Ján Kvačala – a noted personality in the histories of the pedagogics and the comeniology

In his essay the author writes about the childhood, the student years and the teaching activity as well as scientific work of professor Dr. Ján Kvačala (5. 2. 1862— 9. 6. 1934), a well known personality in the history of pedagogics, and the founder of modern comeniology. From his extensive comeniological work the author records his thesis „Über Johann Amos Comenius Philosophie, insbesonders Physik“ (1886); he pays due attention to his paper „Johann Amos Comenius, sein Leben und seine Schriften“ (1892), which made Kvačala well kown in all the educated world. Further on attention is paid to KvaCala’s collections of J. A. Komenský" s correspondence the value of which is lasting being a rare source of a better getting to know Komenský’s personality (1898, 1902, 1904, 1909), as well as to the study „Komenský. His personality and his system of the pedagogical science.“ (1913, 1914, 1920, 1921). Besides his merits in the field of the comeniology, the author marks out Kvíčala’s studies devoted to Daniel Ernest Jablonský, J. A. Komenský’s grandson, further on to a noted Italian renaissance philosopher and educationalist Thomas Campanelli, to the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz, and to the Czech social and religious reformer John Hus. The author also draws the reader’s attention to the importance of Kvačala’s document „The history of the reformation in Slovakia“ (1935) for the history of the school system and pedagogics in Slovakia.
When analyzing and evaluating Ján Kvačala’s pedagogical and scientific work the author mentions a number of facts from his rich life. In the conclusions of his study the author says that Kvačala’s ample possibilities to work scientifically and to publish such a number of documents were not only due to his talents and his industry but also to the fact that he was single all his life long, being so free of family duties, and that he had a good command of several world-wide spoken languages. The work which he created is an ever-lasting and valuable contribution to both the Czechoslovak and the international science, especially in the field of the pedagogics and the comeniology.