Floor plan of Buda Castle with Palatinal Crypt and annotation letters

The National Széchényi Library ( hu, Országos Széchényi Könyvtár) (OSZK) is a library in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

, located in

Buda Castle Buda Castle ( hu, Budavári Palota, german: link=no, Burgpalast) is the historical castle and palace complex of the Hungarian Kings in Budapest. It was first completed in 1265, although the massive Baroque palace today occupying most of the si ...

. It is one of two Hungarian national libraries, the other being

University of Debrecen Library ThUniversity of Debrecen( hu, Debreceni Egyetem) is a university located in Debrecen, Hungary. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest continuously operating institution of higher education in Hungary ever since its ...

History

The library was founded in 1802 by the highly patriotic Hungarian aristocrat Count Ferenc Széchényi. Széchényi traveled the world buying Hungarian books, which he assembled and donated to the nation. In 1803, the public library was opened in Pest. Széchényi's example resulted in a nationwide movement of book donations to the library. In 1808, the

Hungarian National Assembly The National Assembly ( hu, Országgyűlés, lit=Country Assembly) is the parliament of Hungary. The unicameral body consists of 199 (386 between 1990 and 2014) members elected to 4-year terms. Election of members is done using a semi-proporti ...

Diet Diet may refer to: Food * Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group * Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake ** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...

") created the

Hungarian National Museum The Hungarian National Museum ( hu, Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum) was founded in 1802 and is the national museum for the history, art, and archaeology of Hungary, including areas not within Hungary's modern borders, such as Transylvania; it is not to ...

to collect the historical, archaeological and natural relics of Hungary. The Museum was merged into the Library and for the last 200 years this is how it has existed, a national depository for written, printed and objective relics of the Hungarian past. In 1846, the Hungarian National Museum moved into its new building but it was not until 1949 that the Library became a separate entity again, with its current name. In 1985, the library moved to its new home at the Buda Castle Palace. The NSZL works on its catalogue's semantic availability.

Directors

* 1803–1815: Ferencánd Jaker Miller * 1815–1846: István Horvát * 1846–1875: Gábor Mátray * 1875–1879:

Vilmos Fraknói Vilmos Fraknói (27 February 1843 – 20 November 1924) was a Hungarian historian. He was an expert in Hungarian ecclesiastical history. Life Vilmos Fraknói (originally ''Vilmos Frankl'') came from a Jewish family of Ürmény (today Mojmír ...

* 1879–1893: Béla Majláth * 1893–1894: József Szinnyei * 1894–1919: Fejérpataky László * 1919–1922: János Melich * 1923:

Bálint Hóman Bálint Hóman (29 December 1885 – 2 June 1951) was a Hungarian scholar and politician who served as Minister of Religion and Education twice: between 1932–1938 and between 1939–1942. He died in prison in 1951 for his support of the fasc ...

* 1924–1929: Imre Lukinich * 1930–1934: Emil Jakubovich * 1934–1945: József Fitz * 1945– 1946: József Györke * 1946–1947:

Gábor Tolnai Gábor (sometimes written Gabor) may refer to: * Gábor (given name) * Gabor (surname) * Gabor sisters, the three famous actresses, Eva Gabor, Eva, Magda Gabor, Magda and Zsa Zsa Gabor, Zsa Zsa * Several scientific terms named after Dennis Gabor ** ...

* 1948–1957: Béla Varjas * 1958–1966: Magda Jóború * 1966–1968: Géza Sebestyén * 1968–1982: Magda Jóború * 1982: Péter Zircz * 1982–1984:

Ferenc Molnár Ferenc Molnár ( , ; born Ferenc Neumann; 12 January 18781 April 1952), often anglicized as Franz Molnar, was a Hungarian-born author, stage-director, dramatist, and poet, widely regarded as Hungary’s most celebrated and controversial playw ...

* 1984–1986: Zoltán Havasi * 1985—1993: Gyula Juhász * 1993—1999: Géza Poprády * 1999—2009: István Monok * 2009—2013: Andrea Sajo (Katona) * 2013—2014: Péter Szemerei * 2014: János Káldos * 2014—2019: Dr. László Tüske * 2019—2020: Judit Hammerstien * 2020—: Dávid Rózsa

Collections

The library aims to collect "hungarica" which is describes as works published within Hungary, published in Hungarian, written by Hungarian authors, and those with Hungarian aspects. The library receives two copies of all publications and prints produced in Hungary.

Books

The library's Incunabulum Collection consists of 1,800 books printed before 1500; notable items include a fragment of the

Gutenberg Bible The Gutenberg Bible (also known as the 42-line Bible, the Mazarin Bible or the B42) was the earliest major book printed using mass-produced movable metal type in Europe. It marked the start of the "Gutenberg Revolution" and the age of printed b ...

and the ''

Chronica Hungarorum ''Chronica Hungarorum'' (Chronicle of the Hungarians) is the title of several works treating the early History of Hungary, Hungarian history. Buda Chronicle A popular chronicle partly based on the ''Chronicon Pictum'' (entitled just ''Chronica ...

''-the first book printed in Hungary. Its Antiqua Collection holds 13,000 items from the 16th-century, including a first edition of Nostradamus' ''The Prophecies''. The Old Hungarian Library is a collection of 8,500 old Hungarian books including the

Vizsoly Bible The Vizsoly Bible, also called Károli Bible was the first Bible printed in the Hungarian language. It was translated in the 16th century by pastor Gáspár Károli and fellow Calvinists and was printed in 1590 by Bálint Mantskovit. A copy is kept ...

, the first complete Bible printed in Hungarian. The Apponyi Collection is a collection of over 3,000 Hungarian-related items donated by Count Albert Apponyi in 1924. One of its most notable items is the

Tabula Hungariae Tabula Hungariae (also ''Lázár's map'') is the earliest surviving printed map of Hungary, which has supposedly been made by Hungarian Lázár deák before 1528. It was inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2007.{{cite web , title ...

, the earliest surviving printed map of Hungary. Other collections include the Leaflet Collection; Old Cyrillica Collection, mostly consisting of liturgical books written in

Romanian Cyrillic Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language ** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...

, Early Printed Books Archive, and the History of Binding Collection.

Periodicals

With the influx of periodicals in the 19th-century, established the National Newspaper Library in 1884. The library has about 250,000 volumes of periodicals. Of the Hungarian and international newspaper collection, almost 75 percent of its items are the only surviving copies. Notable items include the , the first regular newspaper in Hungary, and the

Journal des Sçavans The ''Journal des sçavans'' (later renamed ''Journal des savans'' and then ''Journal des savants,'' lit. ''Journal of the Learned''), established by Denis de Sallo, is the earliest academic journal published in Europe. It is thought to be the ear ...

, the earliest academic journal in Europe.

Manuscripts

The library holds the largest manuscript collection in Hungary with about 1,400,000 total items. Notable items include the original copies of

Himnusz "" (; "Hymn" or "Anthem") is the national anthem of Hungary. The lyrics were written by Ferenc Kölcsey, a nationally renowned poet, in 1823, and its currently official musical setting was composed by the romantic composer Ferenc Erkel in 1844, ...

, Hungary's national anthem, and

Szózat The "Szózat" (in English: "Appeal" or "Summons") is a Hungarian patriotic song. It is considered as a second national anthem of Hungary, beside the Himnusz. Usually only its first two stanzas are sung at national celebrations. The official ant ...

, a Hungarian song.

Posters and Small Prints

The Collection of Posters and Small Prints, established in 1935, holds about four million documents, making it one of the biggest collections of the library.

Maps

In 1939, the Map Collection became an independent department of the National Széchényi Library. As of 2015, the map collection encompasses over 300,000 items, with 3,400 map sheets belonging to the original Széchényi-collection from the early 1800s.Kiss, E., Ungvári, Z., & Fulajtár, P. (2015). Digital Map Collection Project at the National Széchényi Library. ''e-Perimetron'', ''10''(1), 1-10. Approximately a quarter of the maps' coverage is of historical Hungary, and the remaining maps in the collection cover areas all over the world. The library has been digitizing its map collection in recent years to make cultural heritage items more accessible. The library partnered with the Department of Cartography and Geoinformatics at Eötvös Loránd University to digitize some of the library's globes to create th
Virtual Globes MuseumTabula Hungariae
the first printed map of Hungary, is now digitized and accessible online.

Theatre History

In 1949, the Theatre History Collection was established to take over the libraries of the theaters that remained after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. It holds 30,000 plays and 380,000 documents.

Music

The library's music collection holds 170,000 items of printed sheet music. Notable items include

Joseph Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions ...

's manuscripts and first edition works, items from

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

, and

Ferenc Erkel Ferenc Erkel ( hu, Erkel Ferenc , german: link=no, Franz Erkel; November 7, 1810June 15, 1893) was a Hungarian composer, conductor and pianist. He was the father of Hungarian grand opera, written mainly on historical themes, which are still o ...

's operas' manuscripts.

Photos

The library's photo collection was established in 2007. Among other items, it holds 40,000 glass plates or photo and film negatives of the library's book collection.

Discovery of New Mozart Autograph

In 2014, a Hungarian librarian discovered four pages of Mozart's original score (autograph) of the sonata in Budapest's National Széchényi Library. Until then, only the last page of the autograph survived. The paper and handwriting of the four pages matched that of the final page of the score, held in Salzburg.

Zoltán Kocsis Zoltán Kocsis (; 30 May 1952 – 6 November 2016) was a Hungarian pianist, conductor and composer. Biography Studies Born in Budapest, he began his musical studies at the age of five and continued them at the Béla Bartók Conservatory in 19 ...