THE SCHULTZ-PRESS IN LŐCSE AND KASSA
 

Lőcse (Levoča, SK): Daniel Schultz, 1617-1622
Kassa (Košice, SK) : Daniel Schultz, 1623-1629, his widow: 1629-1639

The view of Kassa (Košice, from a 17th century engraving)
The view of Kassa (Košice, from a 17th century engraving)

Due to the newly arriving printer Daniel Schultz, printing was continuous in Kassa even after the death of Johann Fest and the departure of Nikolaus Mollerus from Kassa. Daniel Schultz, who similarly to Johann Fischer the first printer of Kassa in this century was of Bártfa origin and learned printing there, then worked for a while in Lőcse (Levoca), another Upper-Hungarian town, later left it for Kassa where he finally settled. From 1623 he was active in Kassa for more than 15 years, and after his death his widow continued to operate the printing shop.
Schultz brought his printing equipment from Lőcse: so it had nothing in common with the earlier presses active in Kassa. Therefore, it is justified to consider it a new foundation. It was only in 1625 that he began to use some ornaments from earlier Kassa printing shops.

The town hall of Lőcse (Levoča, SK) today
The town hall of Lőcse (Levoča, SK) today

The printing shop of Daniel Schultz and his widow was a well-equipped one producing more than 60 works partly in Lőcse but the majority in Kassa. As there were Latin, Hungarian and German books among the products of his press, he had several roman, italic and fraktur types of different scales: altogether more than 20 type-faces, 20 series of decorated initials and various ornaments.

Initial with a town scenery from the Schultz equipment
Initial with a town scenery from the Schultz equipment

Among the books he produced were the Latin-German grammar by Philip Melanchthon (RMNy 1199), a letter of order by the Transylvanian Prince Gábor Bethlen to promote the historical work of his court historian Joannes Bocatious (RMNy 1227).

Title-page of the sermons by the protestant author Péter Alvinczi (RMNy 1583)
Title-page of the sermons by the protestant author Péter Alvinczi (RMNy 1583)

Confessionally the majority of the religious books were Lutheran or Calvinist like the sermons by Péter Alvinczi and Albert Szenci Molnár (RMNy 1334, RMNy 1583). Beside these a German-Latin Lutheran song-book (RMNy 1412) compiled by the printer Schultz himself should also be mentioned. It was int he time of Schultz' widow thaqt the book Novissima tuba appeared translated to Hungarian by Kristóf Darholcz (RMNy 1768) together with a large number of occasional printings.

Future-telling cock in a pamphlet from the Schultz-press: coloured wood-cut (RMNy 1310)
Future-telling cock in a pamphlet from the Schultz-press: coloured wood-cut (RMNy 1310)

INITIALS

Series of decorated initials from the  Schultz-press

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LITERATURE:
Régi magyarországi nyomtatványok -- Res litteraria Hungariae vetus operum impressorum, 2, 1601-1635. Szerk.: Borsa Gedeon és Hervay Ferenc. Budapest 1983 (= RMNy)
Galli Katalin-Pavercsik Ilona: Fejezetek a kassai könyvnyomtatás történetéből In: Országos Széchényi Könyvtár Évkönyve 1981, 309-377
Farkas Ágnes-V. Ecsedy Judit: A kassai nyomda 1610-1622 közötti munkássága. In: Országos Széchényi Könyvtár 1986-1990, 351-393