Temporum vicissitudine & successu devenit hocce Album in gratiam Francisci quondam P Papai multis Encomiis + refertum in Possessionem Georgii Retteghi + a varijs doctissimisque Viris. Anno 1762 Füzes

p. 477. [Ördöngös-]füzes, 1762

Rettegi, György
(1718-1786), Transylvanian deputy-lieutenant, author of memoirs

György Rettegi of Kisbudak was born on March 31, 1718 in Páncélcseh (Doboka county, today Panticeu), the son of the deputy-lieutenant György Rettegi (c. 1680-1718) and of Klára Dobai. His father died in September of the same year, at the age of 38. When six years later his mother married the scoundrel Dániel Kolozsvári – who dissipated all the heredity and finally died in misery – György went to live with her motherly grandparents. From 1725 he studied in Kolozsvár (Cluj), living with his two brothers in the Farkas street at the widow of the typographer Veresegyházi. After many hardships and intermissions, at the age of 13 he had to break his studies, because in the meantime his grandfather also died. He lived a severe apprentice's life, then he became a clerk. In 1742 he married Salomé Aczél, who died in 1750, leaving behind two small children, Zsigmond and Salomé. From 1750 he was purser (perceptor), and between 1768 and 1771 deputy-lieutenant of Doboka county. He died in 1786 in Magyarköblös (Cubleşu Someşan). His second wife was Mária Kandó (?-1783), their children were Miklós, Hedvig (later wife of Sámuel Viski), Kata (later wife of Zsigmond Décsei) and Mihály. Rettegi has almost never left Transylvania. He made great efforts to educate himself, and to read Latin, “first only from a trilingue Cato, then I acquired an Orbis” [the Orbis Pictus of Comenius] [Rettegi-Jakó 78, Rettegi-Jancsó 63]. His memoirs are an interesting source on the life of Transylvanian noble families and kinship relations in the period. Its new edition: Emlékezetre méltó dolgok, 1718-1784, introduced and annotated by Zsigmond Jakó, Bukarest, 1970.

The memoirs of György Rettegi inform us that the father of his stepfather was professor and pastor in Nagyenyed (Aiud), as well as Reformed Bishop of Transylvania. (He was therefore the Cartesian István Kolozsvári, who had also studied abroad, became Bishop of Transylvania in 1714, and died in 1717.) We are also informed that the widow of his father-in-law Erzsébet Diószegi married the physician Ferenc Pápai, whose father was a professor in Nagyenyed at the same time with Kolozsvári. Doctor Pápai acquired an estate in Tiszafüred on his wife's dote. When they died in the plague of 1740, the brother-in-law of Rettegi, the physician Gábor Aczél was deprived of his motherly heritage by his fraudulent relatives. Pápai did have children, but they had died before that date [Rettegi-Jakó 71, 240, Rettegi-Jancsó 56]. Gábor Aczél (1711-1762) owned an estate in Ördöngösfüzes (Fizeşu Gherlii) in Szolnok-Doboka county. The Album of Ferenc Pápai Páriz might got in the possession of György Rettegi after Aczél’s death [personal communication by András Emődi, 2013]. – The members of the Rettegi family had been for generations officers of Doboka county. Due to an error in the family tree published by Iván Nagy [Nagy Iván IX 688], some biographies incorrectly name the parents of György Rettegi [Rettegi-Jancsó, Szinnyei]. Thus, his fatherly grandparents were István Rettegi (deputy-lieutenant of Doboka county between 1672 and 1675, went in exile with Imre Thököly, and died in Bucureşti) and his wife Judit Csegezi. His parents were György (c. 1680-1718, deputy-lieutenant in 1710-11 and 1715-18) and his wife Klára Dobai. Their son was György (1718-1786), deputy-lieutenant in 1768-71, the owner of the album of Ferenc Pápai Páriz from 1762 on.

• Emődi • Kempelen IX 92 • MÉL • Nagy Iván IX 686-689 • Rettegi-Jakó • Rettegi-Jancsó • Szinnyei • ÚMIL