The directory «Plots»
Heltai Gáspár
(îêîëî 1510—1574)
Gáspár Heltai (born: Kaspar Helth) (1510?-1574) was a Transylvanian Saxon writer and printer of Saxon descent. His name possibly derives from the village Heltau (Hungarian Nagydisznod). Despite his German mother-tongue he published many books in Hungarian from his print-shop.
He studied at Wittenberg University and he established the first print shop in Kolozsvár, (now known as Cluj-Napoca or Cluj, Romania). He also founded a public bath, a paper mill and the first brewery in the town. He was in the same time pastor, translator, printer, publisher, writer and businessman. He is considerer the first religious reformer of Kolozsvár. He was a great spirit of Hungarian Unitarian Reformation. Together with a group of scholars he produced an almost complete translation of the New Testament in Hungarian. His work marked the first buds of a secular literature in Hungary. Heltai's most voluminous work is his reworking and translation of Antonio Bonfini's Rerum Hungaricum Decades ("Ten Volumes of Hungarian Matters") which Heltai published in 1575 as Chronika az magyarok viselt dolgairól ("Chronicle of the Hungarians’ Past Deeds"). The work was printed in Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca).
Hungary, 2010, «Chronicle of the Hungarians’ Past Deeds»
