Todoreszku. Treasures of a Unique Library

Our publication commemorates the great collector and patron, Dr. Gyula Todoreszku (1866−1919) a century after his death. In addition to Ferenc Széchényi and Sándor Apponyi, Todoreszku was one of the most significant donators of the Hungarian National Library, and his collection of about 3,000 volumes, rich in invaluable pieces, was received by the National Széchényi Library of the Hungarian National Museum in 1920. On the 100th anniversary of the event, we would like to pay tribute to the memory of our former esteemed director, who played a prominent role in nurturing the written heritage of Romanian and Hungarian culture, with an illustrated album in Hungarian, Romanian and English, which enhances our previous knowledge and seeks to present the diversity of this collection.

The studies written by Bernadett Varga and Levente Nagy – published both in Hungarian and Romanian – introduce the reader to the world of this outstanding collection. The first of the two studies presents the collector, the formation and structure of the collection, and its history after entering the library’s collection, while the second examines the formerly unknown Romanian aspects of the collection, publishing new bibliographic results. The studies, accompanied by photographs, pictures and copies of documents, are followed by a colorfully illustrated catalogue, which aims at showing the exceptional richness of the Todoreszku library through selected items. This section presents the unique book rarities of the collection, which mainly contains old prints, important pieces of Hungarian and Romanian cultural, literary, ecclesiastical and printing history, through which the reader can gain insight into the former library, and into the enchanting world of book collecting and bibliophilia.

The multilingual volume was edited by Bernadett Varga, and the Hungarian and Romanian studies were supplemented by English summaries. The valuable decorative volume was published with the support of the Department of Romanian Philology of Eötvös Loránd University and the Romanian Embassy in Hungary.