Albert Szenci Molnar

* Szenc, 30 August 1574 – † Kolozsvár, 17 January 1639 / Reformed priest, linguist, philosopher, psalmist, church writer, translator ; ; His ancestors came from the Székelyland to Bratislava County and worked as millers. He started his schooling in his hometown from 1584, studied in Győr in 1586, in Gönc in 1587, and in Debrecen in 1588–1590. In 1590, he taught briefly in Košice, then went to universities abroad: in Wittenberg in 1590–1591, in Heidelberg in 1592, in Strasbourg in 1593–1596, and again in Heidelberg in 1597–1599. In the second half of 1599, he returned to his hometown and toured the Highlands. From the autumn of 1600, he was a student in Herborn, the following year he was a corrector in Frankfurt, and in 1602 he became a tutor in Amberg. In 1603, he began writing his Latin-Hungarian dictionary in Altdorf. In 1604, he stayed in Nuremberg to take care of the printing of his dictionary. In Prague, he personally handed over the work recommended to King Rudolf to the ruler, where he also met Kepler (1571–1630). From 1605, Móric lived in Altdorf, from 1607 in Marburg, and from 1609 in Oppenheim; as a protégé of the Prince of Hesse. From 1612, he was a court priest in Rohonc to the captain-general of Transdanubia, Count Ferenc Batthyány. In 1614, he was a priest for a short time in Komárom. In 1614 he traveled to Transylvania. ; He did not accept the teaching position offered by Prince Gábor Bethlen, and in 1615 he returned to Germany, becoming an assistant teacher in Amberg. From 1615 he was a cantor and schoolmaster in Oppenheim, from 1619 he lived in Heidelberg, and from 1622 in Hanau. In 1624 he came home to Košice, where Gábor Bethlen took care of his maintenance, and thus he pursued exclusively scientific and writing activities. From 1626 until his death he lived in Kolozsvár. He was a purposeful scholar who wanted to use his whole life with his work. With his Latin dictionary, which was in use with revisions until the middle of the 19th century, he opened the way for the Hungarian intelligentsia towards European scholarship. With his Hungarian grammar in Latin, he was the first after János Sylvester to introduce the peculiarities of the Hungarian language to Europe. The ref. He presented the church with the psalms, the revised Károli Bible, the translation of Calvin's Institutes, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the collection of sermons by Scultetus. His influence on the development of the Hungarian literary language and Hungarian poetry was epoch-making. His activities were also highly regarded by one of his most significant contemporaries, Péter Pázmány. Literary historian Zsigmond Zalabai (Ipolypásztó) was a frequent subject of his work in the last years of his life. The Hungarian-language elementary school in Szenc bears his name, and there is a statue of him in his hometown, which is wreathed every year. The city's Csemadok organization organizes Szenczi Molnár Albert Days in the autumn months. ; ; His main works: Dictionarium latino-ungaricum and Ungaro-latinum (Nuremberg), 1604, ; Psalterium ungaricum… (Herborn), 1607, ; Small Catechism (Heidelberg), 1607, ; Holy Bible… (Hanau), 1608, ; Novae grammaticae ungaricae… libri duo (Hanau), 1610, ; Postilla Scultetica… (Oppenheim), 1617, ; Teaching on the Christian Religion and True Faith… (Hanau), 1624.