Count Ferenc Széchenyi was educated in Sopron, Nagyszombat and then at the Theresianum in Vienna. In Vienna, he met the great archaeologists and coin experts of the time, and under their influence he began to collect art. From 1776, he held judicial and then administrative posts. He initially supported Joseph II’s reform demands, but the emperor’s absolutist, Germanising policies, which sought to destroy the constitution of the order, led him to resign in 1787. He then travelled in Western Europe, gaining experience in Belgium and England, in libraries and other basic cultural institutions. From 1790, after the restoration of the constitutional order, he again took office; he retired from public life in 1812, at the time of the new absolutist revolution. From the 1770s onwards, Ferenc Széchényi consciously collected prints, manuscripts, maps and coins relating to Hungary. With his founding charter of 25 November 1802, he donated this rich private collection to the nation, which is considered to be the foundation of the Hungarian National Museum and National Széchényi Library.
In 1807, it was enacted into law, stating that Count Széchényi, with his donations “for the use of the Hungarian nation”, had “laid the foundations of a national museum to be established with commendable zeal”.
