János Apáczai Csere

[2] He was born in Apáca, Principality of Transylvania (today Apața, in Brașov County, Romania) on 10 June 1625; the "Apáczai" in his name is an indication of his birthplace.

[1] After college studies in Gyulafehérvár (Alba Iulia), one of Csere's teachers there, Johann Heinrich Bisterfeld, persuaded the local bishop, István Katona, to fund a scholarship for Apáczai to continue his education in the Netherlands.

[3] He married a Dutch woman, Aletta van der Maet, in the same year, but returned with her to Gyulafehérvár in 1652 at the request of Prince George II Rákóczi.

[1] The first part of the encyclopedia consisted of a translation of the philosophy of René Descartes, and the second and third covered logic following the earlier treatments of Petrus Ramus and his student William Ames.

Apáczai's work fell into disfavor and neglect in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, after the Hungarian Counter-Reformation led to a return of Catholicism in that country.