Presentation

The seeds of the Reformed college`s library are of the same age with the college itself, founded in 1670. According to a note from 1698, the library of the autonomous community of students numbered 23 titles. The holdings have been enriched more and more, so the modest library of the beginning has become today a valuable collection…
The enrichment of the library was secured by donations. Among the generous donors we can find Szekler noble, bourgeois intellectual, physician, advocate, professor, priest, civic or ecclesiastic aristocrat, high official of the state, vice-comes, noble woman (there are 17 funds, bearing the name of the donor). Among the books we can find those of ecclesiastic order (concerning the rights, offences, apologetics of the protestants, religious tolerance, politics of religion, bibles, biblical comments, sermons, funeral speech, holy lectures), but also law, historical, political, economic, natural science, literary, philological, philosophical works of those times, or of previous ages, in original or in translation, most of them in printed version, but some in manuscript copies.
More than one-ninth of the today`s holdings are represented by those 8300 old books, from which 2600 (31%) are volumes printed abroad before 1700, almost 4500 volumes (54%) date back to the period between 1701 and 1800, printed also abroad, while approximately 950 volumes (11,5%) were printed in Transylvania. There are 245 manuscripts, 3 incunabula (from 1489, 1490, and 1492). Among the volumes printed abroad we can find works of such renowned typographers and publishers as Hondius, Jansonius and Elzevir from Amsterdam, Bontius from Antwerpen, Bertschius, Frobenius and Oporinus from Basel, Crispinus from Geneva, Wechelius from Hannover, Hieratus from Köln, Bollifantus from London or Aldinus from Venice.
The library possesses several unique volumes. We have to mention the following: Tripartitum Juris Ungarici Tyrocinium... (Trnava, 1735), Tolvaj Menyői: Az arithmetikának... regulákba foglaltatott mestersége (Brașov, 1735), Zey András: Az olajoknak... declaracioja (1744), Kereszténi oktatások... (second edition, Cluj, 1744), Liliomok völgye..azaz ötven szent elmélkedések (Cluj, 1745), A ditsőség királya előtt..., (Cluj, 1747), Aranyas avagy keresztény abece, Jó illatú rózsás kert (Trnava, 1754), Zweimal zwei und fünfzig auserlesene biblische Historien (Brașov, 1775).
We can also find similar unique works: Laeto, Gergio: In conversionem Pauli Apostoli commentarius practicus (Franekera, 1650), Pruforus, Raphael: Disputationum theologicarum de Spiritus Sancti personalitate deitate... (Franekera, 1659), Wendem, Andreas van der: Dissertatio ad selecta dicta v. test. de gradibus exaltationis Christi... (Franekera, 1744).
The scientific library is a middle-size one. It can be found in the imposing building of the former Reformed college, built in 1912. The books can be consulted exclusively in the reading-room. A classic, handwritten catalogue by authors, respectively an electronic catalogue (integrated Siren-programme) is at everyone’s service.

 András Róth