Kalman Thaly

* Csép, January 3, 1839 – † Zablát, September 26, 1909 / politician, historian, poet, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1880) ; ; He started high school in Bratislava and finished it in Pápa. He enrolled in theology at the ref., then graduated in law and humanities at the University of Pest in 1860. After obtaining his diploma, he worked for the Pesti Napló, was a literature teacher at the ref. high school in Pest between 1864 and 1868, and became a class advisor at the Ministry of Defense in 1869. From 1875 he lived in Bratislava for his historical studies. From 1878 he was a member of parliament for Ferencváros (Pest), from 1881 for Debrecen, and was the second chairman of the Independence Party. One of the founders of the Hungarian Historical Society, its first secretary (until 1875), its vice-president from 1889, the first editor of Századok (1867–1875). From 1904, he was the chairman of the Department of Philosophical, Social and Historical Sciences of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. During his extensive literary activity, he mainly dealt with the Rákóczi era, of which he created a romantic-nationalist, yet strongly aristocratic-noble spirit. He brought to light a lot of source data, but without sufficient criticism. He composed some of the Kuruc poems he published himself and presented them as contemporary works. Frigyes Riedl (Ladomér) and Vilmos Tolnai independently demonstrated that these were forgeries. ; At his suggestion, the House of Representatives decided to erect monuments in seven places around the country to commemorate the millennium, and he was entrusted with the designation and erection of these as a government commissioner. On the occasion of the millennium, the University of Cluj-Napoca awarded him an honorary doctorate. The result of his persistent work and agitation was the repatriation of the ashes of Thököly Imre II. Ferenc Rákóczi and his companions in exile158. His political career was often characterized by actual opportunism behind slogans of independence. He published Thököly's diaries and letter books, Rákóczi's memoirs (translated by Károly Ráth: Pest, 1861 and several other editions), the correspondence of Count Ádám Batthyány (Történelmi Tár, 1887), the Archivum Rákoczianum. 10-volume collection of documents (Bp., 1873–1889), Antal Esterházy's camp book (1901), Cézár De Saussure's letters from Turkey (1909), etc. He was the president of the Toldy Circle in Bratislava for years. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences elected him a corresponding member in 1864, a full member in 1880, and an honorary member in 1907. He was buried in Bratislava. ; ; His main works: ; Historical Grains 1603–1711, 1862, ; Old Hungarian Knightly Songs I – II.,1864, ; János Bottyán, 1865, ; Additions to the literary history of the Thököly and Rákóczi periods I – II., 1872, ; László Ocskay, 1880 (received the Grand Prize of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1908), ; II. Ferenc Rákóczi's youth, 1881, ; The Székesi gr. Bercsényi family I – III., 1885–1892, ; Rodostó and the graves of the fugitives, 1889, Rákóczi-memories in Turkey, 1893.