MARCZALI, HENRIK

MARCZALI, HENRIK (1856–1940), Hungarian historian. Marczali was born in Marcali, where his father, Mihály Morgenstern, was rabbi. At the University of Budapest he gained distinction as a lecturer and historical scholar, but because he refused to renounce Judaism, he was denied a full professorship until 1895. Marczali was the first Jew to obtain a chair at Budapest University. He was elected to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1893, but was dismissed from his post in 1924. A historian of the positivist school and a pioneer of source criticism in Hungary, Marczali wrote many works, notably the three-volume Magyarország története II, József korában (1885–88; Hungary in the Eighteenth Century, 1910); A magyar történet kútföinek kézikönyve ("Handbook of the Sources of Hungarian History," 1901); and Az 1790/1-diki országgyülés ("The Sessions of the Diet During the Years 1790–91," 1907). Internationally recognized as one of Hungary's outstanding historians, Marczali also edited volumes 2–4 of the Monumenta Hungariae Judaica (1937–38). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: G. Szekfű and Z. Tóth, in: IMIT, 65 (1943), 125–37; Magyar Irodalmi Lexikon, 2 (1965), 186, includes bibliography; E. Léderer, in: Századok, 96 (1962), 440–69. (Alexander Scheiber)