John Lippai

* Bratislava, July 1, 1606 – † Trenčín, June 2, 1666 / botanist, Jesuit monk, horticultural writer ; ; György Lippay (Bratislava, 1600 – Bratislava, January 30, 1666) was the younger brother of the Archbishop of Esztergom. He studied in Bratislava and Vienna, and became a Jesuit in 1624. He taught oriental languages at the universities in Graz and Vienna. From 1643 he was first the director of the Győr college and then of the Trenčín monastery. Later he lived at his brother's court in Bratislava and took care of the archbishop's garden. (György Lippay founded the Faculty of Law of the University of Nagyszombat and further developed and made the archbishop's garden founded in the 16th century famous in Europe, which also inspired others147 to establish gardens in Bratislava.) After the archbishop's death, he retired to the monastery in Trenčín. In addition to practical gardening, he also dealt with the scientific and theoretical issues of the profession at a level appropriate to his time, and in many cases far exceeding them. He was familiar with the works of Eastern, Greek and Roman economic writers, but also with the professional literature of his time. He saw clearly the disadvantages of unmodern farming. Therefore, he considered it necessary to write descriptive economic works that could help more modern, more practical farming. He wrote the first scientific horticultural work in Hungarian about the famous Bratislava archbishop's garden, the Pozsony Garden, which was published in three books: Virágos kert és Veteményes kert (Vienna, 1664) and the third, after his death, Gyümölcsös kert (Vienna, 1667). The three volumes were bound together and republished in Győr in 1753 (a new, facsimile edition was published in 1966). His nephew, György Lippay Jr., made illustrations for the work. In his works, he established and described some of the fundamental principles and production techniques of gardening that are still correct today. He was the first Hungarian pomologist, describing 100 fruit varieties based on his own observations. He discussed the grafting descriptions of horticultural writers with strong criticism. Rejecting superstitious beliefs, he sided with the revitalizing sciences. His work is the first attempt in our country to reconcile agricultural and horticultural theory and practice. ; ; His main work is the only Hungarian-language textbook for two centuries, which is also valuable from a language cultivation perspective thanks to its rich Hungarian language and elegant style. His previously written, calendar-shaped agricultural guidebook (Calendarium Oeconomicum Perpetuum, az az az az az az az ő nsága az Esztergam ös nsága az Pozsony ; 1661 and Nagyszombat, 1662) was also published several times. ; ; He also wrote works in Latin: ; De institutionibus et seminatione, 1663, ; Hortenses praeceptiones et deliciae, 1664, ; De fructibus diversissimis producendis, 1666.