György Pray

György ( George) Pray ( born September 11, 1723 in Neuhäusel, Hungary, † September 23, 1801 in Pest ) was a Hungarian historian and Jesuit.

Life

Pray comes from a Tyrolean noble family. After a short Jurassic and studying philosophy, he entered the Jesuit order in 1740 in Vienna at. After he had spent two years in Vienna, he taught poetry and moral theology at religious colleges in Pecs, Oradea, Rosenau, Trencsin, Trnava ( 1749) and Raab. Ordained in 1754, he came in 1759 as a teacher at the Vienna Theresianumgasse and moonlighted as a tutor in the house of Prince Salm. In Vienna Pray met the historian Erasmus Cheerful know which sparked his interest in Hungarian history. Pray devoted himself entirely to the medieval history of Hungary. Maria Theresa granted him after the abolition of the Jesuit Order in 1773 made ​​a board and appointed him " historiographer of the Kingdom of Hungary ". Pray published one of the first Hungarian language monuments named after him Pray codex. In polemical writings he defended the Finno- Ugric origin theory of Hungary. As in 1777, the University of Trnava was on the furnace and later moved to Pest, Pray was appointed curator of the University Library. In gratitude for his contribution to the historical justification of the imperial claims to the Ottoman occupied border provinces of the Habsburg Empire, he was appointed canon of Oradea and abbot of Tornova.

Work (selection)

• Annales veteres Hunnorum, Avarum et Hungarorum from Anno a CN 210 ad annum 997 C. deducti, tres partes ( Vindobonae 1761, Fol )
• Annales Regum Hungariae from Anno Christi 997 usque ad Annum 1564 deducti, Partes V ( Vindobonae, 1764-1770, Fol )
• Index Librorum rariorum Bibliothecae Universitatis Regiae Budensis. ( Budae 1780-1781 )
• Historia Regum Hungariae ( Budae 1801)