Absztrakt


P. Vásárhelyi Judit
A bázeli magyar biblia próbanyomata 1744-ből
A Proposal for Printing the Hungarian Bible Declared and a Specimen Thereof Published in 1744 at Basel


AbsztraktThe present study has reviewed the plan of Johann Rudolf Imhof printer and publisher in Basel, and issued his proposal for printing the Hungarian Bible in the same small format as his German and French Bible. To his leaflet a specimen is appended, i. e. the first chapter of Genesis in Hungarian. This broadsheet has been preserved in the University Library, Basel, attached to a letter of December 15th 1745 by the Debrecen professor Samuel Szilágyi to the Basel professor Jakob Christoph Beck. Due to financial difficulties this plan could be realized only years latter. The Hungarian text was based on the Utrecht edition of the Hungarian Bible of 1747. The preparation of the text for the press and proofreading was performed by two Hungarian students Stephan Szatmárnémeti Pap and Francis Török. The New Testament and Psalms first appeared in 1750, then the full Bible in the following year, 1751. It is a pity that the Basel publisher and the students from Debrecen bitterly quarelled, consequently there are only three variants extant of this Bible edition. In those volumes financed by the printer his Foreword is inserted, then a Preface by professor of theology Jakob Christoph Beck, and a Foreword by Stephen Szatmárnémeti in Hungarian. The Latin Foreword by Imhof is missing from those volumes sold in Hungary, because they were printed at the cost of the above named Hungarian students. Most of the surviving copies contain only the Foreword in Hungarian. Because of the debated financial questions the text of the contract between Imhof and Szatmárnémeti was also disclosed by the Basel publisher, but all copies of it are lost.