Gaal György

Nincs intézményi hovatartozási adat.

Publications: 9

Gaal György (Kolozsvár, 1948) irodalom- és művelődéstörténész a Babeş–Bolyai Tudományegyetemen szerzett angol–magyar szakos diplomát (1971) és irodalomtudományi doktorátust (1981). Nyugdíjazásáig kolozsvári líceumok tanára és a Kolozsvári Protestáns Teológiai Intézet óraadó tanára volt, s ez utóbbi intézet tiszteletbeli professzori címmel tüntette ki. A Kelemen Lajos Műemlékvédő Társaság és a Házsongárd Alapítvány ügyvezető elnöke, a Romániai Írószövetség rendes tagja és díjazottja, az EMKE tiszteletbeli, az MTA köztestületi tagja. Apáczai-díjas, a magyar kultúra lovagja. Kutatási területei: angol és magyar irodalomtörténet, oktatás- és iskolatörténet, sajtótörténet, orvostörténet és helytörténet. Több mint 30 könyve és számtalan tanulmánya elsősorban Kolozsvár múltjával és jelenével foglalkozik.

Publications of György Gaal

This article commemorates Péter Nagy at the 200th anniversary of his birth. Péter Nagy was the son of a tailor in Cluj/Kolozsvár and became one of the greatest Calvinist bishops. He studied at the Calvinist College of Kolozsvár and later at Göttingen University. In 1841 he was elected minister of the Reformed community from Cluj/Kolozsvár. He became a teacher of biology and later of theology at the Calvinist College. He translated many literary volumes from English and French. Nagy had an important role in founding the Transylvanian Museum Society, of which he was elected vice-president in 1869. He was also a member of the Hungarian Parliament. In 1866 he was promoted as bishop in his church. He was an excellent preacher and the reorganizer of the Transylvanian Reformed Church.

Research articleReformátus Szemle 112.3 (2019)

This study presents the life and activity of Sándor Berde (1856–1894). Berde was born in a little village in Seklers’ Land. He studied in and graduated from the Reformed College of Nagyenyed (Aiud). He continued his studies in Vienna, Jena and Basel. He became an adherent of the liberal theology having a predilection for scientific results instead of the old religious teachings. During his studies in Jena, he specialized himself in New Testament theology. After his return to Transylvania, he became the missionary minister of the parish in Kackó (Câţcău). Eight other villages belonged to his parish. The Hungarian population lived very scattered in this area, continually diminishing in number. So the minister was in a very difficult situation. In 1889 Berde took the private-docent-exam at the Nagyenyed Theological Academy. This was the period of the foundation of the Reformed Theological Faculty of Kolozsvár (Cluj). So the Church Council elected Berde as a professor of the Faculty in Kolozsvár, and sent him temporarily to teach at Nagyenyed. This was a very unpleasant situation. He taught there New Testament for four school years being much appreciated by his colleagues and the students. He died of tuberculosis. Though he was the very first professor of the Faculty of Kolozsvár, he is never mentioned as such in historical works. He is mostly appreciated as the father of his children: one daughter became a novelist, the other a painter; the youngest son was a famous dermatologist.

Research articleReformátus Szemle 111.3 (2018)

Antonina de Gerando descends on her father’s side from a French noble family, on her mother’s side from the famous Count Teleki family. In this second respect, she was the third educator following her grandmother’s sister (Teréz Brunswick) and her mother’s sister (Blanka Teleki). She studied in France and there she obtained her teacher’s degree. In 1873 she moved to Budapest, where she started to teach in private girls’ schools. In 1880 she was invited to head the newly opened Higher School for Girls from Cluj/Kolozsvár. She directed this school for 32 years. Originally the school was under the jurisdiction of the town council, being overtaken by the state in 1892. In 1900 it moved into the modern school building near the Central Park. All the daughters of the cultured Cluj/Kolozsvár families studied in this school. The beloved headmistress shared some particular ideas, like educating by love and not by using punishments. She got retired in 1912 and died in 1914.
This study presents de Gerando’s activity as a teacher, as the head of her school, her pedagogical ideas, as well the schoolbooks written by her (Mathematics, French, Latin, Music, Pedagogics, Housekeeping).
She also published many translations.

Research articleReformátus Szemle 109.5 (2016)

The father, Farkas Bolyai (1775–1856) descends from a very old but impoverished noble family. He studied at the Calvinist colleges of Nagyenyed/Aiud and Kolozsvár. Afterwards, as the mentor of Simon Kemény, he continued his studies at the Göttingen University. There he became a friend of C. F. Gauss. In 1804 F. Bolyai was invited to become a professor of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry at the Calvinist College of Marosvásárhely/Târgu Mureş, where he taught until his retirement in 1851. He was a famous mathematician who wrote some textbooks, but he was also interested in philology, agriculture, viticulture, medicine, literature, and music. He was a stove builder and a play writer, too. That is the reason he was considered a polymath. His most important mathematical work entitled Tentamen was written in Latin.
From Farkas Bolyai’s first marriage with Zsuzsanna Benkő his first son János Bolyai was born at Kolozsvár (1802–1860). János studied under the direction of his father at the Marosvásárhely Calvinist College, then he was sent to the Military Engineering Academy in Vienna, where he spent five years. After graduating in 1823 he was promoted second- lieutenant and sent to Temesvár/Timişoara. During the next few years he served at Arad, Lemberg/Lviv, Olmütz/Olomouc up to 1833, when he got retired as a captain because of illness. He lived at Domáld/Viişoara and Marosvásárhely until his death. His father introduced János Bolyai into the problem of parallels, the questions connected with Euclid’s XIth Axiom. János contemplated on this problem while he was in Vienna. His letter written on the 3rd of November, 1823 to his father declares that he was able to solve the problem, and that by this he created “a new world”. His study on the parallels was published as an Appendix to his father’s Tentamen (1832). A copy of it was sent to the greatest mathematician of those times, Gauss. He recognized the geniality of the work but only in some private letters. Only towards the end of the century was János Bolyai recognised as the father of the Non-Euclidean Geometry. He is considered the greatest Hungarian mathematician. His cult in Kolozsvár started in 1902 at the centenary of his birth. The birth-house was identified and a memorial plaque was unveiled there. The first Hungarian Bolyai-researchers were professors of the Kolozsvár University.

Research articleReformátus Szemle 108.3 (2015)

Ez a tanulmány a mócsi templomot mutatja be.

Református Szemle 106.5 (2013)

Művész hazája széles e világ – vallotta Arany János egy 1850-ben írt versében. Kolozsvár szülöttei közül leginkább Szathmári Pap Károly életútja bizonyítja e verssor igazságát. Pedig nem véletlenül csöppent e városba, hanem felmenői több generáción át tekintélyes polgárok és egyházi emberek voltak, s lett volna esélye itt helyben is érvényesülni. A művészegyéniség azonban felszínre tört, érvényesült, s messzi tájakra elragadta az alkotót tanulni, tapasztalni, a látottakat megörökíteni. Így lett Kolozsvár szülöttéből Bukarest csodált művésze, Európa és Ázsia bekalandozója.

Református Szemle 105.2 (2012)

A 19. század első évtizedeiben Kolozsvár gyors csinosodásnak indul. A főkormányszék 1790-ben történt idetelepítésével fővárossá lépett elő. egymás után kap mindhárom felekezeti tanintézet pompás, új kétemeletes otthont. Először az unitáriusoké készül el, a „Múzsák és erények” hajléka 1806-ra, utána a reformátusoké a „Tudomány és kegyesség” jegyében az 1810-es évek végén, s végül a római katolikus piarista líceumé 1817–1821 között. A református tanárok rangos sorából kiemelkedik a természettudományok két elhivatott művelője, a két Méhes: György és fia, Sámuel.

Református Szemle 103.5 (2010)

A kolozsvári egyetem felállítása után még a teológia sorsa maradt kérdéses. Már az egyetem alapítása körüli csatározásokban felmerült annak lehetősége, hogy létesítsenek egy protestáns teológiai kart is Kolozsvárt, hisz a fővárosi egyetemen volt római katolikus hittudományi kar. Erre nem került sor. Az igény azonban fennállt, hogy a lelkészképzést is egyetemi szintre kell emelni, bármilyen költséges legyen ez. Az 1870-es évektől az egész erdélyi reformátusságot megosztó pártvita középpontjába került a kérdés, hogy a kiépítés a már hagyományosnak számító Nagyenyeden, vagy pedig a püspöki székhelynek számító egyetemi városban, Kolozsváron történjék-e. Ennek a vitának az egyik központi harcosa, megtérő vezéregyénisége volt Bartók György. Élete legtermékenyebb két évtizedét ebben a harcban töltötte el, s minden álma az volt, hogy bölcseletet tanítson a leendő teológusoknak. Tudását Erdély-szerte elismerték, kitartását püspöki székkel jutalmazták, de tanári katedrát csak átmenetileg kaphatott.

Református Szemle 100.6 (2007)