Még egyszer a Todoreszku–Horváth könyvtárról

Gyula Todoreszku (1866–1919) accumulated a now invaluable book collection, which his widow donated to the National Széchényi Library. An important role was played in the shaping of the collection by Viktor Akantisz whose job was to restore and bind the volumes. Later he became one of the first conservators at the national library. Beside him, Todoreszku’s widow Aranka Horváth took care of the collection after the donation, bequeathing a considerable sum to the museum in her last will. An intriguing and highly controversial issue is the book conserving activity of Gyula Todoreszku, as he did not only clean the books “soiled by fire, water and war” but he also had expert restorers to produce facsimile leaves that were deceptively similar to the original ones to complement the defective volumes (in cases when another copy of the work was accessible for copying). He encouraged his bibliophile contemporaries to follow suite, for “an amateur’s things must also be beautiful. And not only the binding, but also the body of the book. The trouble is that among the Hungarian books and those printed in Hungary it is hard to find nice copies, and if we only want to collect fine pieces, we can have only very few.” To replace the perished or plain bindings Todoreszku ordered new bindings from the most outstanding Hungarian and European book binders, because, quoth he, “a repaired, carefully embellished, stylishly bound rare printed book will more likely to survive in a fine binding when it gets into the hands of an amateur.” The hand-painted parchment bindings of 43 tomes of Transylvanian parliamentary statutes were made by Viktor Akantisz. The collection also includes a painted parchment binding designed and executed by Álmos Jaschik, several gold-tooled leather bindings by József Galamb and a silver goldsmith’s binding designed by Ferenc Hebling and executed by Richard Zutt. (With the exception of Zutt all three men were leading instructors at the School of Design.) In addition, the names of Nándor Gottermayer and Géza Weichner can also be discerned on the new bindings. To conclude, it can be contended that Todoreszku’s large number of commissions contributed to the revival of Hungarian book-binding art relegated to the background by industrialization, and the collection cannot be overlooked when both original bindings and the Hungarian book-binding history of the early 20th century are at issue