On July 23, 2025, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó announced that the New York District Attorney's Office had returned a priceless publication written in 1675 to Hungary, which had previously been stolen from Budapest.

The publication in question is Nervus Opticus sive Tractatus theoricus by Jesuit monk Zacharias Traber (1611–1679), which appeared at an auction at an antique bookshop in New York in March 2022. A handwritten note on the title page indicates that it once belonged to the library of the Jesuit college in Nagyszombat, the predecessor of the University Library. The volume, published in Vienna in 1675, is divided into three books: optics (the science of light), catoptrics (the science of reflected light, i.e., reflection), and dioptrics (the science of refraction). The title page of this richly illustrated publication was created by copperplate engraver Tobias Sadeler (c. 1641–1679), and it was probably his workshop that produced the plates containing the illustrations. In addition to the fundamentals of optics, Traber also analyzes the practical tasks involved in producing various catoptric combinations based on his personal design experience. The chapters describing the archbishop's garden in Bratislava are an important historical source. The volume was published with two different dedications: one part contained a dedication to Karl von Liechtenstein-Kastelkorn, Bishop of Olomouc (1664-1695), while the other part contained a dedication praising György Szelepcsényi, Archbishop of Esztergom. Only three copies dedicated to Archbishop Szelepcsényi are preserved today in Hungarian public collections.

As the legal successor to the library of the Jesuit college in Nagyszombat, the ELTE University Library and Archives launched an extensive investigation to determine whether the volume that appeared in New York was identical to the copy missing from our collection. With the help of the antiquarian bookshop that announced the auction, it was proven that the elements proving that the volume once belonged to a public collection had clearly been removed: a small stamp was found on the title page, and the flyleaf and endpaper (where other ownership stamps would have been) had been replaced. Multispectral imaging revealed that the volume had once borne the ownership stamp of the former Collegium of Baron József Eötvös. After lengthy research, it was finally possible to reconstruct the volume's adventurous journey. According to the University Library's manuscript catalogues, it still had seven copies of the volume in 1690. In 1777, when the library moved from Nagyszombat to Buda, it only had two copies left. During the move, approximately three thousand volumes that were no longer necessary for university education were left behind in Nagyszombat, and most of these were distributed among various church institutions and individuals. This is how one copy of the volume ended up at the Catholic High School in Pozsony, and from there to the library of the Eötvös József Collegium. It disappeared from the Collegium in the 1940s, and now, some eight decades later, thanks to the cooperation of the ELTE University Library and Archives, it can be returned to its rightful owner.

Details of the lengthy and exciting investigation can be found in Dr. Kulcsár Szabó Ernőné Gombos Annamária's article entitled Everything you wanted to know about the protection of public collections but were afraid to ask.

At the second quarterly report of the K21 Quality Coordination Committee 2025, the leaders of the working groups reported on the results of the past quarter, ongoing work and changes.

The K21 Quality Coordination Committee unanimously adopted the report on the survey on the use of electronic content. The Library Council approved the Quality Improvement Report of the University Library Service (ULS). The report was forwarded to the ELTE Quality Improvement Committee. The evaluation of the results of the ELTE Staff and the Student Needs and Satisfaction Survey has been begun by the Primer Research Working Group.

The Communication Working Group provided information on the tasks and achievements of the working groups through the website, the newsletter and the short film 3 months – 3 minutes on the mailing list, as well as contributed to the success of the preparation and administration of the K21 reporting days meetings. The group has provided additional news on the ELTE Libraries platform, including online credit card payments, as well as exhibitions and events on the occasion of the International Day of Special Needs Education, which were also published in our newsletter. The Green Library Questionnaire has been sent out and the results are expected to be published in the autumn.

During the quarter, Aleph–SAP data transfer and the SimplePay payment options were launched, simplifying the accounting of library income and the settlement of fees for services. The Library Leaders Working Group held three meetings to discuss, among others, IT challenges affecting library services, the introduction of a new chat channel, the report of the Office of Academic Policy on ELTE's publication performance in 2024, the summer shutdown of the Integrated Library System and the challenges of the ELTE ULA Savaria Library and Archives conversion.

An update on the achievements of the K21 Quality Coordination Committee and our new developments will be posted on our website soon.

We would like to inform our readers that, in line with the summer closure of the ELTE libraries, the ELTE library system will be shut down for maintenance from July 28 to approximately August 24, 2025.
During this period, reader services and the following online functions will not be available:

• Logging into the ELTEfind catalog (search functionality will remain accessible),
• Renewing loans and settling fines via the ELTE Library WebApp,
• Processing online registration requests (these will only be reviewed once the system is back online).

Please note that during the maintenance period, library staff will also not have access to the system, so it will not be possible to renew loans or handle reader-related matters via phone or email.

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. Zoltan Bay (1900–1992) physicist, university professor was a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences from 1945.

Zoltan Bay completed his secondary school studies at the Reformed College of Debrecen, and then at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of our University. Under the influence of his role model, Loránd Eötvös, he decided to pursue research in the natural sciences. During his university years, he was a member of the Eötvös Collegium, and later became an assistant professor in the Department of Theoretical Physics at the university. In 1926 he obtained a doctorate in physics with the highest distinction, sub auspiciis gubernatoris. After years at the University of Berlin and the University of Szeged, he habilitated at the University of Budapest in 1936. He continued his research work in the laboratory of the United Incandescent Company and at the Technical University of Budapest. During this period, he was awarded patents for several inventions, such as the development of high-voltage gas pipes and radio receiver circuits. He was the first person in the world to apply the principle of secondary electron multiplication to atomic counting, and today it forms the basis of all the techniques used in fast atomic counting. During the Second World War, he organised a resistance movement and undertook the construction of a secret radio transmitter. In December 1946, he was awarded the Silver Medal of the Order of Freedom, together with Albert Szent-Györgyi, for his wartime activities. In the summer of 1945, he and his research team began the first experiments in Europe to detect radar echoes from the Moon. The distance measurements that could be made with this method have greatly improved our knowledge of distances in the solar system. Forced to emigrate in 1948, he became a professor of experimental physics in the United States of America, working with Albert Szent-Györgyi and János Neumann. From 1955 he worked at the National Bureau of Standards, primarily working for the introduction of a length unit standard based on the speed of light. Measurement played an extremely important role in his work. He has played a decisive role in the development of modern measuring techniques, including the development of extremely accurate time and length measurement procedures. His results have contributed significantly to the development of space technology and the Global Positioning System (GPS). Part of his legacy is preserved in our archives.

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.