Masonic Works in the Helikon Library of the Festetics Palace in Keszthely

Abstract

Books were very important for the Festetics family settled down in Keszthely in the second half of the 1740s: the bookstore had been created in Kristóf Festetics’s palace. From 1782 Count György Festetics (I.) had been the lord of the entail, he was one of the most outstanding personalities of the Hungarian Enlightenment and had a whole annexe built to his library between 1799–1801. The library room can be found with a small adjoining cabinet library in the south wing of the palace. In the many ten thousand-volume library can equally be found works of antique authors, Hungarian literature and science, philosophical literature from the era of Enlightenment, the latest economic studies at the time of acquisition, as well as a significant newspaper and journal material. The library of Keszthely is a baronial library so the collection of books and the motivation of reading were combined when the books were purchased. György Festetics studied at the Collegium Theresianum in Vienna between 1768–1775. He had well-trained Jesuit teachers, such as the professor of philosophy, Italian language and agronomics, Lajos Mitterpacher, the mathematician and physicist Pál Makó, the professor of Italian language, civil and military architecture, János Izzo, the poet, bibliographer, insect expert Michael Denis and many others. During his studies, Festetics perfectly learned German, Latin, French, Italian and English. Besides Austrian state administration