Debrecen Reformed College Museum

The Museum of the Debrecen Reformed College is the institution that collects and exhibits the larger part of the significant material collection gathered by the Debrecen Reformed College over the centuries.

Beginnings

The College's Large Library, in addition to books and manuscripts, collected other valuable material souvenirs over centuries: thus it had a medal collection, archaeological and ethnographic collections, a historical portrait hall, and a collection of engravings and drawings.

The College's museum material never increased to the extent of the library's, but there are memories of the museum idea already from the second half of the 17th century. For the Reformed, the event recalling the “decade of mourning” is the case when the Reformed ecclesiastical institutions on the Rákóczi estate in Sárospatak were abolished with the help of Jesuit military assistance, the churches were occupied, and the school of Pátka had to flee in 1671. Among the dissolved congregations was Bodrogkisfalud. In 1672 the parish’s movable property was brought to the College by the preacher and placed in deposit. The then senior recorded in the accounting book that he received a gilded silver cup, a gilded silver plate, a tablecloth embroidered with silk and gold, two napkins and two tin cans. Bodrogkisfalud later did not become an independent parish, and the noble‑table equipment remained permanently in the College.

The Main Library's coin collection already had an independent catalogue in 1745. This collection was significantly enlarged in 1796 by the acquisition of the Kazzay collection. The coin collection now preserves about three thousand coins, and today it only collects items related to the life of the Reformed Church and the College. The Kazzay collection, however, besides the coins – according to the receipt inventory – also contained a diptych (a two‑part Roman tablet), a chain set with stones, and 42 pieces of gemma (carved semi‑precious stones), a rosary made of 180 Eastern topaz pearls, five inscribed Roman bronze tablets, more precisely a military discharge document, a copper‑cut image of a Calvinist preacher, a coral sculpture of Laocoön, a Christ’s head carved from onyx or chalcedony, a jasper, a crystal seal press, and an Apollo statue made of Eastern zircon.

Pál Sárvári placed in 1812 in the “physic museum” the various instruments transferred from the Main Library, which means that from then on, parallel to the library, the physical collection also carried out collecting activity, and the placement of the objects was entirely ad‑hoc. This is demonstrated by the 1840 inventory of the Collegium mathesisi’s physic instruments and other rarities. This inventory was made when Sárvári handed over the collection, including the rarities, to his successor Ferenc Kerekes. At that time the College’s museum collection included a coin collection rightly describable as rich, as well as numerous archaeological, Roman, medieval, later‑period objects and school‑history material.

The Hungarian folk material missing from the College's collection so far came into the College's possession in 1841. A folk collection consisting of fifty items, which was given as a gift by Jakab Sárvári, a notary, the son of Professor Pál Sárvári, to his school. The collection consisted of “handicrafts made by the inhabitants of the settlements of the Derecske manor in Bihar County”. Considering that the foundation of the Ethnographic Museum in 1847 was based on 92 items, mainly Ob-Ugric objects, collected by Antal Reguly, it is of extraordinary significance that the College already had specifically Hungarian folk material in 1841.

The basis of the Large Library's archaeological and biographical collection is the remaining material of the College's former natural history collections. The older items were transferred to the library in 1905, and visitors could periodically view them there. In 1930 several items of the collection were deposited in the Déri Museum. Later the collection was expanded with the items that came to Debrecen from the National Reformed Exhibition held in Budapest in 1934. Professor Sándor Csikesz, the organizer of the Budapest event, intended this to create the foundation of the National Reformed Museum to be established in Debrecen.

The idea of creating a collegiate historical portrait gallery arose in 1740.

first appears. At this time the College received a portrait of Ferenc II Rákóczi as a gift. In this century it was also accompanied by a few portraits of Debrecen professors (György Maróthi, István Hatvani), and later by a 18th‑century portrait of Luther and a portrait of Calvin given as gifts. The portrait hall owes much to Bálint Kiss, a 19th‑century Debrecen portrait painter who was also a student of the College. He created the portraits of Professor József Péczely, as well as of the Transylvanian princes István Bocskai, Gábor Bethlen, György I Rákóczi, and Mihály Apafi. Miklós Barabás, Imre Révész and Bishop Bálint Révész, and József Rippl‑Rónai painted the portrait of Mihály Csokonai Vitéz for the College.

In addition to the portraits, other works of visual art also enrich the collection. A notable piece is the marble statue of Csokonai by István Ferenczy from 1822. Petrich Soma Orlay donated the painting titled *The Discovery of the Body of Louis II*, and Mihály Zichy donated the charcoal drawing *Christ and the Pope* to the College.

In 1882 Ferenc Balogh tried to gather the pictures located in the College in one place. His effort remained unsuccessful due to a lack of suitable rooms, and thus the pieces of the collection are still scattered among the various institutions of the College.