John of Transylvania

* Kiskapos, April 1, 1814 – † Sárospatak, January 23, 1868 / lawyer, poet, academic ; teacher, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences ; ; He began his school studies in his hometown, then from 1824 he studied intermittently in the Reformed College in Sárospatak. Between 1835 and 1840 he was the tutor of the sons of Zsigmond Máriássy in Berzétén, while he also studied law in Sárospatak and spent the summer months in Pest. By this time he was already writing poetry. He completed his law studies in 1837 and was a lawyer's clerk for a few years. In November 1839, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences elected him a corresponding member in recognition of his literary work. During these years, he was also beset by many personal tragedies: in a short time he lost his parents, his brother, and after a year of marriage, his wife, Nelli Vahot (sister of Imre Vahot and Sándor Vahot), and his little girl. In the first half of the 1840s, he set off on two longer trips to Europe, and reported on his experiences in the journal Regélő in the form of travel letters. At that time, he began to think about the need to systematically collect the surviving works of Hungarian folk poetry, and, having received a commission from the Kisfaludy Society, he began the collection work. In 1848/49, he was the director of the National Theatre, but after the suppression of the War of Independence, he went into hiding for months. In 1851, he became a professor at the philosophy department of the Sárospatak College and, during the Bach era, he raised the institution to a kind of intellectual center of the Uplands. In 1854, he married for the second time. [His wife was Ilona Csorba, from which he had a son, Pál Erdélyi, who married late and in 1921 and 1926 his daughters – grandchildren of János Erdélyi! – were born in Komárom, Zsuzsanna Erdélyi (January 10, 1921 –) ethnographer, and Ilona Erdélyi (December 27, 1926 –) literary historian.] János Erdélyi organized the Kazinczy centennial commemoration in 1859, and in 1860 he organized a celebration on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Sárospatak college. From 1863 until his death he taught Hungarian literature, then world literature history, at the college. ; ; His main works: ; Collection of Hungarian folk poetry. Folk Songs and Legends I-III., 1846–1848, ; Book of Hungarian Proverbs, 1851, ; Hungarian Folk Tales, 1855, ; Selected Hungarian Folk Songs, 1857, ; The Present of Hungarian Philology, 1857.