Acta Papensia 2004 - A Pápai Református Gyűjtemények Közleményei 4. évfolyam (Pápa, 2004)
1-2. szám - Műhely - Hudi József: Ethey István veszprémi könyvkötő tevékenysége (1746–1760)
Műhely SUMMARY JÓZSEF HUDI The work of a bookbinder in Veszprém, István Ethey 11746-17601 Research related to the history of bookbinding in Veszprém County began to prosper during the 1980s. A group of scholars (Konrad von Rabenau, Pál Koncz) took into account the works of bookbinders examining valuable bindings still available. Another group of scholars (Margit J. Halász, György Hogya, József Hudi, Ildikó Szegleti) delt with book publishing and booksellers on the basis of books published and archival sources. Research was focused on the 19-20th centuries, while there were only a few scholars dealing with the 17-18th centuries. Bookbinderies working on a permanent basis could only be found in two towns of the middle size Veszprém County, Pápa and Veszprém. From the 1740s two or three bookbinders could make a living at the same time in each town. Bookbinders in Pápa used the products of a paper-mill operating between 1729 and 1766. On the basis of bindings there was only one bookbinder in Veszprém between 1696 and 1740. It was his successor István Ethey, a calvinist master, who settled in the town in 1746 and worked there until his death (1760). He got married twice and after his death his heirs got engaged in litigation. It is evident on the basis of the lawsuit documents and the inventory of estate that the protestant bookbinder and bookseller kept a considerable amount of school books written in Hungarian and Latin, prayerbooks and hymnals and books on the stories of saints' lives in stock. Besides practical readings (student books, dictionaries, legal literature), readers preferred pious literature. His tools were bought by György Horváth who lived in the nearby calvinist village of Szentkirályszabadja. He might have been related to Mihály Horváth (1742-1812) who settled in Veszprém in 1787 and worked at the county seat until his death. Town inventories and his inventory of estate show how the taste of readers changed during a few decades due to the impact of enlightenment and the national movement. The number of female readers began to grow from the 1780s, legal, medical and economic books were published and more and more people showed interest in national literature. The printing house of Pápa from 1788 and that of Veszprém from 1789 took part in producing the publications. Soon bookbinders showed up on the bookmarket as publishers. Acta Papensia IV (2004) 1-2. 13
