Historický Časopis (Feb 2023)
Zo Starej Ďaly na ostrov Mauritius a na úpätie Kaukazu. Životná dráha Jána Karola Besseho
Abstract
HORBULÁK Zsolt – TÓTH, Ferenc. From Stará Ďala to the island of Mauritius and the foothills of the Caucasus. Biography of Ján Karol Besse. Historický časopis, 2023, 71, 2, pp. 161–184, Bratislava. The article deals with the life and oeuvre of Jan Karol Besse. J. K. Besse was a traveller and geographer of Hungarian origin (1765 – 1841). Between 1790 and 1824 he lived permanently in several Western European countries, where he performed military service. He was in the service of France for the longest time. From 1802 to 1810, on the island of Mauritius, he held the post of secretary to the local French administrator. After his return to France, he wrote articles on Eastern Europe, primarily on linguistics and literature. It is likely that he also collaborated with the French secret police. In France he used the name Charles Bérony. Besse devoted his life to the study of foreign languages, especially Oriental languages. In addition to Hungarian, Latin, French, German, English and Italian, he also spoke Turkish. During the 1820s and 30s, he regularly visited his homeland and made several trips to Eastern Europe, the Black Sea region and the Caucasus. He wrote a number of works about these journeys, which are preserved and are valuable contributions to the emerging field of Oriental studies. Besse was on the road all his life, which can be accurately documented thanks to his surviving writings. His life, too, ended on the road in Regensburg, Germany. Some sources say that at the end of his life Besse was employed at home in the county office, but this information has not yet been able to be substantiated by archive sources. Many facts about Besse‘s life are as yet unknown. Documentary evidence can prove that he was born in the village of Stará Ďala, now the town of Hurbanovo, on 29 August 1765. His father‘s name was Iosephus Besse, his mother Theresia Szetey. His godparents were Ioannes Konkoly and Elizabetha Blaskovics, his religion was Roman Catholic.
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