The Obscure Early Decade and a Half of the Sárospatak Princely Press

New Evidence from the Papers of Samuel Hartlib

Abstract

This study examines the earliest phase in the history of the princely press at Sárospatak. A newly identified source from the papers of Samuel Hartlib appears to confirm that, contrary to earlier assumptions, a printing press was already operating in Sárospatak for a brief period in the 1630s, where work was begun on the printing of Johann Heinrich Alsted’s Colophon de reformatione. The project, however, was interrupted, and the volume remained unfinished. According to Hartlib’s note, “Alsted did print an excellent work in divinity which suffered great interruptions, the printer in Hungary at Patak stabbing his man, for which hee was executed.”