Object of the month – Furniture of Gábor Devecseri

Gábor Devecseri (1917–1971), Hungarian poet, writer, literary translator, classical philologist and poet, winner of the Kossuth and two-time Attila József prizes, and his wife Klára Huszár spent their summers in Szombathely as creative artists of the Iseum Games in the 1960s and early 1970s. They were key figures in the cultural life of the town, initially staging the works of Plautus and later Mozart.

After the death of her husband, Klára Devecseriné Huszár wished to donate her library to a Hungarian higher education institution, where teachers of Hungarian language and literature are trained, and the legacy is processed and maintained while preserving the collection in its original form. This is how the Gábor Devecseri Special Collection was established in March 1982, according to the foundation charter, and housed in the Council Hall of the Berzsenyi Dániel Teacher Training College (now ELTE Savaria University Centre), Building B. In 1992, Katalin Tóthné Király edited the library's volume catalogue, which lists the documents in the storage order of the collection, refers to the marginal notes and contains the full text of the various dedications. In the introduction to the catalogue, Klára Huszár wrote of her husband's library: “it is not a scientific collection, nor the legacy of a book collector, but that of a passionate reader and a writer-translator intoxicated by the “workload”, whose working tools and delightful relatives are these volumes”.

A few years later, Gábor Devecseri's son János Devecseri donated a table and chairs from his father's estate to the Savaria Library and Archives of the Eötvös Loránd University Library and Archives, with the intention of placing it with the poet-translator's library of over 4,000 volumes. The gift furniture had been part of the artist couple's home since the early 1950s, “participating” in the creation of their works and “witnessing” conversations between friends.

According to sources and the family, artists, scientists and public figures met regularly around the table: Zoltán Kodály; István Anhalt; Lajos Bárdos; György Somlyó and Mariann Csernus; Ferenc Karinthy, his wife and son Márton; János Vajna, András Bródy and Márta Vajna; Alfréd Rényi and his wife; Vilmos Zolnay; Imre Trencsényi-Waldapfel and Margit Petrolay; Emil Schultheisz; Aladár Dobrovits and Tekla Dömötör; István Polgár Telegdi and Grácia Kerényi; György János Szilágyi; József Szendrő; Klára Antal Szerb Bálint; István Örkény and Zsuzsa Radnóti; Vilmos Zolnay; Magda Csécsy. In addition to them, at the table: Anna Bede; members of the Benedek family; Iván Boldizsár; Tibor Déry; József Fodor; István Eörsi; Róbert Falus; Oszkár Gellért; Géza Hegedüs; Miklós Hubay; Csilla Kárpáty; István Lakatos; Elek Máthé; Zsigmond Ritoók; István Vas; Béla Vihar.

The table and four chairs are now on display in the community space on the second floor of the Savaria Library and Archives building of the ELTE University Library and Archives.

Written by Eszter Molnár

The Hungarian feature film Cold Days will be screened in the framework of the ELTE Hungarian Summer University in the Carpathian Basin. In addition to the participants of the Summer University, the event is open to all ELTE citizens.

Cold Days focuses the plot on a hitherto silenced historical event, and is a feat of writing, acting and directing that transcends the subject to explore universal questions of responsibility. In 1942, Hungarian army officers ordered a raid in the Bácska region, resulting in the murder of two thousand five hundred Serbs and eight hundred Jews. Three thousand three hundred people disappeared „without a trace” in a hole blown up on the ice of the Danube where the victims were shot. The four participants in the massacre, awaiting their sentences in a common cell, recall the terrible „cold days” of five years ago... The former soldiers recount what happened during those three freezing days. The conversations, approached from different perspectives, reveal terrible secrets.

The Cold Days is an inescapable classic. András Kovács’s work has gone down in film history as one of the greatest feats of Hungarian modernism. Tibor Cseres has brought to the screen a historical fact-finding novel summing up twenty years of research.

Date: 9 July 2025; 18:30

Venue: ELTE University Library and Archives (1053 Budapest, Ferenciek tere 6, Community space from the lobby, ground floor)

Director: András Kovács

Screenwriter: András Kovács, Tibor Cseres

Cinematographer: Ferenc Szécsényi

Main actors: Zoltán Latinovits, Iván Darvas, Tibor Szilágyi, Ádám Szirtes, Margit Bara, Éva Vass

Preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZEy0rnW4j4

Our guests in the post-screening discussion are Tamás Stark, historian (HUN-REN Research Centre for Humanities, Institute of History) and Gábor Gelencsér, film historian (ELTE BTK Institute for Art Theory and Media Research, Department of Film Studies).

According to our tradition, this year we joined the Night of Museums series of events, which included craft activities, concerts, film screenings, guided tours, restoration, fire enamel and calligraphy workshops, as well as a Mór Jókai Memorial Exhibition. 

The bookbinding and fire enamelling workshop, the calligraphy workshop and the guided tours of the Mór Jókai Memorial Exhibition, with quizzes, puzzles and bookmark colouring, were waiting for the kids and adults from 15.00. The evening programme opened with a concert by the ELTE Béla Bartók Choir and the University Concert Orchestra, conducted by László Kovács, Liszt Ferenc Prize-winning artist, and accompanied by Dr. Ferenc Rákosi on piano.

Through our building tours, visitors were given an insight into the history of the library and the rooms of the historic building. They were also able to learn about the restoration process, our museum collection, the life and work of Mór Jókai, as well as enjoy a film screening of the cartoon Saffi, the Treasure of Swamp Castle and the silent film The Man with the Golden Touch and create unique hardcover books. During our event, our guests were able to attend the Fuvalom Singing Ensemble concert.

Our commemorative exhibition „Jókai 200 – The soul of a century, the writer of a nation”, inaugurated at this year’s event series, will be open until 10 September 2025, on weekdays between 10.00 and 15.00. Registration is possible by e-mail at titkarsag@lib.elte.hu. All visitors are welcome!

Krisztina Tóth's study „Archive on the Edge of the City” was published, which presents the operation of the archive site at Maglódi út 8 between 2005 and 2024, its infrastructural and professional development, and the history of the building.

Between 2005 and 2024, our archives were located at 8 Maglódi út. Krisztina Tóth’s study entitled Archives on the outskirts of the city, published in the Archives Review (Levéltári Szemle) 2025, issue 1, is about the infrastructural changes, the growth of the collection, the professional work, the history of the building and the changes of ownership of the building.

The Hungarian Academy of Sciences will celebrate its 200th anniversary in 2025. Among its members are many distinguished students and teachers who have left their mark not only on the Academy but also on the history of our institution. Lipót Fejér (1880-1959) mathematician, university professor was a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences from 1930.

Lipót Fejér attended primary school in Pécs, and also finished his secondary studies in 1897 at a school focusing on science. Later he started to work for the Mathematical Journal for High Schools upon the initiative of Zsigmond Maksai. His special talents were manifested primarily in his solutions of geometrical problems. He was admitted to the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the József University of Technology in 1897, however, next year he went over to the Budapest University where the lectures held by Manó Beke and Loránd Eötvös had the greatest influence upon him. In the academic year 1899/1900 he studied at the Berlin university. He had started to deal with the Fourier series as a student. This became the subject of his thesis and doctoral dissertation in mathematics. He started to teach at the Kolozsvár university in 1905, where he became a full professor very early, at the age of 31. In 1911 – upon the initiative of Loránd Eötvös – he was appointed to the department of mathematics of the Budapest University. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences elected him as a corresponding member in 1908, and a full member in 1930. In 1933 he participated at a lecture tour in the United States of America where he visited 15 universities. Due to his Jewish background, he suffered a lot during the Nazi period and even his life was threatened. He died on 15 October 1959 in Budapest. His rich papers are kept in the archives of ELTE.

The main task of the ELTE Heritage Coordination is the preservation and protection of our cultural heritage. To this purpose, various tools and equipment have been purchased for eight departments in 2024.

The purchases included: 500 paper bags for manuscripts, fragments, diplomas and other documents, 600 acid-free archival boxes for documents, 13 bookends for books, 8 individual acid-free boxes for museum books, 30 protective gloves, 8 digital thermo-hygrometers, 100 archive paper boxes, 6 foam wedges for books, 15 different sized photo boxes for pre-1950 photographs, 3 leatherette boxes with university coat of arms for storing and transporting dean’s chains and 100 mineral storage boxes. With the help of a grant from the National Cultural Fund, the restoration of the University History Collection, which includes three caps, two medallions and three ribbons from the former university uniforms, was completed.

The object of the month – Candle from the funeral of Mór Jókai

The writer Mór Jókai was born on 18 February 1825 in Komárom. After high school, he began to study law in Kecskemét, and in 1846 he qualified as a lawyer. However, he soon left his profession and became a journalist. He was an active participant in the events of 15 March 1848 and worked as a journalist and editor during the War of Independence and after its fall. 

Jókai wrote his first novel in 1846. However, his writing career really took off after the fall of the War of Independence in the 1850s. His novels were published in succession and he became very popular. He was elected a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1858, then a full member in 1861. In 1894, on the occasion of his half-century jubilee as a writer, his works were published in a national edition, celebrations were held in schools, his plays were performed in theatres and a ball was held in his honour. Our university also took part in the national celebrations, and on 18 February 1894, the writer was awarded an honorary doctorate and received a delegation from the university in his apartment. Aladár Schnierer, Rector, Lajos Láng, Dean of the Faculty of Law, Zsolt Beöthy, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, accompanied by seven students, welcomed Mór Jókai with toasts, a handshake and an honorary degree. His death in 1904 shocked the whole country, and on 9 May thousands of people escorted him from the foyer of the National Museum to his final resting place in the Kerepesi cemetery. The funeral was attended by the director and staff of the University Library, who honoured the memory of the prince of letters with a wreath bearing the inscription „Keepers of your immortal works – the University Library of Budapest”. After the funeral, Zoltán Ferenczi, Library Director, was presented with a candle from the funeral, which is still kept in the University History Collection.

The wax candle, 60 cm long and in a black paper box, is bound with black ribbon. Next to the candle is an obituary addressed to Zoltán Ferenczi, Director of the Library, on the death of Mór Jókai.

On Sunday, 13 April 2025, on the occasion of the International Day of Special Needs Education, the exhibition Traces of the life of our namesake, Gusztáv Bárczi was on display in the library of the Faculty of Special Needs Education, as well as an exhibition on the history of special needs education, which was also held in another room, provided also by the Faculty Library and the Special Needs Education History Collection.

A detailed report of the whole event is available on the Faculty’s website: https://barczi.elte.hu/en/content/we-celebrate-the-international-day-of-special-needs-education.t.3719

Elsevier is offering trial access to its service called Scopus AI from June 10 to June 24, 2025. The service can be accessed from the Scopus homepage, by connecting to the ELTE internet network, or outside the university using a VPN service.

Scopus AI, integrated into the Scopus platform, is an intuitive and intelligent search tool based on generative artificial intelligence. It helps users navigate the vast amount of information available in Scopus. It allows users to find articles using natural language queries and provides easily understandable summaries of research findings. The tool supports the exploration of research areas and helps identify opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration.

The provider is organizing a training webinar entitled Scopus AI in Action – Smarter Research, Sharper Decisions on the first day of the trial, which will demonstrate how Scopus AI works in practice.

Date and time: June 10, 2025 (Tuesday), at 11:00 AM (CEST)

Registration: https://elsevier.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_TCGWvtNyRWCdhngZhCDjjg