Hereditas Antikvárium

17. árverés – Miscellanea ex libris Borda Lajos

(Patak), 1652. in Chalcographia Celsiss. Prin: exscriptum. (534)p. With Comenius’s emblem on title page.
The Czech-born author was one of the pioneers of pedagogical literature. His rhetoric textbook was written for the highest class of the Latin school in Sárospatak, which taught elegant Latin style and began operating in January 1652. The first part of the volume systematizes the rules of rhetoric, stylistics, and poetics, illustrated with numerous examples, while the second part, prepared for the second class, varies the first chapter of Janua, which introduces the mysteries of the Latin language, at a higher level, in nine styles. This example is followed by an encyclopedia of a thousand points compiled for language learning purposes, whose text is much more detailed and whose style is more varied than that of the previous year. According to Comenius' plans, the volume would have been accompanied by an explanatory dictionary, but due to the author's departure from Patak, it was not published until 1657 in Amsterdam.
In accordance with Comenius's innovative pedagogical principles, his textbooks conveyed everyday Latin and knowledge of the world surrounding children at progressively higher levels. This is the third volume in the series, following Vestibulum and Janua, which were written for lower grades. As Comenius did not know Hungarian, and due to a lack of adequate assistance, only a single Hungarian sentence was included in this work (which can be read on the cover of letter C7).
The printing press in Sárospatak was founded thanks to the careful organizational work of György Rákóczi I, Prince of Transylvania, and his wife, Zsuzsanna Lorántffy. After nearly two decades of collecting printing materials, the workshop finally began operating when Comenius arrived in Patak. Its first publications appeared in 1651, and it began printing the textbooks needed for the new school as soon as possible.
Contemporary vellum.
RMNy 2431., RMK II 772.