Rita Mayer, chief advisor at the Ministry of Education and Culture, remarked on the event?s historical significance at the ceremony, calling it a ?joyful and happy return home?.
Attending the event were several guests from Russia, which returned the books to Hungary earlier this year. The books were taken to the then Soviet Union in 1945 and placed in the Nizhniy Novgorod Library. Russian art historians established the books' origins were Hungarian in 1991, but it was not until 2005, after restitution negotiations, that Russia?s parliament approved legislation allowing the books? return. The law was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Most of the books were returned on February 22, 2006, but ten more volumes arrived in April, after further negotiations.
Dénes Dienes, the director of the Sárospatak church?s collection, said the priceless books had arrived at the Reformed College Library at the end of June from the National Széchényi Library without fanfare. The condition of the books varied greatly when they arrived, but they were placed into an environment in which they will not deteriorate further. A few of the volumes will need to be restored, which could take several hundred hours of work and cost hundreds of thousands of forints, which the library hopes to win from grants, he said.
Dienes also noted that Hungary had paid the Nizhniy Novgorod Library 12 million rubles for the care of the books, as stipulated under Russia?s restitution law.
Among the volumes returned from Russia are Hartmann Schedel?s Libri Cronicarum, a history of the world printed in 1493, and Bálint Balassi?s Herb Garden for Sick Souls.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
