15 The Reception of Edmund Burke’s Aesthetics in Hungary 1 Piroska Balogh The frst complete Hungarian translation of Burke’s Reflections was in 1990, 2 and that of his Enquiry only in 2008. 3 The frst Burke monograph in Hungarian was published in 2000 (Molnár) and the frst scholarly papers on his infuence in Hungary were published as late as 2011 (Horkay Hörcher and Szilágyi). It might be thought that Hungarian intellectuals of earlier times by and large ignored Burke’s views, but if we look at the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, we see that this view is mistaken. 4 In this period, theoretical books were rarely translated into Hungarian and theoretical works on aesthetics in Hungary were usually written in Latin or German. Potential Hungarian readers of Enquiry were profcient in German and a German translation was available soon after its publication in England. 5 The absence of Hungarian translations is not proof of a lack of interest in, or a lack of knowledge of, Burke in itself. 6 So what evidence is there for awareness of 1 Translated by Ambrus Mózes. The research was funded by the Hungarian Scientifc Research Found (OTKA). 2 English edition used here: Burke (1989). Hungarian edition: Burke (1990), trans. Kontler. 3 English edition used here: Burke (1997). Hungarian edition: Burke (2008), trans. Fogarasi. 4 The frst Hungarian article about Burke was an anonymous article about his political views, Fox és Burke … (Anon. 1837). 5 The most widely used translation of Burke in Hungary was by Garve (Burke 1773). About the history of the German translations of the Enquiry see Parret (2012) and Kontler (1997). 6 The libraries in Hungary which served the learned community in the eight- eenth and nineteenth centuries usually list the German translations of both the Enquiry and the Reflections among their contemporary acquisitions. For example: Hungarian National Library (Országos Széchényi Könyvtár, shelf marks 81.232, 831.695, 3483039, 833.091, 639.536), Debrecen College Library (Tiszántúli Református Egyházkerület Nagykönyvtára, N452), Ráday collection (Dunamelléki Református Egyházkerület Ráday Könyvtára, 2–26544), Library of the Lutheran Lyceum of Bratislava (Lyceálna knižnica v Bratislave, LycB III/103). 9781441196651_txt_print.indd 297 14/07/2016 15:49