csinibaba-timar-peter-filmje-1997.e.1987
The organisers welcome any correspondence regarding the film club at eltenfi.filmklub@elte.hu.
ELTE–NFI Film Club Facebook page
Ferenc Toldy was the director of our library between 1843 and 1874. This period was one of the most eventful and difficult times in the institution’s history. Toldy had to fight continuously for ownership of the library’s land, while political changes and scientific developments meant that the university, which was undergoing renewal, required a new type of library that could accommodate the growing number of students and their changing needs.
On the 150th anniversary of Ferenc Toldy’s death and the 220th anniversary of his birth, the MNMKK Petőfi Literary Museum is organizing a memorial event, where our colleague, Dr. Krisztina Tóth, will give a lecture on Toldy’s work as a collection organizer and library builder.
The event is free of charge, but registration is required. The detailed program and registration are available at https://forms.gle/we78BKxkAD6ePext6.
One of the special collections of the ELTE University Library, the Rariora Hungarica collection, established after World War II, preserves special or rare Hungarian-related printed materials published after 1711. Calendars, engravings, dedicated books, first editions by Hungarian authors – we selected the artwork of the month for December from among these treasures.
The gymnastics club, founded in 1903 under the name Typographia SC, provided organized sports opportunities for printing workers. The football club was the first to be formed, playing its first two matches against the Hungarian Athletic Club and UTE (Typographia SC‒BSC 1:0; Typographia SC‒UTE 2:2). Later, they started playing under the name Gutenberg.
More recently, gymnastics and athletics sections were also established, and in the 1920s, the Gutenberg Cycling Club joined them. After World War II, water polo, table tennis, chess, archery, orienteering, and nature-loving sections were also established.
From 1919, the club also published a magazine called Typographia Sport Club, and 11 years later, a weekly magazine called Nyomdászsport was also launched.
This volume, part of the Rariora Hungarica special collection, presents the history of Typography between 1903 and 1973 based on short news items published in the magazine of the Printers' Union. The volume is unique in that it is very small, with a spine measuring only 6 centimeters in length. In previous centuries, the production of miniature books required great expertise, as their production was the same as that of normal-sized books, only on a much smaller scale. This format was suitable for printers to compete to see who could produce smaller but visually appealing publications. Although by the 1970s, with the use of modern printing tools and techniques, this was no longer as much of a challenge for printers as it had been in previous centuries, the form of the mini-book still takes precedence over competition in this profession.
Written by Júlia Rédey-Keresztény
In the framework of our book adoption programme, our restorer and rare book librarian gave our adopter a detailed presentation of the supported volumes.
Brigitta Schvéd, research assistant at the Eötvös József Research Center's Institute for Political and State Theory, adopted the volumes by Athanasius Kircher and Martino Martini.
A Jesuit monk, Athanasius Kircher was born in Geisa in 1602, but from 1634 he taught and worked at the Collegium Romanum in Rome, where he died in 1680. He was a true polymath of his time, publishing an almost innumerable number of works on a wide variety of subjects (e.g. Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, volcanoes, fossils, cryptography, plague, musicology, etc.). His work on sinology, known as China illustrata, was first published in Amsterdam in 1667. Divided into six parts, it summarises in encyclopaedic form the most accurate knowledge of China at the time. Kircher never visited China, and based his vast work on the Jesuit missionary accounts available to him. The text is accompanied by a wealth of copperplate illustrations, which make the encyclopaedia extremely popular and sought-after by collectors to this day. It quickly became a great success, and within a few years was translated into Dutch (1668), English (1669) and French (1670). By 1735 it must have been in the library of the Jesuit College of Trnava, where it was entered in the catalogue.
Willem Janszoon Blaeu (1571–1638) and his son Joan Blaeu (1596–1673) are among the most important members of the golden age of Dutch cartography in the 16th and 17th centuries. The former began the series of atlases known as Atlas maior or Atlas novus in 1635, and the latter completed it. The original title (Theatrum orbis terrarum, sive Atlas novus) refers to the work by Abraham Ortelius (1527–1598), first published in 1570, which is the first modern atlas in the modern sense. Most of the sixth volume of Atlas novus is the work of the Jesuit missionary Martino Martini (卫匡国, 1611–1661). The first geographically detailed account of China, the provinces of China and Japan, the 17 maps accompanying the text are based on the most accurate information available at the time. The engravings and title page were hand-coloured after printing. Two additional texts were inserted at the end of the atlas: a treatise on China by Jacobus Golius (1596–1667) and a treatise on the Mongol conquests in East Asia by Martino Martini. The only omission in this extremely valuable atlas, which survives in a publisher's binding, is that the second map (Pecheli, sive Peking. Imperii Sinarum provincia prima) has been torn out. The volume must have been in the library of the Jesuit College of Trnava in 1700.
The book is part of the book adoption program of the Foundation for the University Library. Save a book, adopt a book! For more information visit our website: https://konyvtar.elte.hu/en/support-us/adopt-a-book.
Adopted books:
Athanasius Kircher: Athanasii Kircheri e Soc. Jesu China monumentis qua sacris qua profanis, nec non variis naturae et artis spectaculis, aliarumque rerum memorabilium argumentis illustrata : auspiciis Leopoldi primi ... . Amstelodami [Amsterdam] : apud Joannem Janssonium a Waesberge et Elizeum Weyerstraet, anno MDCLXVII [1667].
Martino Martini: Joannis Blaeu Theatrum orbis terrarum, sive Novus atlas, pars sexta : Novus Atlas Sinensis, a Martino Martinio Soc. Iesu descriptus er serenissimo archiduci Leopoldo Guilielmo Austriaco dedicatus ... . [Amsterdam] : [Joan Blaeu], [1655].
In the framework of our book adoption programme, our restorer and rare book librarian gave a detailed presentation on the supported volume to our adopter's representative.
Staff members of the Eötvös József Research Center for Political and State Theory at the Ludovika University of Public Service adopted János Zsámboky's book of emblems.
The main creators of emblem books in the 16th and 17th centuries were the Jesuits followed by the Piarists. An exception to this was Johannes Sambucus, János Zsámboky (1531–1584), physician, court historian, the author of several emblem books. He lived the greatest part of his life in Vienna, but was in correspondence with lay aristocrats and the high clergy in Hungary, too. One of his most famous works was the Emblemata (1564) published by Christopher Plantin in Antwerp. The emblem book presented here was published in the same city 6 years later by Philips Galle. The volume also contains 16 engravings and the Carmen heroicum by humanist physician Hugo Favolino. The work is generally regarded as the praisal of John of Austria (1547–1578), the victorious Spanish general of the battle of Lepanto (1571), but recently a number of quite complex interpretations were proposed. Most of the emblems depict military deeds and virtues with the help of triumphal arches decorated with Classic inscriptions, mythological heroes and gods, but one also finds a number of contemporary references (e.g. Ottoman garments). The work is related to the apologetic literary tradition associated with the heroes of the battle of Lepanto, in which we can perceive the recreation of the Classical literature. The copy preserved in the University Library and Archives is damaged (signatures C5-6 and D1-6 are missing).
The book is part of the book adoption program of the Foundation for the University Library. Save a book, adopt a book! For more information visit our website: https://konyvtar.elte.hu/en/support-us/adopt-a-book.
Adopted book:
RMK III 134/b
Arcus aliquot triumphal, et monimenta victor. classicae in honor invictissimi ac illustris. Iani Austriae, victoris non quieturi, auctor Ioan. Sambuco. Quibus adiectum est eiusdem argumenti Carmen heroicum per Hugonem Favolinum. Antverpiae [Antwerpen] : apud Philippum Gallaeum MDLXXII [1572].
The ELTE–NFI University Film Club screening and discussion series continues. We welcome university members from all ELTE faculties.
Péter Tímár’s cult satire is a burlesque comedy about Hungary during the transition to democracy. „This battle will be the final one!” shout both sides of the fence. Bea and Géza are a young married couple. They worked hard to build their family home. They are happy. Or rather, they were. One day, the wife receives a summons from the venereal disease clinic. If it’s a battle, then let it be a battle! The initial argument escalates into a war, with each side looking for ways to thwart the other. The young couple is also at odds with their neighbor Béla. The former Workers’ Militia member wants to expand his property, and his group of ex-colleagues are training in the secret labyrinth of cellars in the garden, eagerly preparing for the reorganisation. The turmoil reaches its peak with the arrival of Géza’s mother-in-law, but unexpectedly, an earthquake destroys the house. Construction can start all over again, and peace is restored between the spouses.
Date: 26 November 2025; 6 p.m.
Venue: University Square Campus (1053 Budapest, Egyetem tér 1-3, ground floor, A/1 practice room, corridor next to the cloakroom)
Director, screenwriter: Péter Tímár
Cinematographer: Péter Szatmári
Editor: Péter Tímár
Music: Sándor Hoffmann
Cast: Vera Pap, Sándor Gáspár, Károly Eperjes, Róbert Koltai, Enikő Eszenyi, Mari Törőcsik, László Szacsvay
Our guests in the post-screening discussion will be historian, researcher, and university lecturer György Földes and Róbert Koltai, Jászai Mari Award-winning Hungarian actor, film director, distinguished artist, and lifetime member of the Company of Immortals.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXh4TNoLyF4&t=1s
Due to limited seating, advance registration is required: https://www.ajk.elte.hu/csapd-le-csacsi-timar-peter-filmje-1990
The organizers welcome any correspondence regarding the film club at eltenfi.filmklub@elte.hu.
ELTE–NFI Film Club Facebook page