Calliotheca - a selection of exquisite beauties and spectacular treasures collected by the Library of
the Hungarian Academy of Sciences during its 190-odd years. Th e Neo-Renaissance palace of the
Academy on the left bank of the Danube is not only home to the sciences, arts, and letters. It is also
a sanctuary for the tangible cultural heritage of humankind in general and the Hungarian people
in particular. Th e history of the collection goes back to the beginnings of the Academy. In March
1826, inspired by the example of "the Greatest Hungarian", Count István Széchenyi, who off ered
one year's income of his estate for the purposes of a Learned Society in November 1825, Count József
Teleki made an equally generous contribution on behalf of his family by donating a collection of
some 30,000 books to the Academy and, with it, to the public. Th e Library has been constantly enriched
by private and public donations and by purchases ever since. Today it holds the bequests, autographs,
correspondence, and libraries of eminent scholars, scientists, authors, and artists of the last two
centuries. Th is album of outstanding photographs off ers a selection of lavishly illuminated codices,
elegantly printed and illustrated incunables and rare books, unique autographs, extraordinary
manuscripts from East and West, as well as stunning works of art and remarkable archival documents,
all carefully preserved and safeguarded but rarely put on public display.
