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Acta Neerlandica 14 (2017)

Acta Neerlandica 14

(2017)– [tijdschrift] Acta Neerlandica–rechtenstatus Auteursrechtelijk beschermd

Vorige Volgende

Dávid Csorba
‘Netherlandicas’ - Calvinist Relics from the 17th Century Holland

Abstract

In my paper I analysed what kind of images of Holland might have occurred in the heads of the Hungarian Calvinist visitors in 17th century. I established seven types of visitors to demonstrate the choices of Hungarian Calvinists as for what objects i.e. relics they brought home or what objects they recalled in their memoirs when they called back their experiences in Holland. It contains 8 types of ‘netherlandicas’, 8 several images of Holland which can also be demonstrated the image the Hungarian travellers had of Holland when they started out. In their memoirs also figured an experience of Holland, and these objects (i. e. a statue, a book) recalled how Holland had been seen by these Hungarian Students, Pastors and Diplomats. At the beginning of the examined period the Hungarian students usually stayed one or two weeks or months in Holland in the course of their journey through Europe. Later on they spent some terms there and in the second third of the century some students spent long years in Holland. And in that period many evidences were left behind (travel diaries, album amicorum, editions, possessor-entries, letters, memoirs on the life and sights in Holland).

Keywords: Images of Holland, peregrination, Hungarian Calvinist Studtents, memoirs

 

The Hungarian Calvinists of the 17th and 18th centuries, who attended universities in Holland to study science, came to know several aspects of The Netherlands in the course of a century. Viewing the milieu of the universities through the eyes of Hungarian students, it can be stated that even this changed during that period of time. The aim of this study is to demonstrate how many images of Holland might have occurred in the heads of the Hungarian visitors in that century. According to my pre-

suppositions even the students who wanted to study only Theology apprehended different aspects of the country, starting with the austere Puritan Franeker, through the stock market in Amsterdam, which was the engine of world economy, to simple everyday wonders. The period I am examining now was at the same time the great century of Holland (1622-1715), when the peregrination destinations of Hungarian students changed and shifted from German universities towards the institutions of higher education in Holland and England. Orientation towards studies in Switzerland was not yet significant. According to culture-history, this was the era of the opening towards the North: Holland became one of the main destinations of tourism besides Saint Petersburg and Stockholm.1

It is memorable how the first writer of travel literature, Márton Szepsi Csombor describes the country: ‘its circumference is not bigger than 52 Hungarian haughs, thus, should a man stand in the middle of Holland he would be able to leave it on foot in any world direction within a day.’2 Accordingly, several possibilities were available for the Protestant intellectuals who went to the Seven Provinces in The Netherlands to look around, i.e. they could approach this part of the continent from various points of view. In this above mentioned period of time, everybody went there, in principle, under the auspices of peregrinatio academica i.e. to carry on their university studies. Some of the Calvinists felt the wind of ‘peregrinatio fidei’ blowing, i.e the wind of pilgrimage: thus, e.g. Sámuel Kaposi Juhász visited the sepulchre of Admiral De Ruyter in the Nieuwe Kerk, to pay tribute to the Puritan admiral who had freed the Hungarian galley slaves. (He must have been especially sensitive in this question because his father also was imprisoned in Hungary; however, he was released from prison ‘only’ because of his high age and his physical weakness).3 We have knowledge of students who had studied here and later on returned to Holland performing a diplomatic errand. István Kolozsvári, the Transylvanian student, studied in Holland and he negotiated two times in Berlin and Amsterdam as the envoy of Prince Mihály Apafi.4 After his freshman year Ferenc Otrokocsi Fóris went back to Holland two times after he had been freed from the galley. Later on, he financed his studies in Holland and England. Thus, he went to Holland four times and he wrote and published his papers with unceasing scientific fervour.5 If we examine the visitors to The Netherlands according to their qualifications, we can get a multi-colour picture of them, they ranged from tourists (Márton Szepsi Csombor), to the most numerous divisions of students (pastor, philosopher, historian, doctor, and

physicist) to merchants and artisans (demonstrated by master examinations, peregrination books, etc.), but there were also industrial intelligence agents among them (Czar Peter the Great, Miklós Tótfalusi). There were adequate reference books at their disposal (Márton Szepsi Csombor 1620, David Frölich 1644, János Sárói N. 1725): like itineraries, cynosures, albums or instructions.6

In the present paper I want to illustrate through standardization from which viewpoint Hungarian visitors observed the Dutch ‘golden century’, and how it was changing with the elapse of time. I established seven types of visitors to demonstrate the choices of Hungarian Calvinists as for what objects i.e. relics they brought home or what objects they recalled in their memoirs when they called back their experiences in Holland. I added to each of these 8 types a short career description and a characteristic object i.e. relic. However simplified this standardization might be, it still demonstrates that in the examined period 8 people apprehended and preserved the one-time memory of the peregrination through objects in 8 different ways. On the one hand, the image of Holland enlivened through the objects, i.e. the repertoire of ‘netherlandicas’ became broader and broader and more and more colourful. On the basis of these ‘netherlandicas’ several images of Holland can be created. On the other hand, it can also be demonstrated that the image the Hungarian travellers had of Holland when they started out changed totally during the examined period, i.e. in the course of a century.

A) The traveller and the stone statue

The first Hungarian visitor in the 17th century Holland was Márton Szepsi Csombor (1593-1623) who visualized the image of a traveller. An early modern guide book in Hungarian language attaches to his name. In the course of his European circuit, he visited this region. After he had worked as a teacher (called rector at that time) in Kassa, he went on peregrination between 1618 and 1619 and in connection with the experiences he made during his peregrinatio academica, he gave an exact description of the characteristics of the worlds and sights he saw. Between his journeys to Poland and England, he visited Holland and described the characteristics of the itinerary and the geographical tokens, the characteristics relating to nature (rivers, hills), society (castles, churches), civilization (attirement, habits, farming) and nation. It is difficult to highlight anything from this

suggestive travelogue that endeavours to achieve completeness. The writer admired the sights of the towns and the countryside, the important local institutions (school, reformatory schools, hospitals, prisons, pothouses), the characteristics of farming, gastronomy, the Renaissance epigraphs (tombs, theatres, inns), statues and special spectacles like e.g. the Spanish ship of grandiose size in Amsterdam.7 He described the excellent town structures but he appraised the Christian atmosphere of houses of correction (Zuchthaus / tuchthuis) even longer. If he heard or saw some saying or captions of interest he put them down as it was proper for a good literate humanist. He did not forget about the fact that he gladly and frequently spent time in the house of the Plantin press. The writer admired several interesting things. However, I am going to emphasize only one aesthetic experience of his in contrast to other visitors from the 17th century.

Examining the statues in the old church in Delft he was wonderstricken to such an extent that the heuristic moment penetrated the description of one of the statues even later: ‘I saw an epitaph here, up to that time I had not seen a more beautiful epitaph than that anywhere else. Its material was alabaster; the statue depicted a woman carved with such brilliant craftsmanship that I could not believe that it was just an idol as far as its dress and face were concerned until I touched it with my hands. It was set up to commemorate Erzsébet Morgani.’8 It is the strength of art - we could say. It is the pink of perfection of plastic art when viewers cannot believe their eyes. The old church in Delft accommodates the epitaphs of celebrities like the legendary shipmaster Maarten Tromp or the father of the microscope, Leeuwenhoek. Erzsébet Morgani or Elisabeth Morgan was Charles Morgan's wife and Philips van Marnix Aldegonde's daughter. Undoubtedly, her black marble statue turned out to be lifelike. After Elisabeth had passed away the English stone-cutter took a plaster cast of her legs and face and he made the epitaph by means of them. Today, the epitaph is fenced with a high wrought iron grid to save it from unworthy hands. Thus, we cannot approach it as Szepsi Csombor did.



illustratie
The Monument of Elizabeth Morgan


The description of the general characteristics of Holland in the volume Europica varietas turns our attention to other fields of aesthetics. The spectacle of girls moving on the ice with ‘wooden skates’ bewitched Márton Szepsi Csombor so much that he imagined them as goddesses, for his mortal eyes they seemed to be a form of divinely sweet: ‘they propel themselves by pushing, lifting and gliding with their feet, they start out in the sight of all the people and they glide at such a speed that there is no horse under the sky that could catch up with them. Even their general incessus is a mere technique; there is no Cleopatra, Camilla or such an Amazon who could be a match to them.’9 Consequently, the amazing sport event astonished the contemplating traveller. The subsequent lines, on the other hand, were a praise of the slenderly-built girls. There is no denying it that this was a particular moment: the beauty of Dutch women, their athletic, slender figure enchanted the young teacher from Kassa.

B) The trousseau of a Dutch woman

Aletta van der Maet, the Dutch wife of János Apácai Csere (1625-59), who was a Transylvanian teacher with an encyclopaedic knowledge, is an example of the next type. Lajos Áprily wrote a wonderful poem on her name on the occasion of her anniversary, which said: ‘on broken stone and crumbling cross, I am looking for the name of Alette van der Maet.’ (Spring in the Cemetery Házsongárd, 1925) The parish register in Utrecht has preserved the name of the famous wife. Research has not revealed any more data, not to speak about a trousseau. János Apácai Csere married Aletta van der Maet, commoner maiden in 1651 in the Catherine's church.10 We know about their two houses in Kolozsvár, but we do not know anything about their appliances. As Sándor Kányádi formulated it: ‘our only pack, stick, weapon is our mother tongue.’ (Apáczai, 1975) It is sure that they did not transport furniture through half of Europe because furniture was made for them in Kolozsvár, thus e.g. also a bookcase.11 Apácai and his wife died at about the same time. They had to bury their child after they had moved to Kolozsvár, their second child was buried after the parents' death. Their legacy was handled by the Reformed Church/school. Some twenty books descended to us.12

Although the ‘Belgian’ wives must have brought Dutch objects with themselves. An interesting, relevant case was put down in the municipal report in Debrecen on 19 November 1668: ‘Mathias Veresmarti Studiosus existens adulterium commisit cum Relicta con(sortis) Michaelis Sapi, natione Belga, supplicat cum eam in Consortim ducere se p(ro)mittat, impune dimittatur.’13 Mihály Sápi (1617-?), a well-to-do peasant living in Debrecen, joined the elder students in 1636. He attended the universities in Franeker and Leiden between 1641 and 1643.14 In 1643 he came home and got a teacher's position (rector) near Benedek Nagyari.15 When reading the word consors meaning ‘associate’ in the above quotation we can think about several notions like: companions in distress, brother or sister, an associate in a business or a wife. I do not know anything about an early modern Dutch-Hungarian commercial consortium in Debrecen; except that the life of a pastor/teacher-student would have taken such an interesting turn in such a way. Though the reports of the body of magistrates used this term for marital bonds (its synonym, the common name ‘conjunx’, was used less often). According to all these it was Mrs Mihály Sápi with whom the college student entered into an intimate relationship. Mihály Sápi married a Dutch woman when he was on a trip

in Holland (1643). After the death of her husband she was preparing for her second marriage in 1668. Thus, she must have been 13 to 25 years older than the prospective husband, Mátyás Veresmarti, who had been a togaed college student for two years according to the list of students,16 i.e. he must have been 20 or 22 years old. This age disparity of 16 to 20 years is significant even today, not to speak about that age when a 51-year-old man was considered an ‘old man’. (Mihály Sápi might have been about that old if he had lived to that age.)17 The church disapproved of similar differences in age and social standing. A contemporary pastor, István Sajószentpéteri's verdict sounded on the free choice of spouse at that time as it follows: ‘The marriage between a young man and an “old” woman should not be allowed just like a marriage between an “old” tat, an old man and a young wife, a young woman. Neither is a fair play.’18

However, the Dutch lady seemed to carry herself well, she was single and the student was of age, thus, the town council confirmed their relationship: ‘Deliber. As they are free persons, the woman is of a foreign nationality, the Honourable Council allows them to get married, but they have to apologize in public at church before the wedding ceremony begins. This event did not keep the student from peregrinating to Holland to attend Groningen university in 1670.19 We do not know anything else about this case: whether he took his ‘old’ wife to the Netherlands or he ran away from her. Did his wife perhaps not allow him to take a longer study trip than one term? Let it sink into oblivion! Knowing the moral sensitivity of the age, it is easy to imagine that the student attended language lessons with the foreign woman (everybody saw to extracurricular private lessons on their own) and he got entrapped in this or that way. The person who was cast suspicion of fornication on could have come off even more badly (it involved serious consequences like stocks, flogging, in some cases also beheading). It seems possible that the student gave himself up due to a deal with the dignified aged lady (no denouncer, claimant was named in this case and also the student's offer was conspicuous). Thus, he could go on improving his language knowledge preparing for his planned journey abroad. It did not cost the town council any money, either. The municipal financial reports in the 1670s inform us about the support of other students but he was not mentioned among them. Undoubtedly, there are no data on the journeys to Holland, that both Mihály Sápi and Mátyás Veresmarti took, and on the inheritance of their wifes. In this case the Hungarian scribes of family inheritances were not particularly interested in the trousseau of Dutch girls.

C) The lunch of the aristocrat

The second character of this survey of travel history is the aristocrat; here I want to pay attention to Count Miklós Bethlen (1642-1716). He is the offspring of a Transylvanian-aristocrat family (historiographer and chancellor), Maecenas of Calvinist education, founder of the college in Udvarhely. He is a gentleman-farmer and an independently politicising grand seignior whose memoirs are descriptions of the age imbibed by Protestant consciousness. He made his Holland-experience in the course of a Kavalierstour with Middle-European background (Vienna, Heidelberg, Holland, England, France, and Poland). On the one hand, he used his network of relationships like his western baronial fellows, he visited high dignitaries and lived under elegant circumstances. On the other hand, it is obvious that he found the expenses too high; he stayed at private lodgings instead of in castles. Pál Csernátoni, his associate, moved off to a humbler lodging by courtesy when they did not have enough money for an adequate existence. His Excellency found the meals unsatisfactory. ‘We did not wish to have specialities as we could not have afforded them because of the budget; beef, mutton with parsley, cabbage, carrots with parsnip, sometimes with quince apples, rice cooked in milk, roast joint, salad, fish, a lot of salmon, stock fish, herring, fish from the North-Sea (platajc); wild duck, California sea hare, pork, sausages; we did not luxuriate, though. We just kept going. We always drank just a little wine but we drank enough beer. The beautiful undried fresh butter in a small round hot loaf of bread tasted good, even if it was rough, they have very good butter and a lot of kinds of cheese that is not expensive, but I could not manage to persuade my stomach to take them in however hard I tried. Csernátoni ate a lot.’ After this needy breakfast it was proper to have a drink. ‘As French wine is very good especially without canesugar or whatever Belgian art, yea even in spite of them, Csernátoni and me went every week, usually on Saturday, to Rhenus’ wine pub where we drank 7 dl (700 ml) of wine each, sitting by the turf fire we ate a French white loaf of bread. Our throat would have urged us to go there more often; however, our purse did not let us go there more often as we ran out of almost all our money in Ultrajectum in spite of our thriftiness.20 Moderate meals, as the count sees it, (he had the landlady's daughter purchase food and cook it in Hungarian fashion) and contemplation at a bottle of French wine demonstrate a moderate indulgence in Dutch

cuisine, but even this gentlemanlike style might have consumed their money easily.

Bethlen attended the universities in Franeker, Utrecht and Leiden between May 1662 and November 1663, not very enthusiastically, though: ‘certainly I do not know what the use of seeing just a lot of stonewalls and people is. Qui multorum mores videt et urbes, that helps.’ Szepsi Csombor used the humanist writing style of town descriptions at the start of the description of each region he had visited. This way of thinking did not take up the magnat's attention. Considering this he was sorry that ‘colleges, masters and books, further on mathematical instruments cost so much money.’ Nevertheless, he often realized moral situations in certain scenes like in the pedantry of a good cook in the case of the Dutch landlady's daughter, in the lifesaving character of the small Spanish man or in the benevolence of the English widow. When Count Miklós Bethlen made political and cultural steps, he used his inherited and acquired relationships also later on (Saxon prince-elector, English king, envoys from Vienna and The Hague). These contacts were of aristocratic, academic, typographic or diplomatic character. Conversely, the discussion of Austriaca Austeritas, which was a piece of the religious polemics in the 1670s, and whose writer was unknown, was published in Kolozsvár and Vienna.21 Bethlen took a stand for the galley slaves and wrote anti-Habsburg papers like Epistola, Apologia or Continuatio, however, they were published abroad in Latin and Dutch, and some parts of them in French due to the contacts of the galley slaves and not of his.22 We do not know the letters the count wrote around 1662 and 1663,23 it seems that it was not only the Dutch cuisine that did not make a huge impression on him but also his juvenile Dutch contacts did not seem to be relevant in his life-work.

D) The theologian's library

In this virtual review, the third traveller is the usual figure of the age, the Theologian, as the majority of the peregrinating students went abroad as the culmination of their pastor training. On the basis of the students-list compiled by Réka Bozzay we can state that between 1622 and 1715 the majority of the Hungarian students registered at universities or academies took part in disputes;24 what is more, we could find several students who had made their doctorate in Holland (arts graduates, theologians, doctors).

In this case I am analysing a character that can be called typical as he attended more universities and participated in several disputes. At the same time, he stands pre-eminent among the others because he published a course book for students to study from while he was abroad. Mihály Szathmárnémethi (1638-1689) was a teacher in Tokaj, later on he served as a pastor in Gönc. He participated actively in the religious disputes against György Bársony. Then, he was dean in Kolozsvár. Several genres of godly literature are associated with his name (psalm and catechism commentaries, a volume of sermons, and a prayer book, which became bestsellers of his age. Registries from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries certify that the prayer book was published several times and the volume of sermons entitled Dominica came into general use.25

His peregrination was not far away in time from that of Count Bethlen's: he visited Holland between 1664 and 1667, and then he went to England as a member of a group of students. The album of one of his fellow students, András Szathmári, confirms this, just like the dynamic publication activity that was characteristic of them in the world of academic disputes.26 Johannes Leusden, his teacher in Utrecht, who prepared the Hebrew Bible for the press (1660), asked him to write a Hebrew course book to facilitate the Hebrew studies of the students.27 Fortunately, Mihály Szathmárnémethi's library, which consisted of 144 volumes,28 survived and was bequeathed to the church in Kolozsvár. This library shows the eternal yearning of the intellectual existence for the knowledge hidden in books, and this feeling accompanied him all his life. On the other hand, he was not much touched by the so called 2nd Anglo-Dutch war (1665-1667) which the country of King James II. fought against the Dutch armada led by Admiral De Ruyter, and which took up the attention of Holland. His attention was much more engaged by the theological dispute between Coccejus from Leiden and Voetius from Utrecht and later on between their disciples, and which divided the scientific world. The old Comenius lived in Amsterdam, several of the former students from Sárospatak paid their respect to him. Szathmárnémethi brought home even a book from the master.29 It can be stated that the Dutch international (in Latin) world of science and its relics appear associated to this person, and also the aspects of reading of this student thirsting for knowledge and belonging to the faculty of Theology of Calvinist higher education become obvious.

Mihály Szathmárnémethi and his fellow students contributed altogether to 95 publications in Franeker, Utrecht, Leiden, Groningen and

Amsterdam during their stay in Holland between February 1664 and August 1667.30 They did this within 3 and a half years, i.e. they took an exam once a fortnight or they paid respect to each other by writing poems of greeting. Some of them made also the doctorate during this time like Mihály Rimaszombati K., Jakab Csúzi Cseh, István Diószegi K. Their busiest period was between (8) June and (10) July1666. István T. Eszéki was the most ardent disputer among them who defended and published 20 disputes between 1664 and 1665. In the meantime, Holland was fighting a life-and-death struggle on the seas; however, the company of students were totally engaged by the world of their scientific disputes.

As Mihály Szathmárnémethi always entered the data on buying precisely, it is easy to trace it back what he purchased in Holland and for what purpose. Between 1650 and 1663, when he was a student in Hungary (Patak, Tokaj), he bought 20 volumes, between 1664 and 1667, when he was abroad, he bought 52 volumes. Between 1668 and 1688, when he was in Hungary, mainly in Gönc and Kolozsvár, he bought 68 volumes. During his first stay, he bought 1,5 volumes a year. In the course of his peregrination this number was 17 and during his second stay in Hungary it was 4 volumes a year. The outstandingly high number of books during his middle period shows how decisive the three and half years were which he spent in Holland and in England.31 Eighty-four per cent of these books can be associated with the three towns Franeker (19), Utrecht (13) and Leiden (12). During his student years, he could spend more money on books (between 1650 and 1670: 84 volumes and between 1670 and 1688: 56 volumes). There is a huge disproportion if we compare these periods with the time he spent in Kolozsvár. It took him 21 years in Kolozsvár to get hold of as many books as he purchased in Holland within three and half years. His books can be divided into three groups: antiques (Renaissance text editions), early modern European books (early books) and old Hungarian books, 90 % of which were written in Latin. As far as the topics are concerned, they are miscellaneous: he purchased course books (Gemma Frisius), books on confession (Bible), exegetical and polemical books (Descartes, against the Catholics and Socini), and catechetical, casuistical or martyrological editions. The majority of books are on exegetics and polemics and among these there are Calvinist theological and philosophical writings from orthodox and Cartesian points of view.

Rummaging among Mihály Szathmárnémethi's ‘netherlandicas’ it can be stated that he bought books from the presses of six towns. He

purchased the most books from the printing houses in Amsterdam, where he bought as many volumes as he bought in the five other towns altogether.32 There were 11 publishing and printing houses on the banks of the river Amstel33, among which Jansson's and Laurentius' were the most popular ones.



illustratie
Volume of Mihály Szathmárnémethi


Szathmárnémethi bought the most books in Franeker where he turned up several times, and where he spent the longest time. He bought the lowest number of books in Amsterdam (a present from Comenius). The most editions were printed in the printing-houses in Amsterdam.34

He had got also some editions in Dutch, thus, e.g. the catechism by Caspar Streso with annotations in Latin (the foreign words were translated into Latin). He bought a Statenbijbel (1654), i.e. a Bible whose translation was codified by the international Calvinist synod in Dordrecht and which was prepared with Calvinist explanations.



illustratie
Catechism of Caspar Streso


It has to be stated that Szathmárnémethi must have had a solid financial background as he could afford to spend a long time abroad, he published several writings of his (he covered the expenses of publishing and part of the expenses of the dispute) and he bought a lot of books. An average student in the early modern era purchased about 20 to 30 books. The volumes the dean in Kolozsvár had and bequeathed to the College following his death implied a much bigger library than that. He could afford all these because he was the offspring of the rich salt merchant family Szabó.

E) The diplomat's coin

Our fourth traveller is the diplomat who is not personified by a courtier as it could be the case with István Kolozsvári or with the life-work of Jakab arsányi Nagy. This person was a pastor who became a diplomat through self-education. If we take Ferenc Otrokocsi Fóris' (1648-1718) study trips and workplaces into account, we get an unbelievable set of data. The former Calvinist student from Patak became at first teacher (rector) in Szatmár, then a university student in Utrecht (Holland) and in Marburg (Germany) for a short time (1671-1673). In Hungary, he served as a pastor in Rimaszécs when the Vehmic court summoned him to Pozsony and condemned him as a non-opportunist to the galleys in Naples. He was freed by Admiral de Ruyter. He was a prisoner, then a pastor in exile (exul) when he intervened like a quasi-diplomat on behalf of his companions between 1675 and 1678. At first he visited the Protestant regions in Switzerland, Holland, England and Germany, his petitions, historical writings (Furor bestiae) and letters written in foreign languages reached the international general public. In Hungary, he served as a pastor in Gyöngyös, and then he went on a European study trip between 1690 and 1693; while he was a student in Oxford he published his writings, e.g. on the origin of the Hungarian language. In 1694 he was converted to Catholicism, he went on a study trip to Rome and applied for a research position. In the end he became the professor of Law at the Nagyszombat College.35

On the one hand, he made four doctorates (in Arts, Theology, Roman and Church law). He left behind a huge and manifold scientific life-work. On the other hand, we can see a Calvinist pastor who has the courage of his faith, a family plagued by tragedies and frustrations, and a Catholic lay priest and teacher in the end. Among his connections there were high dignitaries (he was supported in different times by the Reformed bishop of the Transtibiscan Church District and the Roman pope, respectively, kings (the Saxon prince elector, the Oranje-Nassau house), professors (of the institutions of higher education in Zurich, Leiden, Utrecht, Oxford, Vienna, Graz, Nagyszombat), diplomats (van Bruyninx, van Poot, Zaffius), and an endless row of pastors, merchants, pressmen). Consequently, his Holland-experience is multivarious. In the course of his first trip to Holland, he got acquainted with professor Burmann and professor Leusden in Utrecht. He could contact them through his letters he wrote in prisons and then on the galley, and through them he was able to win the

confidence of the Calvinist intellectual circles in Holland. Between 1676 and 1678, he turned up in this region two times. He was the head of a delegation of 8; they went to 11 towns, Dutch and Huguenot congregations, they visited pastors and ambassadors who gave them from hand to hand and had their writings printed in several languages. Among his connections research has revealed a row of ambassadors (van Bruyninx, Beumingen), professors (Burmann, Leusden) and pastors (Westhovius, van Somer, Becker, Jurieu).36 In the autumn of 1676, he conducted numerous negotiations at private, church and world political level. At the head of a small group he travelled through England. Then between 1677 and 1678 he spent a year in Holland waiting for the closing agreement at the end of the peace talks following one of the big wars. (He and his companions wanted the situation in Transylvania and Hungary to appear in the codicil of the peace treaties of Nijmegen. They were not successful.) It was then that he wrote to his professor in Zurich that he was reading Erasmus and Augustine and several other good books in the library in Utrecht.37 When he made his fourth study and scientific tour abroad between 1690 and 1693, he spent again a longer time in this region. The resources of these journeys have not been revealed as yet. Although László Zsigmond Bujtás has enriched the world of science with numerous new sources, the research of data on Otrokocsi in Dutch archives is still lagging behind.

Here I want to emphasize only one topic, namely the journey of the galley slave in Holland, i.e. a classical galley slave-relic. In his book on church history Ferenc Tóth writes in the biography of the bishop of the Transdanubian Church District, Jakab Csúzi Cseh, the following: ‘Each galley slave who was a pastor was given a silver Remembrance Coin’ with Ruyter's galleys and a legend in old Dutch on it. This coin seemed to be very realistic, but no foot-note provided information about its site. Ferenc Tóth's inheritage in the Széchenyi National Library contains plenty of letters which were written to him as a church historian. These letters show that he puts exact questions to his correspondents concerning data and resources.38 In his inheritage, there are synodal minute-books, biographical data, coins and documents of parishes. He had double aims: to write church history and to compile a lexicon of ecclesiastical biographies. I could not trace back the heir of the Remembrance Coin in this inheritage. However, the medallion exists as yet: its photo and description can be seen in a Dutch medal cabinet.39



illustratie



illustratie
Relics coin of Michiel de Ruyter


The description provided by Ferenc Tóth is almost flawless40 i.e. either he or his informant must have seen the coin. Thus, we can conclude that Admiral de Ruyter may have awarded the medallion to the galley slaves he had freed to remember his greatest victory, the 4-day battle. Though I could not find its background in the notes of the Hungarian church historian, however, I did find it in the documents of a foreign church historian. The archives in Chur (Staatsarchiv Chur, Switzerland) host numerous documents from the inheritage of Petrus Rosius á Porta (1733-1806). In his Latin manuscript on the history of the Reformation he wrote that he saw several medallions like that when he was a student in Patak (1752), and one of them used to belong to one of Otrokocsi's relatives (ex filio nepote).41

F) The pedagogue's maps

I consider the teacher the fifth type of the Hungarian travellers who visited Holland. Its model is Pál Lisznyai Kovács (1630-1693), who was a Sekler (i.e. Hungarian nationality in Transylvania). He studied in Patak, and then he worked as a teacher in Kassa. Later on, he went to The Netherlands where he stayed between 1671 and 1678 to study at the universities in Groningen and Leiden. After the death of György Martonfalvi he taught religious polemics and logics, however, he had a passion most of all for courses on comparative history. As a fanatic of chrono-

logia sacra and mathematics he published his articles as a professor of the Debrecen College at home between 1683 and 1693.42 By his own account he followed Johannes Bertlingius' method, who was his teacher in Groningen. In his inaugural speech he indicated that he planned to teach world geography on the basis of ‘Mappa Geographicas’.43 His Dutch relic did not arrive in the Carpathian basin: as a scientist of Geography and Chronology he brought home maps after his studies in Leiden (a similar teaching method was used at that time in Hungary by János Csécsi Jr. in Patak, Sámuel Kaposi Juhász in Gyulafehérvár). However, he was captured, robbed and conscripted into the army at the Hungarian border. At the time of religious disputes in Upper-Hungary, his colleagues, teachers and pastors from Patak and Kassa escaped southwards, to Debrecen and then to Transylvania, however, he headed towards Holland. Then, he could avoid to get between the fighting Kuruts (soldiers in the insurrectionist armies of Imre Thököly and Ferenc Rákóczi fighting against the Habsburg oppression at the turn of the 17th century) and Labants soldiers (nickname of pro Austrian soldiers), however, he could not get away with it when he came home at the time of the Kuruts-Labants battles in 1678. The Debrecen College redeemed him, and he wrote the history of his studies and sufferings in the introduction to his first book Cursus vitae (1683) where he expressed his thanks to his employer as ‘Piam Exulum, et Peregrinorum Matrem’.44 In his editions he wanted to follow the method he had learnt. Most unfortunately for him, the printing-house in Debrecen was conspicuously unsuccessful. The technical knowledge of the printer Pál Kassai and the old, raunchy and deficient condition of the printing house did not allow the revision of the maps printed in the Blaeu printing houses.45



illustratie
The ‘Map of Europe’ from the direction of Debrecen


G) The printer's types

The sixth type is the character who chose craft instead of an academic career, the one ‘who went to Holland to steal his craft.’46 This person was Miklós Misztótfalusi Kis (1650-1702), the printer from Transylvania. He acquired his basic knowledge in Nagybánya and Enyed. After he had been head (senior) of the student self-government in 1680 he had the possibility to go to The Netherlands with the support of Count Miklós Bethlen. As it is well-known, instead of theological studies he wanted to revise the Jansson's Bible which was published in Amsterdam without having been read by a Hungarian proof-reader. He learnt type-founding, punch carving, matrix founding and another craft, the typography in the Blaeu printing-house. The characters with elegant bows that he carved himself met with recognition and fame irrespective of denomination and culture: ‘even so if I had stayed there longer, I would have been recommended such a girl with whom a dower of 60.000 i.e. sixty-thousand forints would have been given to me because they observed that money was sometimes brought by a hand-barrow to my lodging.’47



illustratie
Shape of prints of Miklós Misztótfalusi


During his long stay in Holland he rented an elegant house in Amsterdam. Sámuel Kaposi Juhász, who as a student worked for him as a proofreader, registered Tótfalusi's address (Nr. 134 Spuistraat, there is a memorial tablet on its wall).48

In spite of this, he lived a Puritan life devoting all his energy and allotting all his money to achieve his sacred aim. As he puts it in his apology Excuse of His Own:

Namely, I did not want to bring from my earnings even a poltra home, I was busy doing anything to accomplish my aim which was - I say this was my task - to enrich my fatherland and to reduce its expenditure. Consequently, with the money that remained after these books had been printed and bound I bought other books most of which are now on their way to Poland. Even after this I had some money left, thus, I offered a part of it to the Hungarians in Belgium and gave them my money to help them come home; I laid aside only as much as I thought to be enough to cover my travel expenses back home.49

He made a foundation at the Seven Provinces saving bank. The interests on this money were to be used for scholarships for Hungarian students studying abroad so that they could finance their travel costs back home.50

When the world famous printer set out for home in 1689, he transported also his type specimen. Their fate is well known. His short activity here was spent with spitefulness which ruined his bodily health and broke his spirit. The clash between the two value systems and mentalities was inevitable when squeezed into one case map. Ferenc Pápai Páriz deservedly commemorates his friend, the Transylvanian phoenix, as a lonely and special phenomenon when he writes: ‘As the smutty smoke of his sweet fatherland seems to him brighter than other nations' fire / in his homeland the bitter is sweeter than other peoples' honey, / his passionate love craves after his home.’51

After the printer's death in 1702, his inheritage was appraised at first by an ecclesiastical committee. Sámuel Kaposi Juhász, professor in Gyulafehérvár and his former help in Holland, was one of the members of this committee. From Tótfalusi's books he himself took e.g. a Venetian edition (1551-1552) of an Augustine volume with correct possessor's entries in all 5 volumes.52 Tótfalusi bequeathed the printing-house to the Reformed Church in Kolozsvár. After a lot of vicissitudes and indecisions the governor ordered to pay the price of the carving set and the founding set to the widow. The fate of his types (Florentine gopher types, Georgian

and other types) and his 1200-Taler-worth matrices he left in Amsterdam is not less vicissitudinous: a lot of people have already inquired about them and their dittos.53

H) The scientist's museum

The seventh type of the travelling students is the encyclopaedist who is personified by Sámuel Kaposi Juhász (1660-1713). He remained a student of Patak until his death: in the 1670s, the College migrated because of the Counter-Reformation from Patak through Debrecen to Gyulafehérvár (Alba Iulia). In the course of time, Kaposi's father was imprisoned and it is only because of his old age that he was not sent to the galleys. During this time, his son was studying abroad; he spent 8 years in Holland (1681-1688). From his return home until his death, he was professor at his Alma Mater. It is difficult to summarize the material remains (relics) of his peregrination in a nutshell, just like those of Szepsi Csombor's. Only one volume of his omniarium, i.e. his diary, has survived, which contains a lot of exciting additional materials to the years spent abroad, the experiences he saw, heard and read there and the content of the trunk of the students who were travelling home.54 In this diary, there is an instruction which demonstrates the practical details of peregrination in 16 points: how to look for accommodation and secure contacts, change money and make seat reservation for a ship, have a list of some important persons and sights from Poland to England.55 In the course of the unusually long peregrination the students' aim might have been the recognition of cultural diversity in the world: beyond the basic knowledge in Arts, Philosophy, Epigraphy, Theology and language courses, their curiosity tended towards Mathematics, Physics, Mechanics, Optics, Geography, Navigation, Botany, Gastronomy. Over and above they also paid sensitive attention to everyday, practical ideas of Dutch households. No wonder that he was awarded the doctorate in an unusual way namely sine disputatione, i.e. he did not have to defend his thesis (Leiden, 1688). Of course, he brought home numerous books. He made up several lists of books; if we just add up their numbers, there are c. 2000 items most of which were purchased in Holland.56 He brought several Hungarian Bibles with him as he used to be the colleague namely the corrector of Miklós Tótfalusi Kis just like Pál Debreceni Ember in Holland. The latter was the later, learned editor of the first Hungarian book on church history. Several

of his manuscripts, essays, and tuition notes survived all of which were based on experiences he made, lessons he saw and drafts of books he read in Holland.

It is obvious that Sámuel Kaposi Juhász' Holland-experience is multivarious. He lived namely in a country which had won battles and gained dominance in world economy. He did not only register inscriptions on the facades of houses and visited the bourse which was compulsorily recommended, but he also followed up the deeds of the House of Orange, he drew pictures of useful kitchen utensils, and often went to see the unloading of the ships of the West-Indian Company. His experience came from there when he saw an Indian green sparrow and a mariner mummified in a barrel of wine; his companions brought him home to be buried. He was busy putting down the epitaphs on Ruyter's tomb in the Nieuwe Kerk, which did not only demonstrate the homage of Humanists towards epigraphy, but it was also a way of paying honours towards artistic intensity and last but not least it was an obeisance in front of the rescuer of the Hungarian galley slaves.57



illustratie
The Monument of Michiel de Ruyter in Amsterdam


Kaposi's personal attitude is easy to understand: he was not allowed to visit his father in the prison; he could see him only from outside of the prison. At the time when he was putting down the inscriptions his father had already passed away. However, the admiral was remembered in Holland as a hero. The pastors in Hungary did not even have the chance to live their suffering, confessing life worthily. Kaposi was there when the persecution of the Huguenots (after 1685) took place, and he was there when money and bestowments were collected, and he registered who gave what in each town. He also took part in Hungarian diplomacy. (His meeting with István Kolozsvári and Abraham van Poot was recorded in his diary.)

József Hermányi Dienes, the faithful keeper of 18th-century anecdotes and memories and at the same time the writer of Democrats of Nagyenyed, registered that his father saw Kaposi's museum rarity collection.58 Namely, it was characteristic of the age that the intellectuals collected rarities, set up a museum in a room or, in a part of their house, thus, imitating the style of the aristocrats. Among the items there must have been other specialties (books, coins and even things like e.g. the Indian green sparrow that was so much admired in Amsterdam) besides the books, that have already been mentioned. Thus, e.g. there were the maps, microscopes and compasses which were registered in the album and transported home and which he used for teaching in Gyulafehérvár according to his notes.59 According to the drawings in his diary he saw plenty of wonders during his studies in Leiden (clepsydra, Petri dish, virginal, minerals, magnifying glasses, perpetual calendar, pump, etc.). On the basis of all these we can presume that only the memory of the rarities of Kaposi's inheritage survived, which he had collected during the 8-year peregrination. Only journal-entries preserved the reflections of an extinct world.

Conclusion

Finally, it is worth summarizing the edification of this review. The travellers' memories, which the researchers of travel or culture history deal with, are easy to summarize at a mental-spiritual level. However, objects (relics) rarely occur. In this study I have written about such 17th-century Hungarian Calvinist persons who brought some relic objects with them, and these were also named by the sources. Relic objects did not

very often survive; only the notes about the experiences in Holland subsisted.

It is characteristic of the age that various evidences were left behind (travel diaries, album amicorum, editions, possessor-entries, letters, memoirs on the life and sights in Holland). It can be stated that everybody bought and wrote books and brought them home. Towards the end of the 17th century they chose souvenirs according to the new style of the age (maps, microscopes, watches, coins). Thus, huge numbers of books which were purchased turn up (Humanist, Catholic, Calvinist, Jewish editions); the sources mention mainly personal belongings (walking sticks, hats, overcoats) and rarely also specialties like Ruyter's coin or a green sparrow. It is unusual to speak about objects without which travelling in the early modern age would have been inconceivable. The family legacies must have kept them safe for a long time, in spite of this, they fell into decay just because of their usual character. These are e.g. leather bags for travelling requisites (many kinds of money, salvi passus / travel license, seat reservations, letters of recommendation, annotated Bibles used as language books, calendars); everyday requisites in small chests (a gown, a walking stick, a hatbox, a gunpowder-pouch, clothes), prime necessities (a clasp-knife, tin dishes, spices and live animals in cages).

At the beginning of the examined period the Hungarian students usually stayed one or two weeks or months in Holland in the course of their journey through Europe. Later on they spent some terms there and in the second third of the century some students spent long years in Holland (Lisznyai, Tótfalusi and Kaposi, though, the 8 to 10 years they spent in Holland were considered even then a peculiarity.) The travellers brought home stones as relics and they described their relation to these individual objects. Knowing the travelling and health conditions, further on, the lifestyle, etc. in that age, it rarely occurred that a travelling student, even if he was a gentry or a Transylvanian aristocrat, could return to the place of his education abroad several times (István Kolozsvári, Otrokocsi). Studying abroad was a unique and one-time experience for most of them. From the 18th century, however, Holland started to play a more significant role, and it was no more famous for the fact that students purchased books there. Several towns in the small country appeared among the destinations as Venice of the North.

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Abbreviations

RMK - Régi Magyar Könyvtár [Early Hungarian Books]

RMKP - Régi Magyar Könyvtár Pótlások [Addenda to Early Hungarian Books]

RMKT - Régi Magyar Költők Tára [Early Hungarian Poets Series], XVII/13.

 

ARR - Academic Library of Kolozsvár / Cluj Napoca, Romania.

HBmL - Hajdú-Bihar megyei Levéltár, Debrecen.

UBC - University Library of Kolozsvár / Cluj Napoca, Romania.

OSZK - Országos Széchényi Könyvtár, Budapest.

StC - Staatsarchiv Chur, Schwitzerland.

ZbZ - Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Schwitzerland.


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