One of the most significant cultural legacies in Transylvania
The Teleki Collection
MúzeumCafé 29.
Count Sámuel Teleki (1739–1822), Chancellor of Transylvania, created a library which over the centuries has proved to be one of the most significant cultural legacies of Transylvania. The establishment and development of the Teleki Collection turned the chancellor into one of Transylvania’s most important patrons of the arts. During the past two centuries, irrespective of historical and political developments, the Teleki Collection defined the intellectual weight of Transylvania and within that of Marosvásárhely (Târgu Mureş in Romania). Already in the 19th, but mainly in the 20th century thousands of travellers visited the town to do research in the celebrated institute. The existence of the collection in Marosvásárhely/Târgu Mureş provided (and still provides) the basis for asserting that the town offers intellectual potential on a level appropriate for a European cultural centre. The library and its comprehensive collection of 40,000 volumes was nationalised in 1948, following which its building experienced a change in character, including the important addition in 1955 of the 8000-volume library of the Calvinist College. Seven years later the two institutes were merged to form the Teleki-Bolyai Library. The combined collection includes 67 incunabula and 1500 old Hungarian books from the pre-1712 era. The approximately 230,000 volumes are being added to continuously. Today the collection is visited for two reasons. The reading room is used by researchers of Hungary and Transylvania, as well as students, while up to the time of renovation, which began last year, an annual 15-20,000 people visited the collection’s library museum, the Bolyai Memorial Room and the associated temporary exhibitions. The building of the Teleki Collection is scheduled to re-open to the public from 1 September 2012.