Ferenc Kazinczy

Ferenc Kazinczy (archaically English: Francis Kazinczy, October 27, 1759 – August 23, 1831) was a Hungarian author, the most indefatigable agent in the regeneration of the Magyar language and literature at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century. His name is today connected to the extensive Language Reform of the 19th century, when thousands of words were coined or revived, enabling the Hungarian language to keep up with scientific progress and become an official language of the nation in 1844.

He was born at Érsemjén (today Șimian, Romania), in the county of Bihar, Kingdom of Hungary. He studied law at Kassa and Eperjes, and in Pest, where he also obtained a thorough knowledge of French and German literature, and made the acquaintance of Gedeon Ráday (), who allowed him the use of his library. In 1784 Kazinczy became subnotary for the county of Abaúj; and in 1786 he was nominated inspector of schools at Kassa. There he began to devote himself to the restoration of the Magyar language and literature by translations from classical foreign works, and by the augmentation of the native vocabulary from ancient Magyar sources. In 1788, with the assistance of Dávid Baróti Szabó () and János Batsányi, he started at Kassa the first literary magazine in the Magyar (Hungarian) language, Magyar Muzeum; the Orpheus, which succeeded it in 1790, was his own creation. Although, upon the accession of Leopold II, Kazinczy, as a non-Catholic, was obliged to resign his post at Kassa, his literary activity in no way decreased. He not only assisted Raday in the establishment and direction of the first Magyar dramatic society, but enriched the repertoire with several translations from foreign authors. His Hamlet, which first appeared at Kassa in 1790, is a rendering from the German version of Schröder.

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