András, a könyvmester = Andreas, the bookmaster

Farkas, Gábor Farkas (2024) András, a könyvmester = Andreas, the bookmaster. MAGYAR KÖNYVSZEMLE, 140 (1). pp. 12-27. ISSN 0025-0171

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Abstract

The first book printed in Hungary, the Chronica Hungarorum, originally consisted of probably 140 (or 139) printed pages. Andreas Hess, the printer, was forced to implement constraints at the beginning and end of the incunabulum, which currently consists of 67 leaves, corresponding to 133 printed pages so that a complete book could be published. Originally, the publication began with a foreword by Archbishop János Vitéz, followed by the printer’s dedication, and continued with the medieval history of the Huns and Hungarians until the reign of King Matthias. Andreas Hess had to interrupt the printing of the book in the spring of 1472, due to the arrest of his patron, theArchbishop of Esztergom, and was obliged to wait a year before finally publishing the current version of the text. This is related to the story of the two blank leaves at the end of the print, for which no plausible explanation has yet been found. It is believed that the Hungarian printer suspended the printing process in the middle of the last quire of the incunabulum, the history of King Ladislaus V of Hungary, presumably when Vitéz was arrested. Based on this, it is possible that the text of the chronicle was considerably longer and included, among other things, the accession of the Polish Prince Casimir to the Hungarian throne in 1471. After the suppression of the Vitéz conspiracy, Andreas Hess had no choice but to exclude the preface by János Vitéz to the readers and accept that he could not print a chronicle of the controversial Hungarian domestic political affairs of 1468–1472. However, owing to the high cost of paper, he could not discard the last pairs of leaves already printed, which recount the reigns of Louis I of Hungary and Sigismund of Luxembourg. The budget of the Chronica Hungarorum must have been modest: it cost 100 gold forints, half of which was the price of the paper, and about 250 copies were published on the vigil of Pentecost, 5 June 1473. Today we know about ten surviving copies worldwide.

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