Matthias Bel

Matthias Bel or Matthias Bél (German: Matthias Bel; Hungarian: Bél Mátyás; Slovak: Matej Bel; Latin: Matthias Belius; March 22, 1684 – August 29, 1749) was a Lutheran pastor and polymath from the Kingdom of Hungary. He is also known as the Great Ornament of Hungary (Magnum decus Hungariae). He described himself as "lingua Sla-vus, natione Hungarus, eruditione Germanus" ("by language a Slav, by nation a Hungarian, by erudition a German").

Origin, life

Matthias Bel was born in Ocsova, Kingdom of Hungary (now Očová, Slovakia). to Matej Bel Funtík or Bel-Funtík, a Slovak wealthy peasant and butcher, and Veszprém-born Erzsébet Cseszneky, who hails from the Hungarian noble family, Cseszneky.

According to some Slovak sources, he considered himself an ethnic Slovak, though Bel described himself as "by language a Slav, by nation a Hungarian, by erudition a German". His fathers double family-name is part Slovak (Funtík) and part Hungarian (Bél). In 1710, he got married to an ethnic German woman from Hungary, Susanna Hermann, and the couple had eight children together.