170. Album amicorum of József Szakonyi (1746–1811)...

... Sopron nobleman, Lutheran pastor, ecclesiastical writer.
450 [recte 447] numbered + 16 unnumbered pages (the numbering on the title page starts at 5). Szakonyi began his peregrination to Jena in 1769, and on this occasion opened his album. The earliest entry dates from 19 July 1769 in Sopron. The departing student was sent off with inscriptions of wisdom by the town’s leaders (e.g. consul Joannes Christian Gabriel, senator János Polcz), school heads (Ádám Farkas, Jonathan Wietoris), local and regional pastors (including bishop Ádám Balog, pastor-historian József Torkos), intellectuals (such as notary Theophilus Laitner), as well as Sopron nobility and burghers. Among the most outstanding entries are two meticulously detailed, full-page colour drawings by Maria Isabella Schauer, Sopron painter (daughter of Illés Schauer).
In August he toured the region, visiting relatives and friends. In Téte at his relative Katalin, then through Győr, Kőszeg and Pápa, reaching his native village Dabrony on the 16th, where his mother wrote a personal entry. In Nemesszalók his brothers János and Dániel inscribed his book. On the way back he stopped in Nemescsó, where pastor Sámuel Hajnóczi (father of József) greeted him. On 8 September already in Sopron, an entry by Sámuel’s brother was added. After 21 September he left for Jena. On 3 October he met Sámuel Mixadt in Dresden (great-grandfather of writer Kálmán). Curiously, on 4 October in Prague G. G. Krebs, surgeon to the Esterházy family, signed his album. On 7 October, according to the lines of Ferdinand Ochsz, a Kassa theology student, he was in Leipzig. The first Jena entry dates from 15 October. His professors and teachers wrote in it, as did fellow students, mainly Hungarians (including Samuel Szemmelweisz and József Lenhard, physicians), but also later notable figures such as the architect Gottfried Christian Haberland and the physician J. Sig. Wogau.
After his ordination on 16 April 1772, he soon departed home, according to the entries. On 5 May in Prague István Lumnitzer (later physician of Pozsony, botanist) wrote in his album, and on 14 May in Vienna Sándor Tolnay, later the first Hungarian university professor of veterinary medicine. After returning he became pastor at Nemescsó, where on 3 March 1773 he was visited by Mátyás Ráth, later editor of Magyar Hírmondó. The last entry dates from 1784, but he continued to tend his album. He most probably compiled the index at the end of the little book. Most entries are in Latin and German, the Hungarian ones mainly by his countrymen, with a few in French, one in English, and some lines in Greek (as communicated by Dr. Péter Perger).
Richly gilt, slightly worn, blind-tooled contemporary leather. On the front cover the inscription "J. Sz. 1769." with gilt and tooled edges.
 
Starting price: 160 000,-