This month's rare book is Ottó Herman's picture of Petényi's life written about János Salamon, which On the occasion of the Second International Ornithological Congress convened in Budapest on May 17, 1891, dedicated to the memory of his former member of the Board. It was published by the Royal Hungarian Society of Natural Sciences in 1891.
Biography of J. S. Petényi
János Petényi Salamon (1799-1855) Hungarian naturalist, zoologist. Founder of Hungarian ornithology and paleontology.
His father, Gábor Petényi, was an evangelical pastor and an orientalist. He studied in Losonc, Banská Bystrica and Selmec. Already during his school years he collected bird eggs, minerals and studied botany.
In 1826 he was elected evangelical pastor in Zincota. He accepted the invitation mainly because it enabled him to use the natural history and book treasures of the National Museum. During his six years here, he studied and described all the birds and memories of the Zincota region.
Journeys to different parts of the country for bird observation. In 1824 he visited the Danube. He discovered and described several species of birds. There were also reports of fish research: It identified 49 species, 3 subspecies and named the Petényi marn after it. In 1847, the scientific study of vertebrate remains began in Hungary with the excavations in the karst clefts of the Sz?l? Hill in Beremend.
He described Hungary's birdlife, prepared a handbook of Hungary's vertebrate fauna, compiled a catalogue of the remains of Hungarian fossil animals and a list of Hungarian caves. Unfortunately, the work of the latter has been lost, although this is probably the first Hungarian cave cadastre.
He was elected a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1846. He began to summarize his notes and publish them. But his manuscripts written in Hungarian during the Bach era did not appear in print. His handwritten notes disappeared after his death. Ottó Herman found some of it at a street vendor, which was used as wrapping paper.
The biography written by Ottó Herman contains Petényi's study of the Red-footed Falcon and a selection of Petényi's correspondence.
Sámuelné Sz?ts Herman Henriett (1831-1910) with the handwritten owner's registration of Ottó Herman's sister. The library of the Borsod Miskolc Museum was also the previous owner of our copy.
Verbiás Károly Tibor
Group leader of our Collection Management Department?