Batthyaneum - múlt és jelen
The Batthyaneum from Alba Iulia (Gyulafehérvár)

Summary/Abstract: Count Ignác Batthyány (1741–1798) was the Bishop of Transylvania from 1780 until his death. Before his death, he had made a foundation for the custody, the conservation and further administration of the so-called ‘Batthyaneum’; an institution he had established himself, which was comprised of a library, natural history and antique collections, an astronomical observatory and a printing press. He stipulated that the Batthyaneum should be open for people interested in science, regardless of their religion. According to his last will, the institution serving his church and his ’province’ was to be directed by the subsequent Bishops, the Chapter of Transylvania and the Roman Catholic Status. Batthyány also stipulated that so long as the governor (Gubernator) of the Great Principality of Transylvania would be a person of Roman Catholic religion, he should have the control over the institution as well. The bishop’s final wish was respected until 1948 when the Batthyaneum was nationalized. The institution was put under the state’s administration without taking into consideration the fact that it functioned as the library of the Institute of Catholic Theology, it was part of its building, and that it was meanwhile enriched with many episcopal and canonical legacies. Today, the Batthyaneum is a section of the Romanian National Library (Biblioteca Naţională a României, Bucharest).

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