János Apáczai Csere

János Apáczai Csere (June 10, 1625 – December 31, 1659) was a Transylvanian Hungarian polyglot and mathematician, famous for his work The Hungarian Encyclopedia, the first textbook to be written in Hungarian. The Encyclopædia Britannica calls him "the leading Protestant scholar and writer" of 17th-century Hungary.

He was born in Apața (today in Braşov County, Romania) on June 10, 1625; the "Apáczai" in his name is an indication of his birthplace. The Csere family into which he was born were of the minor nobility, but his parents died when he was young and he was brought up an orphan. After college studies in Gyulafehérvár (Alba Iulia), one of Csere's teachers there, Johann Heinrich Bisterfeld, persuaded the local bishop, István Katona, to fund a scholarship for Apáczai to continue his education in the Netherlands. He began these studies at the University of Franeker and later went to Leiden University and Utrecht University; in 1651 he earned a doctorate in theology from the University of Harderwijk. He married a Dutch woman, Aletta van der Maet, in the same year, but returned with her to Gyulafehérvár in 1652 at the request of Prince George II Rákóczi. At this time, Bisterfeld was still head of the school in Gyulafehérvár, but on his death in 1655 Apáczai fell out of favor and lost his position; in 1656 he was sent instead to what is now Cluj-Napoca to become head of the Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca) School there. He died in 1659 at the age of 34.

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