Hereditas Antikvárium

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12. Könyvárverés

… Accedit Bibliotheca scriptorum qui extant de rebus Hungaricis.
Francofurti et Lipsiae, 1711. Typis Jod. Guil. Kohlesii. (14)+408+80+(4)p.
Dávid Czvittinger's work can be considered the first lexical work on Hungarian literary history: it collects data (biography, list of works) and critical opinions about 300 writers. He studied in several German cities, starting in 1701 in Altdorf. The result of the decade spent here is the "Specimen". His work is a reaction to Jakob Friedrich Reimmann's "Versuch einer Einleitung in die historiam literariam insgemein" (Halle, 1708), in which the author writes disparagingly about the literary life of Hungary, saying that compiling a Hungarian literary lexicon is not possible because the literature is neglected in this country (by nature, Hungarians value a good horse or a shiny sword more than an exciting book). Czvittinger realized that international recognition required a comprehensive literary-historical work. However, his research was made significantly more difficult by the pioneering nature of his endeavour and the fact that he worked isolated from Hungarian libraries, mainly on the basis of foreign sources. This is the explanation for the fact that he shares a lot of wrong information and does not indicate, for example, Zrínyi, Gyöngyösi, and Tinódi. At the same time, he writes reliably about the Hungarian writers who worked in Germany. He interprets the Hungarian literature broadly: in addition to the writers of ancient Pannonia, he also discusses Croatia.
Worn, contemporary vellum.
RMK III 4767.