De vocatione

De vocatione in Hungariam

 Kratičká zpráva o pozvání do Uher

On the vocation in Hungary A brief report on the invitation to Hungary

Origin of the work:
  1657 Amsterdam

Editions:
  1657 Amsterdam, Opera didactica omnia III

1957 Prague, Opera didactica omnia III, (phototype edition)

1957 Prague, in: J. A. Comenius scholarum novi ordinis formator. J. A. Komenský tvůrce nového uspořádání škol, (Latin & Czech; Czech translation by J. Kopecký and M. Klučka)

1960 Prague, Vybrané spisy J. A. Komenského, sv. II, Czech translation by J. Kopecký

1992 Prague, J. A. Comenii Opera omnia, vol. 15/III

Contents:

A short report in which Comenius narrates the circumstances surrounding his invitation and departure to Hungary.

When Comenius made out the didactic works that later find their ways into parts I and II of the Opera didactica omnia (Complete Didactic Works; ODO), i.e. in particular the Didactics, the Informatorium for Kindergarten Schools, the Newest Method of Languages and the language textbooks that he regarded as secondary, he hoped that he would be able to return to work on matters that were, in his view, far more weighty – the pansophic and the pan-remedial. At this point, however, letters arrived from Transylvania, from theologians and from Prince Sigismund Rákóczi, who was also writing in the name of his mother, Princess Zuzana Lorántffy-Rákóczi (Zuzana Lorántffy; the Rákoczis), inviting him to discuss the reform of the school there.

At the urging of friends of the exiled Moravians – of whom many were settled in Hungary, and who along with the Leszno Brethren hoped to bring the powerful Rákóczi family into open conflict with the Habsburgs – Comenius arrived in May 1650 at Sárospatak, and together with distinguished pro-Rákóczi admirers went to Tokay, where discussions were held on the operation of the school at Sárospatak according to the rules of pansophy. Comenius was invited to write a treatise on the subject; the result was the Illustris Patakinae scholae idea (The Idea of an EnlightenedSchool at Sárospatak; the Scholae idea).

For further study, see also:

Vybrané spisy J. A. Komenského, vol. II. Prague 1960, p10

J. A. Comenii Opera omnia, vol. 15/III, pp327-330