Patrons of Miklós Révai: Literature Patronage in Hungary in the Late 18th Century

Abstract

Miklós Révai was a characteristic figure of the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth century. He was a teacher, a linguist, an organizer of literary activities, a poet, and an illustrator. His name is associated with such significant intellectual achievements as the 1790 proposal for an academy, which became the basis of the charter of the Hungarian Learned Society founded in 1825, or his Grammatica of 1805, in which he set out the etymological principle of Hungarian spelling. His cultural enterprises were supported by aristocrats. His patrons included the wealthiest lords of the country, the most enthusiastic of whom was Baron Lőrinc Orczy: he not only offered his poems for publication, but he also supported Révai’s enterprise financially. This study explores Révai’s relationship with three of his patrons (Orczy, an aristocrat, poet and friend, bishop János Szily, and royal vice-chancellor János Medgyesi Somogyi) through their correspondence. The presentation of the correspondences sheds light on the patrons’ motivations. An awareness of the system of literary patronage provides important data for getting to know the framework and operational conditions governing literary culture.