Tanulmányok
The History of the Family Wass de Cege in the 16th–20th Centuries
The Wass family is one of the oldest families in Transylvania, their lineage can be traced without interruption from the beginning of the 14th century. (About their early history see: Erdélyi Múzeum 2004/1–2. 1–40.) György Wass, was the first member of the family playing a political role in the life of the forming Transylvanian Principate. He was donated several estates in the Mezőség, such as Záh (Torda county) or Velkér (Kolozs county). Under the princes rising from the Báthori family, György Wass became in the last quarter of the 16th century comes of Kolozs county, captain of Szamosújvár, and councillor of the prince. He did not agree with prince Zsigmond Báthori (1588–1602), who breaking with the Ottoman-friendly policy preferred the Habsburgs, therefore he was imprisoned, where – in order to avoid execution – in 1594 he committed suicide. In spite of that, his sons went on taking part in the political life of Transylvania. One of them, János (†1635) having been brought up by the Jesuits, became a convinced Catholic in such times when the Catholic Church was barely tolerated in the Principate. Except for him all the Wass descendents were Calvinists until the mid 19th century, and many of them studied in the famous colleges of Nagyenyed and Kolozs-vár. György Wass (1658 or 1659–1705) played role in the political events of the late 17th and early 18th centuries when the so far independent Transylvanian Principate was put under Habsburg control. During that process he went to Vienna for several times in order to negotiate with the Habsburg government. Not much later he joined the uprising against the Habsburgs led by Ferenc Rákóczi (1704–1711). Both himself and his son László (1696–1738) kept a diary, which are now important sources referring to the Transylvanian political and social history of that time. Dániel Wass (1674–1741), just like his above mentioned relative, left the Habsburgs' side in order to join Rá-kóczi. Dániel's sons, Miklós, György and Ádám were donated a title by empress Maria Theresa (1740–1780). Throughout the 18th century the family possessed estates in Northern Hungary as well, and lived partly there, partly in Transylvania. However, in the first part of the 19th century the Wass got settled definitively on the Transylvanian estates. One of the representative members of the family in that century was Samu Wass (1814–1879), who after fighting in the Revolution of 1848–1849 went into exile. He spent considerable time in California, where together with another Hungarian exile he opened a gold-mine, obtained the authorization of the government and had dollars minted. Only in 1858 was he allowed to turn back home. Some of the Wass were members of the Parliament in the 19th century, or held positions in government offices. Three branches of the family lived to enter the 20th century. Two branches had been living at Cege, and both of them died out on male line before the Second World War. Each of the two had a castle there, although only the smaller one survived. The third one had it's residence at Szentgothárd. The writer Albert Wass (1908–1998) belonged to this branch. In 1945 he flew to Germany then settled down in the United States, nevertheless he was sentenced to death by the communist Tribunalul Poporului (an exceptional court called Peoples Court) in his absence in 1946. The castle of Szentgothárd had been destroyed after the war. Somewhat before 1920 Béla Wass (1853–1936) deposited the family archives in the collection of the Erdélyi Múzeum-Egyesület (Transylvanian Museum Society). Ottilia Wass (1829–1917) gave his house in Kolozs-vár to the Society; both donations have been confiscated by the state. After World War II the family was forced to emigrate, first having been deprived of all their possessions. Since then the male line has been living in the United States and in Germany, the other one, the female line lives in Austria. A family tree is annexed to the study, which informs about the family lineage from the 16th century until present.
Hungarian „Ovidiuses" and „Impostors" on the Turn of the 17th and 18th Centuries
One of the very important sources of the research on the Gyöngyösi reception in the 18th century is the history of interpretation of those works, like the drama Florentina, whose autorship is quite unknown even today. The most important issue of the Gyöngyösi reception in the 18th century is that in which register of the publicity gets in the Gyöngyösi interpretation, in what medium acts the Gyöngyösi discourse and how the application of this text and the personal and indirect stories built around it determine their value. In conclusion, my goal is to trace the follow-up of the drama Florentina and concerning the correspondance between Ráday and Kovásznai, to identify those estethical theses, which caused that this drama isn't imputed to Gyöngyösi.
Body and Person at Descartes
The particular body has no similarities with the substance of the spirit; he is radically different: he has his own nature, his autonomy inside the human. This difference is fundamental for the constitution of the human person. She is founding -through the redefinition of the concept of passion- the independence of the spirit, the moral neutrality of the body (the body has no responsibility, he is not a source of sin), and the moral integrity of the person (morality has a single source: the control of the himself, not the control of the body with the principles of the reason). Nevertheless, the particular human body, qua unified with a soul, became himself a homogeneous individual, changing meaning and as well, in a way, changing substance. Thereby, the body becomes identical with the person; he is the expression of the self.
Can We Objectity the Other and the Time?
The Inversion of Intentionality at Lévinas. Against the husserlian conception of an egological/objectifying intentionality, which reduces the otherness of the phenomenon to the idealistic sense-giving of the transcendental ego, Lévinas argues for a heterological phenomenology, which describes the otherness of the other and of the time as the donation of a radically transcendent sense. This leads to the reconsi-deration of the teleological and linguistical character of intentionality, and ultimately to an "inversion" not just of the structure (noesis/noema, intention/intuitive filling) of intentionality, but of the egological intentionality itself, which is replaced by the ethical response of the self to the an-archic appeal of the other.
Soi-męme comme un autre. Paul Ricoeur's Late Hermeneutics
In my paper I intend to reproduce the structure of a philosophical debate which is very close to us in time and was initiated by the publication of Paul Ricoeur's book, Soi-męme comme un autre. This compendium of the both phenomenological and hermeneutical problem of intersubjectivity had been criticised by the canonical phenomenologist, Emmanuel Lévinas, and also was an ignition for some interdisciplinar conversations. My approach has a reconstructive, rather than normative, descriptive rather than critical manner.
The Juristic Language of the Transylvanian Princedom
The study reflects the juristic terminology of the XVIth and XVIIth century. This is the period in the history of the Hungarian language when the public version of the language developed (official, legal, political languages). The source of the present research is the Historisches Wörterbuch des Siebenbürgisch-Ungarischen Wortschatzes. The author deals with the next words: judge, lawsuit, quarrel and term. Two expressions out of the four are still alive as juristic words (judge, lawsuit) while the other two (quarrel, term) have lost their specific meaning.
Műhely
In memoriam
Szemle