István Iványi (Lugos, 17.12.1845 – Subotica, 7.7.1917) was a professor of the grammar school in Subotica, a historian and a librarian. His parents, Stephan Ivanovszky and Kristina List were Germans. He finished the primary school and four years of grammar school in his native town in German. He started to learn Hungarian in 1862, when he continued the fifth year of the grammar school at the Piarists in Vác. He attended the sixth form in Kecskemét. After graduation he was a teacher in the grammar school in Szeged, in 1868 in Nitra, and the following year in Budapest. In 1871 he received his diploma as a professor of Greek, Latin and German. He worked in Nagykanizsa, Timisoara, while he finally left the Piarists in 1875. He Hungarianised his surname into Iványi in 1867. He was appointed for a professor of the grammar school in Subotica in autumn 1875 (IAS, F: 2. 5779 / polg. 1875). In 1876, he married Mária Váli. From this marriage there were born a daughter, who died in autumn 1878 (Szabadka és Vidéke, 27.10.1878) and sons, Kálmán (Subotica, 15.10.1882 – ?) and Lajos (Subotica, 4.1.1888 – ?). During the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the proclamation of free royal town (1879), he accepted to write the history of Subotica. The first volume was published in 1886 and the second in 1892 (IAS, F: 2. I, 645/1885). The town authorities paid him 3,000 forints for his efforts (Subotičke novine, 28.2.1893). He was in retirement from 1895. He became blind in both eyes in 1896.
Mirko Grlica