Ferenc Bizonfy

Franz Bizonfy (Hungarian: Bizonfy Ferenc; originally Franz Maschitz; 12 March 1828 – 19 August 1912) was a Hungarian physician, writer, linguist, lexicographer and former Honvéd officer of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848–49, of Croatian descent.

Life

Bizonfy was born as Franz Maschitz in Szarvkő, then in the western part of Sopron County in the Kingdom of Hungary. According to a later article by the historian Endre Csatkai, he was born to Croatian parents.

In 1851 he was in London, where he taught at a military school established for younger refugee Honvéd officers, alongside Bishop Jácint Rónay and Colonel Zsigmond Thaly. The school closed after a few months, after which he continued his studies at the universities of Leipzig, Berlin, Heidelberg and Zurich.

Contemporary and later accounts connected Bizonfy with European intellectual circles of the mid-nineteenth century. Csatkai's 1938 article states that, while passing through Frankfurt, Bizonfy visited Arthur Schopenhauer, whose work he already knew. The article quotes a letter by Schopenhauer to his friend Frauenstädt in which Schopenhauer described Bizonfy as a tall and handsome young man who appeared to have knowledge of Oriental languages and who claimed that he would spread Schopenhauer's doctrines in Zurich.

Csatkai's 1927 article stated that Bizonfy's correspondence, library and writings had been deposited in the Wolf Museum in Kismarton and were then being arranged. The same article mentioned a large amount of material relating to Sanskrit. In 1938 Csatkai wrote that Bizonfy's widow had returned to England after her husband's death and had destroyed much of his estate before leaving. The remaining material was deposited in the Wolf Museum; some of the letters addressed to Bizonfy had already been published, while a large body of philosophical and linguistic manuscripts still awaited scholarly processing.

Works

Bizonfys Aperçus und Reflexionen. Pest, 1871. Angol–magyar szótár (English–Hungarian Dictionary). Budapest, 1878. 2nd expanded edition: Budapest, 1886. Online edition Magyar–angol szótár (Hungarian–English Dictionary). Budapest, 1881. 2nd expanded edition: Budapest, 1886. Online edition Angol és magyar beszélgetések (English and Hungarian Conversations). Budapest, 1885.