Tens of thousands of unique documents became freely available in our databases in 2020

As the largest Hungarian public collection, National Széchényi Library has been keeping a whole range of treasures that can rarely be seen and which may be surprising at first sight. During 2020, however, more and more curiosities became digitally freely accessible via our recently launched databases.

Under the title Fotótér (Photo Space), we launched a new content service on June 4, 2020. The first two collections, published on the occasion of the centenary of the signing of the Treaty of Trianon, consist of a total of ten thousand images and contain photographs of World War I and of Transylvania after Trianon. The database was created under the development of the Library, as part of the National Library Platform project. The images come from the Photo Archives of National Széchényi Library, including nearly six hundred thousand documents.
Since the middle of the summer, you can visit the ornamental library of King Matthias from the comfort of your home. You can browse through the codices and can walk along the halls of the exhibition entitled “The Corvina Library and the Buda Workshop” in the virtual space. 

The 3D online version of the monumental exhibition held in National Széchényi Library from November 6, 2018 until February 10, 2019 was made available. This version reconstructs the experience of the original exhibition, taking the world-famous documents to your home. In addition to the medieval codices, coins, the Matthias Throne Tapestry, the short films screened at the exhibition and the curator's movie summary in the first room of the exhibition can be viewed on the internet.

As of August 2020, approximately 1,000 digitized maps that were printed in Hungary or abroad before 1850 became freely and digitally available. In the continuously expanding database entitled “Földabrosz” (Earth Cloth), the majority of the maps were made in the 18th century, but the collection also includes several 17th-century editions, once owned by founder of our Library, Count Ferenc Széchényi (1754–1820). 

Entitled 1956 – történelem röplapokon (1956 – history on leaflets), a new, freely accessible digital content service was launched by National Széchényi Library. The database launched on October 23, 2020 offers an ample selection of leaflets and text posters made during the 1956 Revolution and Freedom Fight. Currently, this significant and very special stock unit of NSZL includes about one and a half thousand documents, which were produced during the 1956 Revolution and War of Independence and in the months that followed. The earliest dated piece in the collection was made on October 22, 1956. More than five hundred small prints originate from the period of the Revolution and the War of Independence lasting from October 23 to November 4, 1956. Documents produced later on were published partly for resistance and partly for retaliation.

In our digital database Régi Ritka (Old Rare), launched in November 2020, first as many as one thousand items of the collection of engravings once owned by bibliophile collector Count Sándor Apponyi (1844–1925) were made virtual public domain. These items represent a significant historical source value. The rich graphic material depicting the foreign reception of the events of the period from the 16th to the 19th century in Hungary comes from the separate collection of engravings of the great donator of our library, and from his world-famous Hungarica book collection.

We wish you a useful time and efficient browsing to view the databases!

We will come up with yet another collection of unique pieces real soon!