Individual memory and collective history: the forgotten manuscript of Istvan Bartalus

Abstract

The printed folk song collection of Istvan Bartalus is the largest one from the 19th century Hungary. Its manuscript provides much more data, but systematic study describing it has not been done. The field-works of Bartalus was not authentic in modern sense. However, on the basis of his manuscript relatively much is known about how Bartalus managed his field–work, as unusually in his age Bartalus marked the location of it and also the name and often the social status of his informator. That’s why his manuscript is peculiarly interesting from the point of view of connections between the personality of the collector and the collective memory which this study focuses on.