The object of the month – Gyula Bertalan: Historical map of Hungary
Gyula Bertalan was born on November 13, 1853, in Galambok. He completed his teacher training in Pécs and taught in Marcali from 1870. In 1875, he moved to the boys' school in Zsombolya (now Jimbolia, Romania), where he worked until the end of his life (March 19, 1906). He played a major role in the creation of the bust depicting Lajos Kossuth. The statue, created by Ede Kallós (1866–1950), was unveiled on June 29, 1905. The ceremony was attended by the elder son of the former governor, Ferenc Kossuth, and Gyula Bertalan gave a speech, while the choir of the civic school sang patriotic songs. The statue is no longer visible today, as it was blown up after the Serbian invasion in 1918.
Bertalan designed his educational game called Hungarian Historical Map in 1902. The express purpose of the teaching aid was to enable students to learn about the geography and history of Hungary through play, thereby stimulating the interest of less able young people. It was produced in two editions: a smaller version for children to use at home and a larger version for school use. The latter consists of a map that can be hung on the wall and stored in a lockable wooden cabinet, a secondary map for teaching purposes, 171 historical markers that can be stuck onto the map, a table, and a printed guide. The small booklet was titled Guide to the Use of the Historical Map of Hungary for Hungarian Youth, for School and Private Use, and was printed by Fanni Perlstein in Zsombolya.
Bertalan gave a lecture in 1903 at the teachers' conference in Nagybecskerek (today: Зрењанин [Zrenjanin], Serbia) on an educational game that had been included in the list of approved teaching aids as early as 1901, entitled Teaching the History of the Homeland in an Illustrative Manner. The lecture was a great success, and at the suggestion of István Kaufmann, the general assembly decided to order a copy for each branch association. In 1904, Chief Magistrate Lajos Dellimanics (1861–1922) ordered that all schools in Torontál County acquire the map.
The University Library's copy comes from the collection of historian and archivist Gyula Pauler (1841–1903) and was donated to the library by his son, Ákos Pauler (1876–1933), after his death. Over the following 120 years, its condition deteriorated significantly, and it was restored by Miklós Szalaváry in 2023. Today, it is kept among the protected documents of the University Library, in the Rariora Hungarica collection (reference number: Rar. Hung. 4165).
A digitized version of the document is available at: https://edit.elte.hu/xmlui/handle/10831/95822
Written by Márk Vrabély