The peregrinatio academica of István Enyedi iun., and his letter to Isaac Newton

Abstract

István Enyedi junior came from an eminent Transylvanian Calvinist family, his father was Professor at the Bethlen College of Nagyenyed (today Aiud in Romania). He studied medicine at the University of Halle where he produced a dissertation much praised by his examiners, also a verse greeting by an occasional French poet (A. Jombert) left out from most extant copies. Enyedi went on to study and botany and medicine at Leyden before crossing the Channel for England in 1720. Once in London, he wrote a letter in Latin to Sir Isaac Newton, the most admired scientist of the age. Although Enyedi had hoped to meet Newton, the latter never contacted the Hungarian travel-ler. The reason for this was probably Newton’s reluctance to make his Arian views widely known abroad - he wrongly associated Enyedi with „Eniedinus”, (György Enyedi), an internationally known Transylvanian Unitarian theologian of the 16th century.