Laszlo Fejerpataky

* Prešov, 17 August 1857 – † Budapest, 6 March 1923 . / historian, librarian, archivist, university professor, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences ; ; A scion of an old noble family, which had estates in several counties in the Upper Hungary (Gömör, Hont, Liptó, Nyitra). He began his secondary school studies with the Piarists of Pest, and graduated with honors from the Royal Catholic High School in 1875. He studied history at the University of Budapest and then the University of Vienna. He received his doctorate in 1878 and his degree in history and Latin in 1879. Between 1879 and 1895 he was a private teacher at the University of Budapest, from 1895 he was a public full-time teacher of diplomas and heraldry, and from 1882 to 1893 he was also the archivist of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. In 1893 he was appointed as the director of the National Széchényi Library, and in 1901 as its director general. From 1915 he was the head of the MNM, and from 1920 until his death as its director general. As a researcher, he primarily dealt with charters, heraldry, chronology and seal studies. ; He was the first to examine the authenticity of the Pannonhalma charter and proved that it was created in 1001. Later, he processed the charters of the royal chancelleries of the Árpád era. His activity as a source publisher was also significant. He compiled the accounting books of several towns in the Uplands: Selmecbánya, Pozsony, Besztercebánya, Nagyszombat, Bártfa, Körmöcbánya. He published the Anonymus Gesta Hungaroruma in a duplicate edition. As a university professor, he placed emphasis on teaching the auxiliary sciences of history, and urged the deepening of the teaching of the history of writing and the study of diplomas. He laid the foundation for the Hungarian collection of the National Széchényi Library, and had the libraries, documents, and legacies of famous people (among others: Lajos Kossuth, Károly Kisfaludy, Ede Szigligeti, Gábor Egressy, Pál Gyulai, Mór Jókai, Imre Madách) purchased. By the end of 1919, a collection of more than 155,000 items had been created. In August 1919, he prevented the Romanian troops occupying Budapest – with the effective help of American General Harry Hill Bandholtz – from removing the Transylvanian-related material from the Hungarian National Museum. (He suffered his first heart attack during the fight. The next one, four years later, was fatal.) He also played an important role in making books more accessible to the wider public, and he encouraged his colleagues to take part in their scientific processing in addition to the professional handling of library materials. ; ; Main works: ; The founding charter of the Pannonhalma Abbey, 1878, ; Our literature in the time of the Árpáds. 889–1301, 1878, ; The royal chancellery in the time of the Árpáds, 1885, ; Old accounting books of Hungarian cities, 1885, ; Acta legationis cardinalis Gentilis. Documents of the Hungarian legation of Cardinal Gentilis. 1307–1311 (with Antal Pór) 1885, ; Rationes collectorum pontificiorum in Hungaria. Accounts of Papal Tithe Collectors. 1281–1375 (with Arnold Ipolyi), 1887, ; Hungarian Genealogy Pocket Book. I. Major Families (with József Szinnyei), 1888, ; King Kálmán's Charters, 1892, ; Charters from the reign of King Stephen II, 1895, King Béla III. Charters, 1900, ; Monumenta Hungariae; Heraldica. Hungarian Coat of Arms I–II., 1901–1902, ; Coats of Arms of the Árpáds, 1908, ; Papal Charters (with Antal Áldásy), 1926.