Abstract (may include machine translation)
This short essay revisits the question of the source of inspiration for the linguistic research that led to the composition of Sajnovics’s Demonstratio, While it has recently been suggested that the idea was improvised during the Vardø expedition of 1768-69, it is worth reconsidering Sajnovics’s superior Maximilian Hell’s testimony that the prompt was given by Gerard van Swieten, the leading figure of the Habsburg academic refoms. As Van Swieten is not known to have possessed relevant expertise, it is proposed that the real source was the polymath and Viennese court librarian Adam František (Franz) Kollár, who later also wrote the first review of the Demonstratio. The proposition is framed within the context of the increasingly uneasy but working cooperation between (ex-)Jesuit scholars and the Habsburg enlightened refomers during most of the Theresan era.
Translated title of the contribution | An enlightened reformer and three (ex-)Jesuits: van Swieten, Hell, Kollár, Sajnovics - and the Demonstratio |
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Original language | Hungarian |
Title of host publication | „a te Columbusod, Vespuccid” |
Subtitle of host publication | Tanulmányok Sajnovics Jánosról és a 250 éves Demonstratióról |
Editors | Sándor Szeverényi, Zsuzsa Várnai |
Place of Publication | Szeged |
Publisher | Szegedi Tudományegyetem Finnugor Nyelvtudományi Tanszék |
Pages | 35-47 |
Number of pages | 13 |
ISBN (Print) | 9789633069714 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2023 |
Publication series
Name | Studia Uralo-Altaica, Supplementum ; 12. |
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