Matthias Bel

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Matthias Bel

Matthias Bel , Latin Belius , Slovak Matej Bel ; Hungarian Mátyás Bél , (born March 24, 1684 in Ocsova ( Sohl County / Hungarian Zólyom vármegye), Royal Hungary (today Očová , Slovakia ); † August 29, 1749 in Pressburg ) was a historian , Lutheran theologian , educator and historian the Kingdom of Hungary .

Life

Matthias Bel was born as the son of the butcher Matthias Bel and his wife Elisabeth. Csesznéky was born in Nagyócsa. His mother was Hungarian and taught the son the Hungarian language as a child. Apart from attending school in Neusohl , little is known about Bel's childhood and youth. In 1704, Bel enrolled at the University of Halle for medicine at the age of twenty . He later switched to theology at the same university. In addition to a small scholarship, Bel earned his living while studying as a private tutor.

In Halle, August Hermann Francke in particular had a major influence on promoting Matthias Bel's pietistic theological sentiments. In Francke, Bel adored not only his teacher, but also his benefactor and fatherly friend, whose children he raised and on whose recommendation he also received a teaching position in the Francke orphanage .

In 1708 Bel was appointed rector of the Protestant school in Neusohl. As such, Bel began to translate some of the writings of the hymn poet Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen and the theologian Johann Arndt into the Czech language . He remained associated with pietism throughout his life.

Bel published a New Testament, also in the Czech language , which was highly regarded by contemporaries . In parallel to his job as school director, Bel also worked as a preacher in the parish church of the Virgin Mary (in the town castle Banská Bystrica ). When the Protestant school passed into Catholic ownership in 1714 and the Protestant community oriented itself to Pressburg , Bel was brought there as a teacher in the same year.

On January 8, 1710, Matthias Bel married Susanna (Zsuzsanna) Hermann in Preßburg. The marriage had eight children. His eldest son was the later historian Karl Andreas Bel , who was a university professor in Leipzig and advisor to the Electors of Saxony .

In 1719, after the death of Johann Christian Mirus (* 1656, † 1719), Bel received the position of the first German preacher in the German Evangelical Church Community in Pressburg.

See also article German Evangelical Church Community AB zu Preßburg

Over the next few years, Bel translated the rest of the Bible in addition to the New Testament and in 1722 was able to publish the entire Bible in the Bohemian language . Bel also wrote an introduction to reading the Bible for everyone . His Bible translation was based on the editions of the Bible by the Swiss humanist Sebastian Castellio .

From 1721 Bel published the weekly magazine Nova Posoniensia in Latin. It was the first magazine to appear regularly in the Kingdom of Hungary.

Above all, however, Bel made famous his historical and geographical works, almost all of which were created during his time in Pressburg. For these works he also undertook several sometimes arduous journeys in order to collect and collate the necessary source material. Basically there were three epochal works, namely:

  • Hungariae antiquae et novae prodromus, Nuremberg 1723
  • Adparatus ad historiam Hungariae, Pressburg 1735
  • Notitia Hungariae novae historico-geographica, Vienna 1735 - 1742
Logo of the Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica

Thomas von Kempen 's De imitatione Christi , Bel also translated into Czech - based on an edition by Castellio. This new edition caused a sensation and the Catholic clergy tried Bel with Emperor Charles VI. to sue. But the latter found Bel's work so remarkable that he appointed him his historian , raised him to the personal nobility and gave his book publications extremely generous support.

When in 1740 Emperor Charles VI. died in Vienna, the court administration immediately stopped all financial contributions from the imperial family to Bel. As a result, some of Bel's works could only appear very late, some only posthumously. In his publications, Bel often collaborated with the cartographer and engraver Sámuel Mikoviny .

In addition to the theology and history of his country, Bel was also interested in geography, education and economics. From 1746 he was a member of the Olomouc Societas incognitorum , the first enlightened learned society in the Habsburg countries. In addition, he conducted extensive correspondence with the Prussian Academy of Sciences ( Berlin ), the Royal Society ( London ) and the Russian Academy of Sciences ( Saint Petersburg ), which made him honorary membership. Pope Clement XII. had him presented with an honorary commemorative coin, a special honor for a Lutheran theologian.

At the age of 65, the historian and theologian died as a senior among the Evangelical Lutheran preachers in Pressburg from the effects of a stroke. Pastor Samuel Wilhelm Serpilius (* 1707, † 1762) gave him the funeral oration about Nehemia 13, 31. He was buried at the then Evangelical "Michelsfreythoff" in front of the Michaeler Tore . When this cemetery had to be abandoned, Matthias Bel's grave was also lost. His grave monument is said to have been sold to a stonemason barely fifty years after his death (presumably when the Michael cemetery was abandoned).

The extensive book collection as well as all manuscripts acquired the prince primate of Hungary and Archbishop of Gran Joseph Batthyány and donated them to his cathedral monastery.

Commemoration

The Matej Bel University Banská Bystrica , the Planetoid (22644) Matejbel and the large Slovak general encyclopedia of the Slovak Academy of Sciences Encyclopaedia Beliana, which will appear successively at the beginning of the 21st century , are named after Matthias Bel .

Commemorative coins

  • 1984 Czechoslovakia: 100 crowns (silver) on the 300th anniversary of his birth
  • 1984 bronze plaque, 80 × 80 mm, on the same occasion, medalist: Alexander Vika

Works (selection)

  • New Testament (in Bohemian, Hall 1709)
  • De vetere literatura hunno-scythica exercitatio (Leipzig 1718);
  • Adparatus ad historiam Hungariae (Posonii [Pressburg] 1735 to 1746);
  • First edition 1723
    Hungariae antiquae et novae prodromus (Nuremberg 1723), the forerunner of his main work:
  • Notitia Hungariae Novae Historico-Geographica (Vienna 1735–42, 4 vols .; unfinished).
  • Ethica Davidico-Salomonea 1724
  • Preface to the grammar by Pavel Jozef Doležal / Doleschalius: Grammatica Slavico-Bohemica, in qua praeter alia, ratio accurate scriptionis et flexionis, quae in hac lingua magnis difficultatibus laborat ex genuinis fundamentis demonstratur, ut et discrimen inter dialectum Bohemorum et cultiorum Slavorum in Hungaria insinuaturum . [...] Praefatus est Matthias Belius. (Posonii [Pressburg] 1746).

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e History of the Evangelical Church Community (1906), Volume 2, p. 12ff (see literature)
  2. ↑ History of the Evangelical Church Congregation (1906), Volume 1, p. 316 (see literature)
  3. ↑ According to other information, the marriage is said to have only been concluded in 1716.
  4. ↑ Two other sons, Johann Theophil and Matthias Gottfried also developed into important personalities and were active in literature.
  5. ↑ This work is considered to be his main work. Originally it was planned to be six volumes. However, only two of them appeared. After Bel's death, the manuscripts were sold to Cardinal Joseph Batthyány by his widow . (see below)
  6. ↑ Bel was allowed to use the title "Imperial Court Historian".
  7. ↑ Emperor Joseph II ordered that - for hygienic reasons - cemeteries inside the cities had to be abandoned. And so this cemetery was also closed. In 1783 the Gaistor cemetery was rebuilt as a successor cemetery .
personal data
SURNAME Bel, Matthias
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Belius, Matthias; Bel, Matej; Bél, Mátyás
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian theologian, author, chronicler
DATE OF BIRTH March 24, 1684
PLACE OF BIRTH Očová near Banská Bystrica
DATE OF DEATH August 29, 1749
Place of death Pressburg