GEOTOUR & IRSE 2012.pdf - Fakulta BERG - TUKE

GEOTOUR & IRSE 2012
BIOGRAPHICAL DATA OF S. MIKOVINY
There are a number of uncertainties regarding his life. The place of his birth is not known
exactly. Purgina – one of the researchers who studied his life in depth, assumed that he was
born in Turičky (Thurtzebe), a village near Cinobaņa (then Szinóbánya). Other authors (like
Mathias Belius) hold the view that he was born in Ábelová (then Ábelfalva). Purgina (1958)
suggests that his mother tongue was Slovak, others (e.g. Török E., 2011) assume Hungarian
as his mother tongue. He calls himself as „Hungarus“ – Hungarian or “Nobilis Hungari” -
Hungarian nobleman. Mikoviny uses a number of variations to his own name: once he is
Mikovini, other times Mikoviny or Mikovény (cf. Timčák 1985). We do not have a reliable
depiction of his likeness. It is assumed, however that the man on the M. Belius´
“Compendium” is S. Mikoviny (Török E., 2011) - as shown in Fig.1.b. Even there, the image
of Mikoviny varies in the different editions of the book. It is assumed that the picture of a
young man on Fig. 1.c. executed by S. Mikoviny is a self-portrait. In spite of these
uncertainties, there exist a number of portraits – perhaps the best one is held at the Mining
Faculty of the Miskolc University (Fig. 1a). At various places there are statues of Mikoviny
(Tata, Miskolc, Bratislava) - all modelled relying mostly on the feeling of the artist.
Fig.1b Image of Mikoviny in the “Compendium” of M. Belius (the first edition is from 1753).
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