Mátyás Bél (Belius, Bel, Matej)

* 1684. March 24. Nagyócsa, (Očová, Slovakia) - † 1749. August 29. Bratislava, (Bratislava) / Evangelical pastor, teacher, philologist, historical and geographical researcher ; ; To master the Hungarian language well, he studied in Veszprém and Pápa, and between 1704-7 he studied theology and medicine at the University of Halle. Upon returning home, he was an Evangelical pastor and teacher in Banská Bystrica between 1709 and 1713, director of the Evangelical Gymnasium in Bratislava from 1714, and in 1719 he was elected the first pastor of the Evangelical Church in Bratislava. With the support of the monarch, he began publishing geographical and historical data arranged by county (in Latin). The published volumes of his large-scale work, the Notitia Hungariae novae historico-geographica (Historical and Geographical Description of New Hungary), contain descriptions of 10 counties, the other volumes remained in manuscript. His collaborator was Sámuel Mikoviny, who prepared the maps. Although Mátyás Bél knew and used Hungarian, Slovak and German equally well, he wrote all his works in Latin. His works are still indispensable sources for the historical and geographical research of Hungary. He began the printed publication of manuscript historical sources. He founded modern Hungarian state knowledge and country description research. The university in Bánya-Biszterce is named after him (Univerzita Mateja Bela). (Bartha Lajos) ; ; Web documents: ; ; - Pallas Nagy Lexikon (MEK) ; - József Szinnyei: The Life and Works of Hungarian Writers (MEK) ; - Mátyás Bél (Wikipedia); - Ferenc Nagy: Hungarian Scholarly Encyclopedia from A to Z (BETTER - METESZ - OMIKK); - Portrait Gallery of Hungarian Chemistry (Chemonet); - History of Hungarian Literature (MEK); - András Antal Deák: Mátyás Bél (Our National Anniversaries 2009 - PDF); - Portrait Gallery of Hungarian Mountaineering and Tourism (BME); - László Keveházi: Mátyás Bél (Hungarian Protestant Pantheon); - Csongor Kiss: Chronicle (Hungarian Workshop on the History of Science and Technology); - 320 Years Ago Mátyás Bél (National Geographic Hungary); - Mátyás Bél, Pietist Polyhistor from the 18th Century (Past-Kor Historical Portal); - János Cúth: The source regions of our Hungarian consciousness - Portrait gallery of Hungarian scientists - The one-person institution Mátyás Bél (Institute of Hungarian Studies - PDF) ; - N. László Szelestei: Catalogue of the manuscript legacy of Mátyás Bél (REAL - Repository of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences - PDF) ; - Gergely Tóth: Manuscripts of Mátyás Bél in the library of the Lutheran Lyceum in Bratislava (MEK) ; - Biographies (Good luck) ; - Matej Bel University (Banská Bystrica - English)