Sales catalogue 533: Maggs Bros

Date:
1930
Reference:
WA/HMM/CM/Sal/13/88
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sales catalogue 533: Maggs Bros. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    56/294 page 34
    Lyons. Peter of Hungary (first press): a.D. 1482-1483. Pierre Hongre was a native of Hungary, as his name indicates. Hongre was both a type-cutter and a printer; he commenced to print at Lyons in 1482. For a brief period in 1483 he was associated with Mathieu Husz. Later, in 1491, we find him at Toulouse as a bookseller, and also cutting and casting types for Henri Mayer. He reappears at Lyons in 1493, shortly before paying a visit to his native country, and returned permanently to Lyons in 1496, where he worked until 1510. He was a distinguished printer, and held in high esteem by his fellow citizens, and when, while printing his celebrated Missal of Lyons, he was unable to pay his taxes, the town exempted him from them. He was at great pains to produce correct editions, and employed as corrector Jean Grad. He cut and cast a variety of fine types, some of which other printers of Lyons hired from him. ‘They include some magnificent missal types, and, at the other extreme, two minute gothic types, a 7-point and a 5-point, the latter being the smallest type engraved and cast in Lyons duriag the XVth century. His first type is easily recognisable by the M with indented front bar. The books he produced were mostly ecclesiastical, and with very fine illustra- tions (some of the most finished of the period), and fine historiated initials. His chef-d’oeuvre was the Missal of the Church of Lyons, produced in 1500, in folio, printed in red and black, and with large historiated initial letters. This is one of the most magnificent books issued from a Lyons press, and compares for beauty with the Missal printed at Lyons by Neumeister in 1487. No printer’s device is found in the books of Pierre Hongre. 134 |
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