Ferenc Kazinczy
Encyclopedia
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
author, the most indefatigable agent in the regeneration of the Magyar language
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
and literature at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century. His name is today connected to the extensive Language Reform
Language reform
Language reform is a type of language planning by massive change to a language. The usual tools of language reform are simplification and purification. Simplification makes the language easier to use by regularizing vocabulary and grammar...
of the 19th century, when thousands of words were coined or revived, enabling the Hungarian language to keep up with scientific progress and become an official language of the nation in 1844.
He was born at Érsemjén (today Şimian, Bihor
Simian, Bihor
Șimian is a commune in Bihor County, northwestern Romania with a population of 3,924 people. It is composed of three villages: Șilindru, Șimian and Voivozi....
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
), in the county of Bihar, Hungary. He studied law at Kassa
Košice
Košice is a city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary...
and Eperjes
Prešov
Prešov Historically, the city has been known in German as Eperies , Eperjes in Hungarian, Fragopolis in Latin, Preszów in Polish, Peryeshis in Romany, Пряшев in Russian and Пряшів in Rusyn and Ukrainian.-Characteristics:The city is a showcase of Baroque, Rococo and Gothic...
, and in Pest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, where he also obtained a thorough knowledge of French and German literature, and made the acquaintance of Gedeon Ráday, who allowed him the use of his library. In 1784 Kazinczy became subnotary for the county of Abaúj
Abaúj
Abaúj is the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. In parts of the 19th century, and in the beginning of the 20th century, it was united with Torna County to form Abaúj-Torna county. Its territory is presently in eastern Slovakia and north-eastern Hungary...
; and in 1786 he was nominated inspector of schools at Kassa
Košice
Košice is a city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary...
. There he began to devote himself to the restoration of the Magyar
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
language and literature by translations from classical foreign works, and by the augmentation of the native vocabulary from ancient Magyar sources. In 1788, with the assistance of Dávid Baróti Szabó and János Batsányi
János Batsányi
János Batsányi was a Hungarian poet.In 1785, he published his first work, a patriotic poem, "The Valour of the Magyars"...
, he started at Kassa
Košice
Košice is a city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary...
the first literary magazine in the Magyar (Hungarian) language, Magyar Muzeum; the Orpheus, which succeeded it in 1790, was his own creation. Although, upon the accession of Leopold II
Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor
Leopold II , born Peter Leopold Joseph Anton Joachim Pius Gotthard, was Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary and Bohemia from 1790 to 1792, Archduke of Austria and Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1765 to 1790. He was a son of Emperor Francis I and his wife, Empress Maria Theresa...
, Kazinczy, as a non-Catholic, was obliged to resign his post at Kassa, his literary activity in no way decreased. He not only assisted Raday in the establishment and direction of the first Magyar dramatic society, but enriched the repertoire with several translations from foreign authors. His Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
, which first appeared at Kassa in 1790, is a rendering from the German version of Schröder.
Implicated in the democratic conspiracy of the abbot Martinovics
Ignác Martinovics
Ignác Martinovics was a philosopher, political adventurer, and a leader of the Hungarian Jacobin movement...
, Kazinczy was arrested in December 1794, and condemned to death; but the sentence was commuted to imprisonment, he was imprisoned in the Kufstein Fortress
Kufstein Fortress
The Kufstein Fortress is the main landmark of Kufstein, a city of Tyrol in Austria. It is sometimes wrongly referred to as Geroldseck Fortress. It is located on a hill commanding Kufstein proper.-History:...
. He was released in 1801, and shortly afterwards married Sophie Török, daughter of his former patron, and retired to his small estate at Széphalom
Sátoraljaújhely
Sátoraljaújhely or אוהעלי ) is a town located in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county in northern Hungary near the Slovak border. It is east from the county capital Miskolc.- History :...
or "Fairhill", near Sátoraljaújhely
Sátoraljaújhely
Sátoraljaújhely or אוהעלי ) is a town located in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county in northern Hungary near the Slovak border. It is east from the county capital Miskolc.- History :...
(Széphalom is already the part of Sátoraljaújhely), in the county of Zemplén. In 1828 he took an active part in the conferences held for the establishment of the Hungarian academy, in the historical section of which he became the first corresponding member. He died of cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
at Széphalom.
Kazinczy, known for possessing great beauty of style, was inspired greatly by the masterpieces of Lessing
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was a German writer, philosopher, dramatist, publicist, and art critic, and one of the most outstanding representatives of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the development of German literature...
, Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
, Wieland
Christoph Martin Wieland
Christoph Martin Wieland was a German poet and writer.- Biography :He was born at Oberholzheim , which then belonged to the Free Imperial City of Biberach an der Riss in the south-east of the modern-day state of Baden-Württemberg...
, Klopstock
Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock
Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock was a German poet.-Biography:Klopstock was born at Quedlinburg, the eldest son of a lawyer.Both in his birthplace and on the estate of Friedeburg on the Saale, which his father later rented, young Klopstock passed a happy childhood; and more attention having been given...
, Ossian
Ossian
Ossian is the narrator and supposed author of a cycle of poems which the Scottish poet James Macpherson claimed to have translated from ancient sources in the Scots Gaelic. He is based on Oisín, son of Finn or Fionn mac Cumhaill, anglicised to Finn McCool, a character from Irish mythology...
, La Rochefoucauld
François de La Rochefoucauld (writer)
François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac was a noted French author of maxims and memoirs. The view of human conduct his writings describe has been summed up by the words "everything is reducible to the motive of self-interest", though the term "gently cynical" has also been applied...
, Marmontel
Jean-François Marmontel
Jean-François Marmontel was a French historian and writer, a member of the Encyclopediste movement.-Biography:He was born of poor parents at Bort, Limousin...
, Molière
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...
, Metastasio, Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
, Sterne
Laurence Sterne
Laurence Sterne was an Irish novelist and an Anglican clergyman. He is best known for his novels The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, and A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy; but he also published many sermons, wrote memoirs, and was involved in local politics...
, Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
, Sallust
Sallust
Gaius Sallustius Crispus, generally known simply as Sallust , a Roman historian, belonged to a well-known plebeian family, and was born at Amiternum in the country of the Sabines...
, Anacreon
Anacreon
Anacreon was a Greek lyric poet, notable for his drinking songs and hymns. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of nine lyric poets.- Life :...
, and many others. He also edited the works of Baróczy (Pest, 1812, 8 vols.) and of the poet Zrinyi (1817, 2 vols.), and the poems of Dayka
Gábor Dayka
Gábor Dayka was a Hungarian poet....
(1813, 3 vols.) and of John Kis (1815, 3 vols.). A collected edition of his works, consisting for the most part of translations, was published at Pest, 1814-1816, in 9 vols. His original productions (Eredeti Munkái), largely made up of letters, were edited by Joseph Bajza
József Bajza
József Bajza was a Hungarian poet and critic.He was born at Szücsi and was first published in Károly Kisfaludy's Aurora, a literary paper he edited from 1830 to 1837. He also contributed substantially to the Kritische Blätter, the Athenaeum, and the Figyelmező...
and Francis Toldy
Ferenc Toldy
Ferenc Toldy was a German-Hungarian literary critic....
at Pest, 1836-1845, in 5 vols. Editions of his poems appeared in 1858 and in 1863.
In 1873, a neo-classicistic
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...
memorial hall (mausoleum
Mausoleum
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the...
) and graveyard was built in Széphalom for his memory, based on the plans of the architect Miklós Ybl
Miklós Ybl
Miklós Ybl was one of Europe's leading architects in the mid to late nineteenth century as well as Hungary's most influential architect during his career...
. Today it belongs to the Ottó Herman Museum
Ottó Herman Museum
The Ottó Herman Museum is the largest museum of Miskolc, Hungary. It has more than 600,000 artifacts. Its main focus is on archaeology, mineralogy, arts, history and ethnography.-History:...
. The Museum of the Hungarian Language is intended to be built here, whose cornerstone
Cornerstone
The cornerstone concept is derived from the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation, important since all other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure.Over time a cornerstone became a ceremonial masonry stone, or...
has been laid in the park.
Important works
Tövisek és virágok 1811.Poétai episztola Vitkovics Mihályhoz 1811.
Felelet a mondolatra pamphlet, 1815.
Ortológus és neológus nálunk és más nemzeteknél 1819.